‘Mental pressure’ forces woman sailor to complain to SAI about coach

In her complaint, the athlete has also said that the coach accompanying the contingent is making her uncomfortable.

A national tournament-winning woman sailor on Thursday complained to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) about the "mental pressure" being exerted on her by the coach, Farokh Tarapore, who accompanying the Indian sailing contingent for its tournament-cum-exposure trip to Europe.

Representational image(Getty)

It’s the second complaint to land on SAI’s doors this week after a woman cyclist alleged “inappropriate behavior” by her coach on a training trip to Slovenia.

The complainant, a young sailor who has previously won the national ranking championship, was among the Indians that took part in the Hempel World Cup Series held in the Netherlands from May 31 to June 5. Most of the Indian sailors stayed back in Germany to train in the days before competing in the next regatta, the Kieler Woche in Kiel this month. The 470 team, with Tarapore coaching its members, is also part of the exposure training camp in Germany.

“In her complaint, the athlete has said that a coach accompanying the contingent is making her uncomfortable. The coach in question has been appointed by the federation and was included in the contingent as per the proposal of the Federation,” SAI said in its statement on Thursday.

“SAI has reached out to the athlete and she has said that "mental pressure" is created by the coach in question during training, but did not see any sexual harassment issues," the statement added.

The statement said that the sailor had raised the issue with the federation “a few times in the past” but “has not received any response”. As a result, she reached out to SAI for intervention.

Captain Jitendra Dixit, joint secretary general of the Yatching Association of India (YAI) denied that the national federation had received any written complaint from the concerned sailor about the subject in the past, adding that she had directed her previous concerns to her parent club, the National Sailing School Bhopal.

With SAI seeking a report from YAI on the issue by the end of the day, the national federation held a video meeting between its committee dealing with disciplinary issues, a few members of the sailing team currently in Germany including the complainant and Tarapore.

A federation official said Tarapore, a three-time Olympian sailor who took part in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Games, was part of the trip as the coach of the 470 class team only. According to sources, there have been past murmurs as well against the former being a hard taskmaster.

“Firstly, this is not a case of sexual harassment, which a lady member in our meeting asked the sailor and confirmed. This is more about the pressure that, according to the sailor, the coach was putting on her with regards to performance at that level,” Dixit said.

Dixit added that the association had submitted the details of the meeting—which had also been recorded—in its report to SAI on Thursday evening. SAI will take a call on the next course of action.

“We don’t want to have a knee-jerk reaction to this, like calling back the team from Germany. We have been in the process of building a good team for the Asian Games for the last one year, and these trips to Europe are a key part of that preparation,” Dixit said.

According to an official in the know, the said sailor is not the first to raise apprehensions about the coaching style of Tarapore, who has been one of the most accomplished names in Indian sailing with a total of five Asian Games medals apart from the three Olympic appearances. The former sailor began working with the 470 team over the last one year and has had coaching stints in the past.

“There have been instances earlier too of a few sailors bringing up the issue about the functioning and hotheadedness of the concerned coach,” the official said.