Pooja Surve

At Commonwealth Games, 2010

Pooja Surve
Full name	Pooja Shriniwas Surve
Nickname(s)	Champion
Country represented	India
Born	(1990-06-08) 8 June 1990
Discipline	Rhythmic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Years on national team	2008–2010
Medal record Women's Rhythmic gymnastics National Level Event 1st 2nd 3rd 2006-2007 1 0 0 2007-2008 1 0 0 2008-2009 1 0 2 2009-2010 2 6 0 2010-2011 0 1 1 2011 1 0 0 Total 5 7 3 State Level Event 1st 2nd 3rd 2006-2007 5 4 2 2007-2008 1 2 1 2008-2009 3 1 0 2009 1 2 1 2009-2010 4 1 0 2010-2011 1 2 1 Total 15 12 5 Women's Artistic gymnastics National Level GFI 15th Sub-junior National Championships 2001 Team Championships GFI 16th Sub-junior National Championships 2002 Team Championships SGFI 47th School National Games 2002 Team Championships 2002-03 Team Championships State Level Maharashtra Amateur Gymnastics Association 1996 Balancing Beam 1996 All-Around 1997 Team 1997 Balancing Beam 1998 Floor Exercises 1998 Balancing Beam 1999 Team Championships 1999 Floor Exercises 2000 Floor Exercises 2002 Floor Exercises 2002 All-Around 2002 Floor Exercises 2002 Balancing Beam 2002 Uneven Bars 2nd Thane Mayor Cup 1999 Floor Exercises Govt of Maharashtra (U14) 2000 Team 2000 Team 2001 All-Around 2001 Balancing Beam 2001 Balancing Beam 2002 Floor Exercises 2002 All-Around 2003 Uneven Bars 2003 Team Govt of Maharashtra (U17) 2004 Uneven Bars 2004 Floor Exercises Divisional Level Govt of Maharashtra organized (U14) 2001 All-Around 2003 All-Around 2003 Uneven Bars 2003 Floor Exercises 2003 Balancing Beam 2003 Vaulting Tables 2004 All-Around 2004 Uneven Bars 2004 Vaulting Tables 2004 Floor Exercises District Level Brihanmumbai Gymnastics District Championships 1996 All-Around 1998-99 All-Around 2000 All-Around 2002 Balancing Beam 2002 Floor Exercises 2002 Uneven Bars 2002 Vaulting Tables 2004 All-Around 2004 Vaulting Tables 2004 Uneven Bars 2004 Floor Exercises 2004 Balancing Beam 2004 All-Around 2004-05 All-Around 2004-05 Balancing Beam 2004-05 Vaulting Table 2004-05 Floor Exercises 2004-05 Uneven Bars Mayor Cup Invitational 1999-2000 Team 2003-2004 Team 2004-2005 Team Govt of Maharashtra organized (U14) 2000 All-Around 2001 All-Around 2002 All-Around 2003 All-Around 2004 All-Around

Pooja Surve is an Indian individual rhythmic gymnast. She represents India at international competitions. She competed at world championships, including at the 2009 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships, Japan. In 2010, she was the only gymnast from India to be in the top 16 at the 2010 Commonwealth Games; she won Miss Exotic Performance award in World Cup Belarus 2010, becoming the first Indian to ever get this award; and she also participated in the 2010 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships, held in Moscow.

She has earned more than 150 gold, silver and bronze medals to date. She is one of the highest medal-holding gymnasts in India. She is the recipient of the prestigious Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Awardee of Govt. of Maharashtra in the discipline of Rhythmic Gymnastics in the year 2010.

In the year 2016 she was selected as the technical head by Star-sports for Rio Olympics and did the commentary for all artistic, rhythmic and trampoline gymnastics.

She has also received the Indian Sports Award from the Govt. of India in the year 2019 in the field of sports. She is the recipient of Hindustan Times – Thane Ratna Award 2019. In the year 2020, she was designated as Program Director of Sports Authority of India's Online Education Program for Rhythmic Gymnastics grass-root level

Besides being a gymnast, Surve is a classical Kathak and Ballet dancer.

She has also been on the reality shows on Zee Marathi, Colors, Zee TV channel.

