Uday Vishwanath Deshpande

Uday Vishwanath Deshpande is a coach who has made it his life’s work to revive mallakhamb, the traditional Indian sport of gymnastics on a wooden pole or rope. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2024 in the field of sports, from Maharashtra ^[1].

A vow at eighteen

He was born on 20 July 1953 and worked in the customs and central excise department, retiring as a deputy commissioner in 2013 ^[2]. A keen wrestler and mallakhamb player from childhood, he resolved at 18 to revive the fading art and gave his spare time to it ^[2]. For 42 years he has been honorary general secretary and chief coach of the Shree Samarth Vyayam Mandir in Dadar, Mumbai ^[2].

Taking it to the world

Over 50 years he has run thousands of mallakhamb workshops across India and in Asia, Europe and the USA, and has trained more than 1,000 people from over 52 countries ^[2]. As founder of the Vishwa Mallakhamb Federation he organised two world championships with 15 countries taking part, and helped other countries set up national federations ^[2]. He developed a teaching method and wrote the international rule book for the sport ^[2].

Deshpande was the first to coach adults and older people in mallakhamb, encouraged girls and women onto the pole, and has taught visually impaired children, children with special needs, orphans and tribal communities ^[2]. He also campaigned for mallakhamb to be recognised as a sport ^[2].

He has received Maharashtra’s Shiv Chhatrapati award as an organiser and its Dadoji Kondadev award as best coach ^[2].