Leander plans academy in Pondy: Shri Karti P. Chidambaram

29th December 2009 - Times of India

Puducherry: Leander Paes is one of the few Olympic medal winners India can boast of in an individual sport. And now, as he looks at a life beyond tennis, he is planning to nurture future Olympic champions. The doubles ace plans to set up a sports academy in Puducherry, working in tandem with a foundation through which he wants to bring international training methods to India. As a player going into the last four years of my career , I definitely want to give something back to Indian sports and culture, Paes said after calling on Puducherry chief minister V Vaithilingam and his cabinet colleagues on Monday. Although raised in Kolkata , Paes spent his formative years training at the Britannia-Amritraj Tennis Trust in Chennai. He said he chose Puducherry as the location for his academy because it is a really beautiful place, away from big metros , where athletes can actually train without any distractions . I feel that a good, healthy lifestyle actually harnesses Olympic champions and I feel Puducherry is one of the locations in India that has very good and healthy living conditions. Paes said he had detailed his proposal to the CM. Hopefully with my brand, we can put Puducherry on the global map for sports science training and medicine , he said. The administration has sought a detailed report, including the extent of land needed and the source of funding for the project.