After her career she became gymnastics coach. Currently she is the Director of The Phoenix Gymnastics Academy based in Thane. She is also Federation International Gymnastics international judge in both rhythmic gymnastics individual and rhythmic gymnastics group, having judged many International competitions.

Early years

Early life

Pooja went to Saraswati Mandir High School, Mahim and was ranked 1st in her class. Later, her junior and degree college was D.G. Ruparel college of Arts, Science and Commerce, where she was a top student.

She was selected for the Artistic gymnastics squad. At the age of 6 years in 1996, she started with her competitive career in Artistic gymnastics where she won her 1st competition medal a gold in balancing beam and a bronze in the all around. The state championship was held at Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal, Amravati.

Later her mother also enrolled her to classical dance classes where she learnt Kathak under the guidance of Shrimati Radhika Phanse, and today she is upantya visharad in the same.

School life

Pooja was a brilliant student in the school, who always stood 1^st. She won the best student of the school award as well.

She won every school competition from elocution, essay writing , poetry recitation, dance, maths competitive exams etc.

Later in her college also she won the best student of the college award.

Rise to prominence

After 2006, she switched her career from artistic gymnastics to rhythmic gymnastics.

Professional athletics career

Rhythmic gymnastics

2007 Injury

An injury to Pooja in February 2007 while playing the National Games, Assam caused her to miss nine months of training. Having recovered, she always had an urge to compete internationally. But she was asked to quit the sport by many. Having a strong will power and determined Pooja did not let the sport go away from her, she came back with a high spirits at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, Japan, Mie, her first international competition where she stood 1st amongst the Indian Squad of Rhythmic gymnastics.

Later she received the Miss Exotic Performance Award at the Belarus World Cup (1st ever award won by an Indian Rhythmic Gymnast). She also represented at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships 2010, Moscow .

2009 World Championships, Japan

For the First Time in History, Indian Women qualify for the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships.

2010 Commonwealth Games, India

Pooja Surve created history, she represented India at the Common Wealth Games 2010. She is the only gymnast from India who qualified for All-Around Individual Finals competition and received 16th Rank. She created this record in 2010 and till date her record is not broken.

She is the top ranked best rhythmic gymnast in India till date.

Profession

2011

Pooja established The Phoenix Gymnastics Academy at Thane, in 2011 wherein about 250 gymnasts are getting trained.

2012

Pooja completed her International Coaching Course.

2014

Pooja has been the competition director for many state and national competitions. In 2014 she hosted the Senior, Junior , Sub-junior, U/8 and U/10 national competition in her gymnastics academy where about 300 gymnasts all over the country had participated. Highly decorated TMC dignitaries, various Bollywood Actors and sports personalities visited as guests for this competition. She also appeared for the International Coaching Course examination where she ranked 3rd worldwide.

2015

She was officiated at the National Games.

2016

Pooja was selected as the Technical Head of Gymnastics by Star Sports for the Rio Olympics where she did the commentary for the entire Rio Olympics Artistic gymnastics, Rhythmic gymnastics and Trampoline Gymnastics.

2017

Pooja along with her sister Mansi appeared for the International Judging Examination and she again made a record for the country. She received the highest marks of category 1 in both Rhythmic Gymnastics Individual and Rhythmic Gymnastics Group in the country. Pooja and Mansi are now known as Surve Sisters and their pair is extremely lovable.

2018

Pooja was selected as the judge representing India at the Junior Asian Championships and out of the 4 selected 3 gymnasts were trained under the Surve Sisters.

2019

Pooja Surve is the only coach from the state of Maharashtra to be the Coach of Khelo India Academy Camp for Rhythmic gymnastics which was held in Delhi. Pooja was selected as the judge representing India at the junior and senior Asian Championships whereas Mansi was the India team coach. They created record, 3 out of 4 gymnasts selected for the Asian Championships. For the first time junior Gymnast Sanyukta Kale scored highest marks of 15.100 ranking 7th in the qualifying CLUBS apparatus.

