Support Nayana Kokare towards becoming the fastest Indian ever

Nayana Kokare has been selected to train at the under highly famed coaches of ALTIS in USA. She is the first Indian to train with ALTIS, whose team of coaches have won 50+ Olympic medals. Nayana has set her eyes to become the fastest women in India's history and represent the country at the Asian games 2026 and Olympics 2028. She needs immediate support to kickstart her training in US by August 2024 and this is a campaign towards securing her future.

For donations in USD, you can directly donate to ALTIS Foundation which is a 501(c)(3) Organization. Please email nmc@bridgesofsports.org or Watsapp on +91-9964528324.

Below is a short story of her journey of how she overcame few of the most adverse conditions to reach this stage. This was broadcasted Live on Sony LIV in April 2024.

Read below to know here detailed journey.

Her journey started in 2019, when Nayana Kokare competed in the first ever barefoot league we conducted for the communities in Mundgod, Uttara Karnataka district. Nayana is the girl with orange T-shirt and she was just 15 year old running barefoot with no prior training experience.

She lived in a small and cramped dwelling made of mud with a thatched roof. Nayana lived in house sparsely furnished, with minimal amenities and facilities. Inside, the house consisted of two small rooms that served as the living, dining, and sleeping areas for the entire family.

The floor was made of mud, with a few mats and rugs scattered around for sitting or sleeping. Despite the challenging living conditions, the people living in such houses often possess remarkable resilience and resourcefulness to make the most of what they have. And that is what stood apart for us when we saw Nayana for the first time.

She was inducted into our program in 2019 and in just few months of training in 2019, she qualified for the finals of the national inter district junior athletics championships but came last in the finals. But that was enough for us to see the immense potential in her.

She was then selected to train at the Racers track club, Jamaica under the coaching team of Usain Bolt in the summer of 2020 but due to COVID - the visa got rejected and she trained indoors in a our small residential setup in the community for 2 years. As the track reopened we slowly worked on her - in her first competition post COVID - she won a bronze medal at the national championships.

She was supposed to train with ALTIS in the USA starting 2022 but again because of delay in visa, she had to settle to spending 30 days in UK with Kevin Tyler, the head coach of ALTIS who came all the way from US to work with her for a month. Her time with Kevin changed her fortunes as she prepared herself for the 2022-23 season.

From August 2022 to July 2023, she won every single championships which came her way including the eventual representation of India at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships in South Korea, winning her first international medal for India. Nayana Kokare became India’s fastest junior athletes in 2023.

She is now selected to train under Kevin Tyler full time in USA along with pursuing her under graduation in sports science. In the last six months, with no prior skills in English - Nayana has learnt and aced her IELTS exams needed to secure admission in the USA. With her visa interview due in a months time, she running against time to secure finances to support her visa. It is paramount that she starts her preparation for the Asian games in 2026 and another year of delay will derail her chance to represent and bring glory for India.

Support her in bringing glory for India !