Vikas Gowda: From Commonwealth Games champion to MBA aspirant

A few days ago, top discus thrower Vikas Gowda retired after playing at an international level for 15 years, during which he was the only player from India who won the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games in his event.

Gowda holds the national record of 66.28m in 2012 for the discus throw. He had peerless records all through his career.

Gowda is also from the batch of Indian athletes, who have participated in four Olympics, with his best Olympic record coming in London 2012, when he finished 8th with 65.25m. In his first Olympic Games in Athens 2004, he finished 15th with 61.39m. Finishing a disappointing 22nd at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Gowda went on to win the bronze medal at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, and with that win he made an impression at the international level.

After that historic medal at the Asian Games, he also won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games 2010. His last major medal arrived at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar, where he bagged a bronze medal.

Gowda has been awarded the Padma Shri in 2017. Before emerging as a champion discus thrower, Gowda started his career as a shot putter. His best performance in shot put is registered at 19.62m, which he achieved in 2006 in Atlanta.

It was not a shocking decision by Gowda to take a retirement. Now he will turn his attention to getting a Masters degree in Business Administration.

Another part of Gowda’s life is interesting since he had completed a Master’s degree in mathematics and statistics in 2006. Gowda became a mathematics tutor for children between the ages of 12 and 15 in 2009 and he had been so vigorous towards numbers that he developed an interest in real estate business. He used to give suggestions to his father for banking investment. He is equally passionate about pursuing his career in business administration.

It has been a fascinating journey for Gowda. It was a perilous decision from Gowda to quit as a professional player and to join MBA course in which he is equally interested. He assured the AFI about helping them in upcoming years to churn out new talent in India.

Here's hoping Vikas finds as much success in the next part of his career as he did in the sporting field. It has been a privilege seeing him serve Indian athletics with so much dedication and earnestness.