On Sunday an edutech company BYJU’s announced a cash prize of Rs 2 crore for gold medalist Neeraj Chopra for his outstanding performance at the Tokyo Olympics.
Making further progress in encouraging athletes in the sports sector, the company also announced Rs 1 crore each for other medal winners Mirabai Chanu, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Lovlina Borgohain, PV Sindhu and Bajrang Punia.
Raveendran said (Founder and CEO of Byju): “Sports has a critical role to play in nation building and it’s time that we celebrate our Olympic heroes, not just once in 4 years, but every single day. They deserve all the adoration they get, and after this historic achievement at Tokyo 2020 we are rewarding the players for their efforts, sacrifices and achievements.”
He added: “We hope that this small gesture will help them in their journey going forward to win more laurels for the country and also encourage many more youngsters to dream big. India has a huge potential to produce many more sporting champions and it is important to celebrate successes like this and make them heroes so that we transform ourselves from a Sport loving nation to a sport playing nation. Thank you for filling us with so much pride.”
On Saturday, Neeraj Chopra won the country’s first track and field medal in the final of the Tokyo Games with a powerful throw of 87.58 meters, becoming the second Indian to win an individual gold medal in the Olympics.
An official release by BYJU’s said: “The accomplishments and the stellar achievement of India’s sports heroes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been nothing but inspirational, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 lockdown in 2020-2021. Not only has each one of them made the country proud but has also ignited hope and aspiration that our country can create many more Olympic champions in the future.”
