4 SPORTSPERSONS TURNED ENTREPRENEURS REPLICATING THEIR SUCCESS IN BUSINESS FIELD

SOURCE: ENTREPRENEUR.COM

LEANDER PEASHe got India an Olympic bronze in 1996, ending a drought of 44 years. He is still making India proud and will continue to do so even after his career in tennis, through his sports management company called Leander Sports. Set up in 2005, Leander Sports is this tennis stars’ high-school dream, which provides diversified expertise in sports, media, sports content and sports infrastructure. Paes has also given motivational talks at Microsoft, GE, Nestle, Coca-Cola and the Tatas, and recently signed up with IMG-Reliance, which wants to develop sports, fashion and entertainment properties in India. He plans to venture into animation and apparel as well.

GAGAN NARANG

He was the first Indian to qualify for London Olympics 2010 and won 4 gold medals at the Commonwealth games in 2010. It is his love for shooting that he wants to promote the sport by blooding young talents at the right time in order to produce newer stars through his shooting academy called Guns for Glory. Narang oversees the academy as Director, with National Level rifle shooter Pawan Singh and actor Nana Patekar. Situated in Pune, Guns for Glory provides world class infrastructure and has brought together a bevy of foreign Coaches, a foreign Grip Maker, Sports Injury Management Team, Physiotherapist, and Equipment Control and so on.

SAINA NEHWALNehwal has touched many milestones in badminton. Some include, being the only Indian badminton player to have won an Olympic medal; only Indian to have won medals in all of the BWF major individual events, namely Olympics, BWF World Championships, and the BWF World Junior Championships; only female player from India and second from India to have attain the world no. 1 ranking, and again, the first Indian woman to make it to the finals of the All England Open. Phew! Now with so much on her plate, Sania has ventured into business by investing into startu-ps. She made her first investment in health start-up ‘Paree’ and also endorsed the product. She has a dedicated sporting range with the multinational sports goods manufacturer Yonex, 4% of the profits of which goes to her.

ABHINAV BINDRA

In his 20 year old career filled with accomplishments, the one which shines out is being the only individual gold win by an Indian at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Bindra’s performance in Rio Olympics was equally compelling. Though he missed the bronze by a whisker, his performance still fetched him quite a bit accolades. With Olympics, Bindra’s one goal was achieved and now the entrepreneur in him is getting ready for another shot. He has set-up a startup incubation fund by the name Shooting Star LLP. His existing company Abhinav Futuristics has a sporting division to it which is into technology, fitness and health. It also has a JV with Walther to manufacture the rifles in India. So far his fund ‘Shooting Star LLP’ has made two initial investments.