Following their outstanding performances at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Jaspal Rana and Aparna Popat ensured continued funding for their careers from the Citibank Athlete Support Program, until mid 2000. Jaspal Rana secured 2 Gold Medals and Aparna Popat went all the way to an unexpected and heart warming individual Silver. (For career details on these 2 fine athletes click on their name links below),

This program is another Citibank "first" in the Indian sponsorship industry. Citibank followed up it’s historic sponsorship of the Indian Olympic Team in 1996, with a long term agreement with the Indian Olympic Association, through which, Citibank is an official sponsor of the Indian contingents to the 1998 Commonwealth Games, 1998 Asian Games and 2000 Olympic Games. Citibank has now leveraged this sponsorship relationship further, by launching the Citibank Athlete Support Program. As in 1996 when Citibank was the first ever commercial sponsor of our National Olympic Team, the Citibank Athlete Support Program is again  the first time ever, commercial sponsorship and support is being provided in an organised and systematic fashion to promising Indian athletes outside of cricket and tennis.

This program is based on the premise that it is lack of funds and not lack of talent, that is preventing Indian athletes from making their presence felt at the international level. The program does not claim to be a one stop solution for Indian sport but it is  the first step of a journey that will is aimed at medal winning performances at the International level. The funds provided by Citibank to each selected athlete, will not be paid to the athlete directly but will be used to offset certain predetermined training and international competition expenses. This will enable these athletes to train and compete against their peers internationally which will raise their own skill and performance levels.

The athletes selected to the Citibank Athlete Support program in Year1 were

(Please follow the respective links for more details)

Based on performance at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and the 1998 Asian Games the program will now support

While this is a start, it is unrealistic to expect Citibank to shoulder the entire financial burden of this exercise. We appeal to other Indian Corporates to join this effort and put money and resources where it is needed most in Indian sport, at the disposal of young talented Indian athletes.If you are interested in joining or contributing to this program in anyway please get in touch with us using the mail icon provided on the menu bar at the top of this page.