Passionate: Playing to Win – Gourav Rakshit

A Twitter post after winning 40+ singles gold at Racketlo 2023, Thailand Open says it all. For the master Gaurav Rakshit, it was a hard-earned recognition and a morale booster ahead of the All India Open in March.

On top of the world!!

Gold at the Thailand Open. #Racketlon #Table tennis #Badminton #Squash #Tennis pic.twitter.com/YoqPPKS8d5

– Gourav Rakshit (@GOURAVGR) January 10, 2023

The preparations did not differ much from his usual sports program. Maybe a little more effort was made before the event, but he plays four to five times a week anyway, reveal Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO, in conversation with Medianews4u.com. By 7 o’clock he is usually practicing one or the other sport.

It started with football at school and he soon graduated to all sports. He was football and rugby captain. When he went to study in the United States, he realized that his football skills were not good enough to make the university team, so he learned to play squash. He made the varsity team.

He adds, “There was probably a period of five to ten years when I played golf in the United States. I came back to India and there was a period of five years where I did very intense work and took a break from sports in my 30s. Later I came back to it. I played football (for Shaadi.com); played a few tournaments.”

He recently started Racketlon, which he finds much more challenging because you have to play four sports simultaneously in a row – table tennis, squash, badminton and lawn tennis.

“I’ve been doing this for the last three-four years. I played tournaments in India, internationally, did reasonably well in age groups, managed to win medals in many of them. Last year I got to represent India in the racquetball world championships in Vienna in the 45+ singles. Just three weeks ago I won my first tournament, the Thailand Open in the 40+ category. says Rakshit.

Among the four sports, badminton was the one he needed to cover and focus on improving. When the points are calculated from all four, there is no room for a weak link, he explains.

“The interesting thing about the sport (Racketlon) is that you have to figure out where you can score or give points to get to the top. My better advantage is in squash as I have been playing competitively for the last 10 years in India. he underlines.

There are challenges ahead. But he is ready for them. As he gets older, he does more strengthening exercises.

Sports and work

Orientation through the mindset of an athlete is very valuable in the business world, Rakshit points out. Just like in sports, the company always sets goals, plans and there are bigger events that you really have to invest in, he adds. There are many commonalities: you learn to deal with failure, to achieve success, to deal with groups.

Viacom18 has a football and cricket team. But the athlete has trouble finding time for them, even if he is part of the football team. When it fits the schedule, he hopes to attend. With cricket, the timings are of course a contradiction, considering the commitment of a longer period of time. He played cricket at Nestle at the corporate level in his first job, explains Rakshit.

Nevertheless, he has set an example in his workplace and even to employees throughout the media and corporate world in balancing career and passionate work.

Family support

There must have been a spark, an inspiration, for a person to play sports at this committed level. A supportive family gives him the joy of sports, but he traces the spark to his father.

He remembers, “Vivekananda had a quote that said, ‘If you want to be a good man, learn to play football’. That was dad’s belief system.”

“Despite being successful in the corporate world, perhaps he thought that sport was a way to really embrace other aspects of life. Maybe somewhere along the way it filtered into me and I definitely wanted to make him proud.”

He has certainly made his father and family proud. Even before winning the Thailand Open, he had played a couple of tournaments and won medals: 45+ Singles, India Open, Udaipur in 2020 and Mumbai in 2022; Men’s Doubles, Indian Open, Mumbai 2022 included.

He will play in the upcoming All India Open in Mumbai in March, which he is looking forward to.

“Sports is my form of meditation” assumes the all-round champion of the sport.