Two former Indian elite athletes, Roopa Unnikrishnan and Manisha Malhotra, share life experiences involving a negligent sports ecosystem and injuries, which led to early retirement. Even as they put the onus on the system to absorb athletes better, they emphasise the need for aspiring athletes to work on a career path
Two former Indian elite athletes, Roopa Unnikrishnan and Manisha Malhotra, share life experiences involving a negligent sports ecosystem and injuries. Photo Courtesy: Roopa Unnikrishnan/JSW Sports
After she won a gold medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Indian shooter Roopa Unnikrishnan returned home to no fanfare. This lukewarm reception wasn't to be blamed merely on the sway of cricket over our nation. The sports ecosystem, she says, had failed to see evident promise in a prime young talent like her. “I did try to ask for investment in coaching but there was no appetite for it. Imagine what a gold medal winner can do to help the sport grow in the country,” questions Unnikrishnan. After trying her best, she decided to retire from sports. Unlike what many may think, she is happy with her career trajectory over 20 years later.
Unnikrishnan is one of the many examples of Indian sportspersons ending their sports career earlier than expected. The recently concluded 2020 Tokyo Games has seen quite a few young Indian medal winners in different sports. However, it is hard to ignore the short career span, especially of athletes who are not in mainstream sports like cricket which offers many options from coaching to commentating. The question is what comes next for Olympians and sportspersons such as Unnikrishnan and how important is it for them to have an alternate career plan? 
Roopa Unnikrishnan received a Rhodes scholarship to help her complete an MPhil and MBA from the University of Oxford. Photo Courtesy: Roopa Unnikrishnan
Alternate career plan
Unnikrishnan's father had a keen interest in her sports and education and would talk to her about scholarships right from the time she was 14 years old. “When I discovered that I could shoot straight in centre, I went from 25th in class to 1st in class the next year. In school, I was a debate champion," she recalls.
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While she was representing India, Unnikrishnan completed her Bachelors in Arts from the Women’s Christian College and Masters in Arts from Ethiraj College. The fact that she lost a spot during her under-graduation admissions through the sports quota to a young cricketer from Erode, when she wanted to study architecture, may have hurt but she did not dwell on it for long. She went on to get a Rhodes scholarship in 1995 to help her complete her MPhil and MBA from the University of Oxford in the next few years. Since then, she has moved to New York. She is a start-up investor, with previous stints as vice-president of corporate strategy at Pfizer and head of strategy at Harman International. She runs her own consultancy firm now and also authored a book ‘The Career Catapult: Shake-up the Status Quo and Boost Your Professional Trajectory’ (2017).
"I think it is really important for sportspersons that they should have a second line of defence in India,” the Arjuna awardee notes. However, it is not only the responsibility of the athlete but also of the system to help the athlete grow. She adds, “It is not only the government's responsibility in building the nation but also that of the culture. Now, JSW Group and Olympic Gold Quest are doing some good work but I want to see the Tatas of the world and even entrepreneurs help and support athletes. It was an uphill struggle for me,” says the former athlete, who had won a silver and bronze medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria before she bettered it in 1998. 
Manisha Malhotra has been in Bengaluru since 2018 as the head of sports excellence and scouting for JSW Sports. Photo Courtesy: JSW Sports
Working past injuries
Former Indian tennis player and Olympian Manisha Malhotra agrees with Unnikrishnan. In fact, Malhotra believes the need for an alternate plan is quite necessary as the careers of sportspersons are never guaranteed due to injuries, which could threaten careers even before they start. After successfully playing for eight years, she retired in 2004 as a personal choice. “I had to get a shoulder surgery done. It was going to be a really long time in rehab because sports science was nowhere near what it is today, so I just thought it would be better to retire.”
By then, Malhotra had represented India at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the women’s doubles event with Nirupama Vaidyanathan. Two years later, she won the silver medal in the mixed doubles event partnering with Mahesh Bhupathi at the 2002 Busan Asian Games, and played with Sania Mirza at the 2004 Fed Cup.
While she did have a university degree, she didn’t know what she wanted to do because hadn’t planned out her career and it took some time before she eventually found her calling in sports management. A switch she can be proud of, considering she has been associated with two Olympic gold medal winners in Abhinav Bindra and most recently Neeraj Chopra, along with wrestler Bajrang Punia, who won the bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Games. She has been in Bengaluru since 2018 as the head of sports excellence and scouting for JSW Sports, which has been instrumental in mentoring these athletes towards their Olympic dreams. The fact that she gets to scout talent at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) and grassroots level, instead of brushing up pre-existing talent, is what has motivated her in the field.
While Unnikrishnan and Malhotra have achieved considerable success, the latter has a solution to help steer athletes towards thinking about their alternate career while they are playing. She says, “I do believe that athletes in the junior stage and when they reach the senior level, need to be mentored in things past their sport. Be it seeing if they would like to get into coaching later or be a part of any other area in the sports ecosystem or whatever they want to do. They need to be counselled to start thinking along those lines and then working towards what can be done post-retirement.”
Women in a man’s world
Even though Malhotra has been able to achieve success beyond the court in sports management, she believes it can be particularly challenging for sportswomen who are thinking of a career after their playing days. She explains, “I think sports, from a post-retirement perspective, is still a man’s world. This is even after sportswomen have historically had better results over men in the last three Olympic cycles.”
Malhotra believes schools need to think about how they want students to grow beyond academics, and stresses that more girls should be encouraged. She explains, “Once the opportunities are given, it does not matter because it will automatically be converted into something bigger. We as a culture need to do a lot more for the girl child. Unfortunately, the people in high places do not speak up.”
Being a part of the sports management system, Malhotra says promising post-retirement careers can only change when more women are included in higher positions of power. “We still don’t see too many women in federations or sports administration or the various positions of power in sport. While there are many more opportunities because of government jobs, I think the next step would be having women in decision-making positions which can then steer sport into different spheres,” she concludes.
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