American Athletes to Teach Life Skills to Youth in India

As part of the Obama administration’s commitment to encourage the youth to be involved in sports, Barry Larkin, American Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and Natasha Watley, an Olympian athlete, will be acting as sports envoys during their week-long trip to New Delhi and Imphal, India. This is the first joint sports program of the State Department, enlisting the star power of American athletes in the Major League Baseball and USA Softball.

From February 12 to 18, these two top athletes will lead some baseball clinics for young participants from poor communities. The objective is to start a dialogue on the importance of sports in developing life skills such as sportsmanship, teamwork and leadership. At the same time, the issue of diversity will be addressed so that an open dialogue about international cooperation can be established.

Larkin and Watley will be welcomed by representatives from the Indian softball and baseball associations.

Barry Larkin
Barry Louis Larkin was born in 1964 and hails from Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a pivotal player in the 1990 World Series wherein he helped the Cincinnati Reds win. He is a highly celebrated player, having won the Silver Slugger award nine times, as well as the Gold Glove award three times. Larkin also participated in twelve different games of the Major League All-Star Game. He became part of the elite National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012.

Natasha Watley
Thirty one year old Natasha Watley is the first female player on the USA Softball Olympic team that is of African-American descent. She is a four-time First Team All-American player and was part of the American softball team that won the gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics. In 2008, she was part of the US softball team that placed Silver in the Beijing Olympics.

SportsUnited
This activity is under SportsUnited, an arm of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). The organization aims to promote sports diplomacy by increasing mutual understanding between Americans and people from other countries through an “educational and cultural exchange that assist in the development of peaceful relations.”

Since the program was established, more than a thousand athletes have participated from 65 different countries have participated in the Sport Visitor programs held in the US. Larkin and Watley join a roster of 250 other American athletes, artists, students, educators and young leaders who have visited almost 60 counties the past eight years as part of this initiative.

Soccer players Kate Markgraf  and Tony Sanneh were sent to Ethiopia to help promote sports diplomacy. The American soccer stars interacted with children from the city of Dire Dawa in a youth culture, Sport and Friendship Camp.