TSAF Sport Climbing Academy inaugurated on JRD Tata’s 117th birth anniversary

Jamshedpur: Tata Steel inaugurated the (Tata Steel Adventure Foundation) TSAF Sport Climbing Academy on the occasion of JRD Tata’s 117th birth anniversary.

The academy was inaugurated by Chanakya Chaudhary, Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel today amidst select guests. The academy is housed inside JRD Tata Sports Complex and is the first residential sport climbing academy in India. The academy aims at helping athletes achieve their dreams, by providing them professional training and support and make our country proud by helping them reach the highest international milestone, the Olympic podium in Sport Climbing.

Sport Climbing is an extension of Rock Climbing and is a popular sport across all the continents of the world. It made its debut in Tokyo 2021 Olympics for the first time. Although there are no Indian athletes in the ongoing games, TSAF hopes to have athletes from its academy in Olympics 2024 / 2028.

Tata Group has always been a pioneer when it comes to encouraging and promoting sports in India. The first climbing wall in India was established in New Delhi with the support of JRD Tata. TSAF is moving ahead on that journey and aims to have 30 athletes, both boys and girls in the academy in next 2 to 3 years from across the nation. The current number of athletes enrolled is 12, majority of whom are already amongst the best in the country. The national record holder in speed climbing in girl’s category is from TSAF Sport Climbing Academy.

Athletes will get access to professional training support, accommodation, education, food, counselling, travel for international training, gear and infrastructure and everything else that is required for them to bring out their best performance and compete against the best in the world. The vision is to make it the best training facility & ecosystem in the world.

TSAF has installed 5 modular climbing walls at rural schools around Jamshedpur to increase the reach and awareness of the sport. TSAF started developing sport climbing in 2015.

The efforts resulted in East zone winning the national trophy in 2019. It was the first time in the history of 25 years where TSAF cadets scored 91% of the winning points. Cadets from TSAF training center are amongst the best performing athletes in India.

Anisha Verma is the current national record holder in speed climbing in female category. Aman Verma is the first climber from India to reach semi-final stage at World Youth Championship, a couple of years back. TSAF cadets have won 20 medals at national level and more than 50 medals at zonal and state level.