Background
(OGQ) is a program of the Foundation for Promotion of Sports and Games, a Not for Profit (Section 8) Company founded by Indian sports legends Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone.
The mission of OGQ is to support Indian athletes in winning Olympic and Paralympic Gold medals. Operating through funding from corporate social responsibility and High Net Worth Individuals (HNI), OGQ provides comprehensive support, including coaching, training, equipment, competition funding, and sports science expertise, to over 400 athletes across more than 10 sports, plus approximately 100 Para-athletes in a dedicated Paralympic program.
Aalaap Jawadekar, a physiotherapist with 15 years of experience, is the sports science lead for the Para Program for OGQ. After studying in India and Australia, he returned to work with junior and elite athletes in his home country, progressing through various Olympic and Paralympic disciplines and supporting athletes who have achieved Olympic success.
“I’ve been working with OGQ for over 10 years now, and it’s become home for me,” Aalaap said. “I’m leading a team of physiotherapists and strength and conditioning coaches and got introduced to AthleteMonitoring in 2017. I was one of the first to set up the platform for OGQ.”
Addressing Documentation and Data Challenges
When Aalaap joined OGQ’s sports science team, the organization faced significant challenges in athlete data management and documentation. The cultural context presented unique obstacles.
“One of the key things we wanted was proper documentation,” Aalaap said. OGQ was working with a basic electronic medical records (EMR) software that provided minimal functionality. “We had worked with a smaller system for a couple of years, and it was doing just the bare minimum of keeping notes,” Aalaap said. “It wasn’t going anywhere. We needed something that would give us analysis, visual inputs, and deep insights.”
The challenge extended beyond technology to fundamental athlete data. “Basic information like height, weight, and fitness metrics wasn’t properly recorded,” Aalaap said. “When we started working with AthleteMonitoring, the goal was to use features like the exercise library and calendar to monitor training loads and determine whether athletes were training optimally, undertraining, or overtraining.”
Selecting AthleteMonitoring Through Trusted Networks
OGQ’s potential use of AthleteMonitoring came through established relationships that Aalaap had in elite sports in India.
“The credibility factor was huge,” he said. “We were introduced through a colleague who was already working with AthleteMonitoring with golfers and shooters. He spoke highly of the system and its features, and having someone who knew our ecosystem made it natural for us to choose AthleteMonitoring.”
Before committing to the platform, Aalaap conducted extensive testing. “I tried the platform for three weeks in 2017 while working with an elite archer,” he said. “I tried various features and assessments to see how AthleteMonitoring analyzed and returned information to me.”
The results were compelling. “AthleteMonitoring was intuitive and interactive,” Aalaap said. “We realized that this system could lead our organization. You put in the information, AthleteMonitoring flags things for you, and then you work accordingly.”
Building a Data-Driven Culture
Implementation required careful change management, given the traditional resistance to documentation in Indian sports.
“We started having access from November 2017, and I spent from then until January 2018 constructing the full platform for us,” Aalaap said. OGQ invested in internal education to ensure maximum user adoption of the new AMS. “We’ve done internal workshops with the team, and now various verticals use AthleteMonitoring differently according to their needs,” Aalaap said.
Transforming Load Management and Performance
AthleteMonitoring enabled OGQ to introduce sophisticated load monitoring concepts.
“Load monitoring was a very new concept in Indian sports,” Aalaap said. “There was a lot of heavy training for athletes without sports science documentation. We wanted to get data to understand when athletes were being overloaded.”
The platform’s visual data presentation proved crucial for buy-in. “Once we could show coaches data demonstrating that an athlete was having four or five heavy days a week versus the optimal two or three, that made the difference. The athletes saw the data first, then spoke to their coaches about it,” Aalaap said.
Recovery monitoring became another critical application. “Wellness information that athletes self-reported helped them understand their recovery status and how much they could push,” Aalaap said. “Nutritionists could base strategies on wellness scores in the platform.”
Enabling Seamless Team Coordination
As OGQ’s sports science team expanded, AthleteMonitoring became essential for coordinating care across multiple practitioners and locations.