As an international judge

Sr No	Cycle	Course Name	Special Achievements	Record
1	2017–2020	2019 Asian Championships, Thailand	Difficulty and Execution Judge	RGI
2				RGG
3		2018 Asian Championships, Malaysia	Difficulty and Execution Judge	RGG
4		2019 Miss Valentine Federation International Gymnastics Competition, Estonia	Difficulty and Execution Judge	RGI
5				RGG
6		2019 Asian Gymnastics Union 1st Asia Cup	Difficulty and Execution Judge	RGI
7				RGG
8		Rhythmic Gymnastics International Judges Course, Malaysia	Category 3 in Rhythmic Gymnastics Group	Only Judge in India to hold marks of Category 1 in the Examination
9			Category 3 in Rhythmic Gymnastics Individual
10	2013–2016	Rhythmic Gymnastics International Judges Course, Singapore	Completed

Achievements

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
2009	World Championships	Japan		RGI	Stood First from the Indian Squad of Rhythmic Gymnastics
2010	Common Wealth Games	Delhi, India	CWG World Rank 16th & 1st from India	RGI	The Only Gymnast who Qualified for all around Individual Championship Competition till date
	World Championships	Moscow, Russia		RGI	Participation
	Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup	Belarus	Miss Exotic Performance Award for Ribbon Event	RGI	First Time an Indian Gymnast was awarded Miss Exotic Performance Award

District and divisional competitions

Pooja also participated in Multiple sports competitions like Yogasa, Suryanamaskar, Athletics, Rope Mallakhamb, etc. in Inter-Club, District and Divisional Levels.

In the competition – Annual Sports Meet, Shree Samartha Vyayam Mandir , Pooja has won over 15 medals and they are as follows:

Sr No	Year	Event	Discipline	Place
1	1997	All-Around	Gymnastics	Bronze
2	1998		Suryanamaskar	Silver
3	1999		Yogasana	Bronze
4	1999–2000		Gymnastics	Silver
5	2000–2001		Yogasana	Silver
6			Gymnastics	Gold
7	2001–2002		Yogasana	Gold
8		100m Run	Athletics	Silver
9		Shuttle Run		Bronze
10		All-Around	Gymnastics	Gold
11	2002–2003		Yogasana	Gold
12		Sack Race	Athletics	Silver
13		100m Run		Bronze
14		All-Around	Rope Mallakhamb	Gold
15			Gymnastics	Gold

Personal life

Pooja Surve was born in the financial capital of India, Mumbai on 8 June 1990 to parents Shriniwas and Smita Surve. She has younger sister Mansi Surve.

Recognition

Special awards

• Awarded the prestigious " Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Award " (Maharashtra State highest sports award) for achieving excellence in the discipline of Rhythmic gymnastics.
• Awarded the INDIAN SPORTS AWARD by GOVT. OF INDIA in the field of RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS.
• Awarded "Jilha Kreeda Puraskar" by Kreeda and Yuvak Sanchalanalay, Maharashtra State
• Awarded by " Akhil Bhartiya Bhandari Mahasangh " for great achievements in gymnastics.
• Awarded " Priyadarshini Kartutwa Gaurav Puraskar 2010 " in the fields of Kala Kreeda by Priya Darshini foundation.
• Felicitated by chief minister of Maharashtra Shree Prithviraj Chauhan for winning gold medal for Maharashtra state in the National games held at Ranchi, Jharkhand

Extra-Curricular

• Kathak Dancer: passed Visharad Pratham examination from Akhil Bhartiya Gandharva Vidyalaya .
• Ballet Dancer: Expert in the ballet dance.
• Gold Medalist of " Bala Shree Award " (President award) –  western zone of India in creative performance held at National Bal Bhavan, Delhi.
• Winner of College Idol competition organized by National Institute.
• Winner of "Taalawar Taal de Dhamal" dance reality show on Mi Marathi channel
• Best ramp walk winner in beauty pageant " Shravan Queen”
• Awarded best student of D.G. Ruparel college and won the Golden trophy for consecutively 3 years for excellence in the field of academics sports and extra-curricular activities.

External links

Videos

• Pooja Surve in 2010 Commonwealth Games Ribbon All Around on YouTube
• Pooja Surve in 2010 Commonwealth Games Ball Team Final on YouTube
• Pooja Surve's Students selected to Perform at International Level via Zee 24 Taas on YouTube
• Students of International player of Gymnastic Pooja Surve perform at Kala Krida Mahotsav 2016 on YouTube
• Pooja Surve in 2010 Commonwealth Games Ball Team Final on YouTube