As athletes defer retirement, sports healthcare on a high in India

Novak Djokovic lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon finals last Sunday. This may have robbed him of a chance to complete a Calendar Slam, but Djokovic nonetheless, is charging full-steam ahead to achieve what no tennis player, male or female, has managed in Open Era — a 24th Major.

The only opponent who might delay, if not deny him this feat, is his age. Or, maybe not. Despite losing, the 36-year-old tennis ace had brought the fight to Alcaraz, who is almost half his age, in a closely contested match for the final. Indeed, if his on-court performance is anything to go by, age in fact does not seem to be a factor at all.

The Serbian tennis champ is not the only one to show incredible physical resilience against father time. Roger Federer hung up his racket at 41. Serena Williams “evolved away from tennis” at 40. Other notable athletes still competing at the highest level of their sport after 40 include English cricketer James Anderson (who is 40) and American surfer Kelly Slater (who is 50).

Closer home, several of India’s cricketing stars — Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and Sachin Tendulkar — retired at the age of 39 or 40, while cricketers like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are going strong in their mid-30s.

In a recent interview with Business Standard, India’s six-time world champion boxer MC Mary Kom, described herself as the “greatest victim” of a retirement age limit imposed by the International Olympic Council, which has forced her to hang her gloves at 40. “Boxing is my life, and I am madly in love with it and not willing to retire yet. Fitness and performance should be the determining factor rather than age,” she said.

Why then, are more and more athletes — across sporting arenas — opting to push back their retirement date? Is age finally a “no-bar” in sports?

A combination of better training, nutrition, and recovery techniques may help explain why a growing number of athletes are competing past what was once considered their “prime.”

Heath Mathews, who’s the founder of Mumbai-based HaloFit Athlete Management Systems and has worked with sports stars such as Kohli, Tendulkar, Saina Nehwal Khurshid Mistry, and Ajay Jairam, points out that in matchups where both players or teams are equally matched in terms of skill, physical and mental fitness often become the deciding factor. This means, he says, a substantial time and money have been invested to develop players’ fitness and the fitness industry has expanded to include a plethora of specialist medicinal and fitness services within the larger umbrella of sports health.

Specialised services like sports physiotherapy and massage, strength and conditioning, Pilates, osteopathy, sports nutrition, and sports psychology have become part of standard coaching regimes across sporting levels. Gursharan Singh (name changed on request), the head coach at a South Delhi-based cricket and football academy told Business Standard that they ensure that sports physiotherapy and massage, sports therapy, and strength and conditioning services are offered to students as young as 8 years old. “Most coaching academies and sporting institutions have moved away from intensive bursts of physical exercises and are now focusing on a more sustained and holistic approach to building both mental and physical strength and endurance from an early age.”

The “old school” approach to training usually included a high-intensity exercise to failure or fatigue. This approach was primarily time-efficient, since with more intense exercise regimes, lesser time was needed to achieve the training goals.

But now, coaches and athletes favor a more structured approach. The reason for this shift in training styles is thanks in large part to research over the past 20 years which have proved that burnout and injuries are more common as a result of overtraining caused by high-intensity exercises.

The expansion of sports health has also ushered in a boom in the industry. According to the Data Bridge Market Research, India’s sports medicine market is expected to be around US$ 1312 million by 2028 at a CAGR of 15.5 per cent, between 2023 and 2028. Whereas the global market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.6 per cent between 2023 and 2031.

Vikram Venkateswaran, Partner, Deloitte India believes the growth of sports healthcare in India, though driven by professional sports, is also “nurtured by players who I call ‘weekend sportsmen.’ The rise of health specialists in sports is a direct result of many amateurs and part-timers taking up sports, who are more prone to injuring themselves while playing over the weekend.” Allied professionals, leveraging technology and working with start-ups already working in gene research, or providing expertise on nutrition and physiotherapy, could pave the way for further growth of sports healthcare in India, he adds.

There’s a third and final component to the growth in sports healthcare. Sports injury management specialist, Dr Jatin Chaudhary, who has worked with several international players including Yuvraj Singh, points out, “Equipment tech is also helping improve health and safety. Introduction of sensory garments, helmets and guards are indispensable in sports healthcare now.”

Academy coach Singh adds that the manufacturers of such equipment have also boosted the growing stream of physicians heading to sports, by employing them in various quality control and advisory roles. However, Singh does point out that India’s sports health sector is still quite nascent. And a major factor, according to him, is the resistance sports health services face at junior and sub-junior level sports academies and institutions. “While sports health services are indispensable, their costs are still quite prohibitive for the aspiring young sportsperson and their families. This has prevented a greater penetration of these services at the grassroots level,” he explains.   

Healthy Flex

*India's sports healthcare market to be around $1312 mn by 2028 at a CAGR of 15.5% between 2023 and 2028. 

*Global market to grow at a CAGR of 6.6% between 2023 and 2031.

* Specialisations include:

a) Sports Physiotherapy and massage

b) Sports Science

c) Strength & Conditioning

d) Sports Nutrition

e) Sports Psychology

* Sports health and fitness have taken up a more structured approach. with training styles moving away from high-intensity exercises.

* Athletes who retired at or continued to play beyond 40: 

a) Kelly Slater (Surfer)

b) James Anderson, Sachin Tendulkar, Jhulan Goswami, MS Dhoni etc. (Cricketers)

c) Francesco Totti, Rivaldo, Paolo Maldini and others (Footballers)

d) Serena Williams, Roger Federer (Tennis)