Milind Soman’s Speech after his Great India Run will get you MOVING…..

- Pratap Kumar Das.

Milind Soman, the supermodel and the new fitness model of India is back in the news again. A few months earlier, he successfully completed one of the most brutal races on the planet called the Ironman Triathlon becoming one of the very few Indians to have ever achieved this feat.

For those who don’t know- Ironman requires the completion of of 3.86 km swim, 180.25 km bicycle ride and 42.2 km run under 16 hours. Milind completed the race in 15 hours and 19 minutes.

His latest running adventure, the Great India Run which involved him running from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, was in news for more than one reason. Milind’s 75-year old mother, Usha Soman, ran alongside him. And she did so wearing a saree and was barefoot. Now that’s what you call supermanly spirit. After completing the race, Milind talked about the state of fitness in the country. 

Upon completion of the grueling run, Milind was bang on in suggesting that sports culture in India is disappointing. Its entirely in our hands to be either an indistinct speck on World sports or be a dominating sporting nation.

This is what the man had to say when he graced the dias…

“I think its upto all of us to actually take an interest in the country’s future. It’s not just upto the Government or organizations to do it for us. Its upto every citizen. When we talk about why India is not on the world map of sport yet and we’re getting very slowly but why not. Because we lack the culture of sport. We don’t even believe in exercise. We don’t believe an active lifestyle and that is something that needs to be changed and that’s why events like this are probably important because they bring a lot of attention to the potential we have as human beings. I mean it’s not that these guys are Superman or professional athletes. They are everyday people just like us but have a passion to explore the potential to know who they are to know how much they can do, and if we all of us put that effort in to just be the best that we could be there is nothing to stop India from being number one of the world map.”

Now get up and run people