“One of our key successes happened before the Paris Olympics and Paralympics when we had athletes training at different bases and had to shuffle team members,” Aalaap said. “We are proud about the fact that everyone knows everything about the athletes when they’re supposed to work with them. When I go to an athlete, I’m well-prepared because I know what the previous person did with them.”
This approach proved invaluable during the buildup to major international competitions. “One athlete was injured three to four weeks before the Paralympics,” Aalaap said. “He was treated by at least three different physiotherapists, but his training and rehabilitation never slowed down because each new person entering the system was immediately informed through AthleteMonitoring.”
The results spoke for themselves. “The athlete eventually won a medal at the Paralympics,” Aalaap said. “The multidisciplinary approach—with AthleteMonitoring being one key discipline—contributed to that podium finish.”
Leveraging Wearables Integration for Automation
OGQ has progressively integrated multiple wearable technologies with AthleteMonitoring, driven by the need for automation in a high-volume environment with many athletes spread across various sports.
“We needed automation because one person could work with 10 athletes, and it’s hard to manually enter data for each activity,” Aalaap said. “We’ve integrated Garmin, Polar, and now Whoop with AthleteMonitoring. The key was moving from manual data entry to automated systems.”
The Whoop integration has made it easier for athletes and coaches to track training load and adjust it if necessary to improve recovery and adaptation. “Someone wears a Whoop Band, we create one login, and the athlete doesn’t even need to look at AthleteMonitoring anymore,” Aalaap said. “They just train, and all their data automatically populates inside the platform.”
Driving Performance with Heart Rate Training Optimization
One of OGQ’s most compelling success stories with their AMS demonstrates the power of integrating wearable data for performance optimization.
“We had a case study where we realized through Garmin integration that training zones weren’t matching competition intensity,” Aalaap said. “We needed to adjust heart rate zones and push the athlete to train harder in specific zones.”
The intervention was precisely guided by AthleteMonitoring data. “Using Garmin integration, our support staff could see when the athlete was hitting those zones,” Aalaap said.
Creating Organizational Intelligence Through Data Insights
AthleteMonitoring has evolved into OGQ’s single source of truth for organizational decision-making.
“For me as a leader overseeing operations, the framework that AthleteMonitoring offers is allowing me to do my job more effectively,” Aalaap said. “I can log in and see which athletes are training well, who is injured, and what’s happening with ongoing issues.”
Having ready access to comprehensive athlete data helps Aalaap and his colleagues investigate performance and health problems and remedy them rapidly. “A couple of months ago, there were inconsistencies in blood test results with one of our athletes,” Aalaap said. “We do these tests at regular intervals with elite athletes, and she was struggling with training before an important championship.”
The platform’s historical data proved crucial. “The team realized there was a dip in her values over six months, and we could see that on the platform,” Aalaap said.
Expanding to Paralympic Excellence
OGQ’s success with AthleteMonitoring led to expansion into Paralympic sports, for which Aalaap now heads a dedicated group of multidisciplinary professionals.
“I started leading the Para sport team from 2021 onwards,” Aalaap said. “We now support about 100 Para-athletes across different sports. For the Para program specifically, we have notes and consultations as key metrics that support staff update in the platform.”
Futureproofing Through Innovation
Looking ahead, Aalaap sees AthleteMonitoring as essential for staying competitive in an increasingly data-driven global sports landscape.
“Technology is advancing in every sector of sports,” he said. “Athlete management systems have to evolve accordingly. We need a platform that gives us more than what we need to know so we can continue pushing boundaries.”
The collaborative relationship with AthleteMonitoring’s development team has been crucial. “The support offered has been incredible,” Aalaap said. “Francois responds to every query, no matter how small. We have direct channels with developers who can customize the platform.”
Meeting the Needs of Olympic Committees and National Governing Bodies
For organizations considering athlete management systems, Aalaap emphasizes several critical factors that make AthleteMonitoring stand out.
“If I had to recommend AthleteMonitoring to colleagues, I’d highlight three key things,” he said. “First, the communication and user-friendly interface it offers. Second, the support and backend assistance provided. Third, the integrations with various wearable technologies.”
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