AI Reshapes Indian Athletes’ Training Across Injury, Nutrition & Age Verification

AI Set to Transform Indian Sports with Centralised Athlete Tracking and Injury Prediction System

From customised diets and injury prediction to age verification and psychological profiling, artificial intelligence is poised to reshape India’s sporting ecosystem through a new centralised data platform designed to track athletes like never before.

The Sports Ministry’s National Centre for Sports Science and Research (NCSSR) has rolled out India’s first integrated athlete management and sports science system, aimed at bringing data-driven decision-making to training and performance monitoring.

Currently deployed for elite athletes, the platform is expected to gradually extend to junior levels as part of a broader “catch them young” strategy.

Developed by NASSCOM deeptech startup Darwin, incubated at IIT Bombay, the system — called SPEEED AI (Sports Performance Enhancement and Evaluation through Digitization) — aggregates performance and health data from 14 Sports Authority of India (SAI) National Centres of Excellence, covering more than 6,000 athletes.

Coaches and sports scientists can track granular details of an athlete’s daily routine — from strength metrics and posture to nutrition inputs as specific as lemon water intake or soaked almonds.

Data-driven training

“We want to map everything from the baseline — wrist strength, shoulder strength, postural balance — because only then can we train where improvement is needed,” said Brigadier (Dr) Bibhu Kalyan Nayak, director of NCSSR.

Nayak, a former head of the International Hockey Federation’s Health and Safety Committee and medical officer for India’s Tokyo Olympics contingent, said AI would allow earlier detection of physical stress and injury risks.

“Through AI, it becomes easier to track injuries and even predict them,” he said. “If one centre shows a high number of wrist injuries among archers, we can immediately investigate and adjust training methods. Data gives actionable inputs.”

Early intervention could reduce downtime, prevent lost training days and extend athletes’ careers.

Predicting injuries before they happen

Darwin CEO Rahul Bajaj described the system as a “360-degree Athlete Performance System,” with injury management as a key benefit.

“Niggles like minor inflammation are often early warning signs,” Bajaj said. “By centralising this information, we can act preemptively instead of reacting after a serious injury.”

The platform includes dashboards that analyse workload, fatigue and biomechanics, including joint angles and gait patterns. AI models compare acute and chronic workloads to identify high-risk fatigue zones.

“Subtle movement changes can be detected before stress escalates into serious injury,” said Arun Navani of sports tech firm A2S Edge, which is collaborating with SAI.

An AI chatbot named “Akshay” is also being developed to assist athletes with warm-ups and recovery routines.

Data privacy and anti-doping support

Bajaj said the system was inspired by Australia’s Smartabase analytics platform but built specifically for Indian needs.

“All sensitive health and personal data remains stored in India,” he said. “Access is role-based, with full visibility only at the highest levels to ensure privacy.”

The platform could also strengthen anti-doping safeguards. Athletes can upload prescriptions and check medications against verified databases, reducing the risk of accidentally consuming banned substances.

Because the AI assistant relies solely on SAI-approved information, developers say it avoids unreliable internet sources and potential misinformation.

Tackling age fraud

Officials believe AI can also address long-standing issues such as age fraud in junior competitions.

The system integrates automated versions of the Tanner-Whitehouse (TW3) skeletal maturity test to assess biological age. Continuous monitoring of growth patterns helps flag irregularities and create what officials call a “Verified Biological Age” framework.

“This supports fair competition and transparent scouting,” said SAI research coordinator Arun Kumar.

A digital future for Indian sport

As India aims to improve its international sporting performance, officials see data and AI as critical tools to professionalise training and decision-making.

By combining science, analytics and technology, the government hopes to build a system where talent is identified early, injuries are minimised and performance gains are measured precisely.

For Indian sport, the shift marks a move away from intuition-led coaching toward a future shaped by algorithms and evidence