HYDERABAD: “I dream of achieving the gold at Olympics for Karate and bring laurels for our country so that there will be more parents who are willing to send their children for these arts, government will also take interest and many might make a career of it,” says Vivek Teja, a celebrity trainer, karate expert and martial artist who is currently preparing for Olympics 2021.
He received Silver Medal at World Goju-Ryu Karate Federation World Championship held in 2019 in Malaysia.
Vivek is currently training with Malaysian national team Coach Shihan Arivalagan for the upcoming World Championship, Olympics and Karate Commonwealth in UK. He said, “During the pandemic I have been conducting group sessions and private sessions with my students from Human Weapon – a martial arts academy collaborated with gyms in India and abroad.” He has also been training clients online.
Vivek represented India for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and is a twice US Open gold medalist in 2018 and 2019 and has participated in 20 international championships. He has won 27 gold, 18 silver and 16 bronze medals at all levels.
The first Indian to be an expert in eight forms of martial arts, he also designs self-defence workshops for people willing to learn martial arts. Speaking about the sponsorship conditions for certain sports in India, Vivek says, “There are so many talented people in the field but there is no support from the government or corporates. We are a population of 130 million and still there is no hand to support us mainly because corporates focus on games like cricket, tennis, badminton. The problem of not gaining opportunities doesn’t pertain to only sponsorship troubles, but also due to caste system in India.”
He had to attend a ranking tournament in Santiago Chilli – an important event for getting selected for Olympics but missed it because of no sponsorship. He said, “A lot of people miss the opportunities like this. Even when you approach government it takes four months to process the amount but the even entire amount isn’t given. I use the money I earn for my sponsorship and there are financial strains that follow. Many people give up a career because of this.”