It has been a terrific journey from ‘Andheri to America’ for wheelchair basketball champ Mumbai’s Geeta Chouhan, who was chosen for the Global Sports Mentoring Program (GSMP) in the USA. This para athlete, who is the captain of the Indian Wheelchair women’s basketball team, is in the midst of the one-month GSMP program conducted under the U.S. Department of Sports Diplomacy, fully sponsored by the U.S. Government.

Said Chouhan in an email interaction from the USA about her selection, “After COVID-19 lockdown, Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India (WBFI) had a fund crunch for the national tournament, so I arranged Rs 15 lakh. I also arranged kits for the women’s team for two consecutive years and supported travel. I helped arrange advanced prosthetics through sponsorships, costing Rs 5-8 lakh each. This, and more of my work, pushed the Federation to recommend my name, and after due process, I was selected.” Chouhan has finished the first week in Texas and is now in Washington, DC, for the remainder of the programme. She said, “I am learning about sports mentorship programs, especially how to approach funding and sponsorship in sport, with my guide Peter Hughes.”