Asian Games gold medalist met his wife when playing in Finland; is now head of sport in Norway.
The rains haven’t left his side, laughs former Mumbaikar, now Oslo resident, Mahesh Mangaonkar. The Asiad squash medallist, who works full time as a national coach of the Norwegian squash federation, says his new station of work has a grudging month-long Scandinavian summer, when it keeps pouring.
Home in Borivali and early promising days of squash at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) and the train journey into town, are a thing of the past. But in a strange quirk of fate, he would sign up to shepherd Norway’s squash program as Head of Sport, the same day the sport marched into the Olympic program, announced in his city of birth. Mangaonkar was a sensation on the Mumbai junior circuit years ago, and remembers pocketing a prize kitty of INR 45,000 in a swell month teeming with tournaments, where he won two titles, and he was on top of the world.
The move to Nordic countries for the last four years, however began when he met his now-wife, a Finnish number 4 squash player, whom he coached. “I miss my roots, family, friends, food and the game back home. But the standard of living is very high in Norway, the salaries are very good. The weather is a challenge with short summers, but work-life balance is excellent,” he says. He’s now a fluent Finnish speaker, and gotten started on Norwegian.
The flexibility offered to him is something he treasures, and though he’s constantly accompanying juniors including a European top-5 whom he looks to shape into an Olympian, he insists life in charge of a newbie team gives him the freedom to further pursue his education. (Credit: helsinkisquashtraining.com)
The flexibility offered to him is something he treasures, and though he’s constantly accompanying juniors including a European top-5 whom he looks to shape into an Olympian, he insists life in charge of a newbie team gives him the freedom to further pursue his education. He begins a Masters in Entrepreneurship and Innovation next summer.
“I met my wife through squash when I started in Finland in 2016. I had reduced playing on the pro PSA circuit by 2022 end,” he says, speaking from a tournament this week in Holland. He was approached by the Norway sporting bosses, and since the Finnish program had stagnated, he carried all his enthusiasm to a country that wanted to fast track its player development.
“It’s fantastic, I still get to do what I love that is impart squash knowledge. My coaching communication has greatly improved and the on-boarding in the last month and half has been great,” he informs.
The climate couldn’t be more different from sultry, hot Mumbai, though he is in a part of the world now that has six months daylight, and six months night, and the phrase “city that never sleeps” has acquired an altogether different practical connotation.
The adjusting took awhile, and he tends to get emotional that one month he spends with his parents in Mumbai. “It’s actually very sad that I’m away so much from them,” he says, but the assignment is exciting like venturing out on a new and more prosperous path.
Norway has no one on the PSA Tour yet, and Mangaonkar is literally starting from scratch with most players, taking them through the ropes of life of a circuit pro. One female player in U23 is ranked Top 250, and there are others, 2 women and 3 men who are over 27, and whose late careers he’s trying to polish.
While he stepped away from playing, he is keeping an eye on the Olympic qualification criteria in the next few years, and will keep himself fit, to play a few events and give Los Angeles a good go, like any other squash player right now. (Credit: helsinkisquashtraining.com)
While he stepped away from playing, he is keeping an eye on the Olympic qualification criteria in the next few years, and will keep himself fit, to play a few events and give Los Angeles a good go, like any other squash player right now. “I’m still an India player, and it was wonderful to reclaim the squash team gold we won back in 2014 at Asian Games. In 2018, India didn’t do well, so we were keen on getting it back in 2023,” he recalls of the September-October sojourn to Hangzhou.
Back in Norway, he is required to cater to players development at three zones – capital Oslo, the pretty red, yellow, brown house fronted city of Bergen in the West, the underrated but beautiful Bodo and Tromso in the north.
His playing ranking is now out of the Top 128, and it feels odd because at his peak the lanky player was a competitive Top 50. “Playing squash is a little laid-back now. I play European club league matches, which is one game and then nothing for few weeks. Yet, he had an eventful first day at work in Norway, the date coinciding with squash’s entry into the Olympics. “Imagine first day at the job, and I was on Norway’s national television talking about squash in Olympics. That was memorable,” he laughs.
Source:indianexpress.com