David Storl, one of the finest shot put throwers in the world with two World Championship titles and an Olympics silver, is the new name in Indian athletics fraternity. The renowned shot putter who retired in 2004, got into a huddle with his team at Velaasa, a US-based company that designs and develops apparel for Olympic athletes. “We brainstormed over how to help these athletes and the easiest way, we thought, was to make a video course that would explain the basics of shot put.

Before uploading, Storl got it green-signaled by Indian discus thrower Abhishek Chaudhary, whom he had met in Leipzig during an exposure tour. The aspiring throwers, for a fee, will be able to access his videos and watch them an unlimited number of times to fine-tune their skills. In the next phase, Storl says he will analyze the clips of the throwers and hold individual online sessions to further improve their technique.

All along, though, Storl was simply reaching out to one of his biggest fan bases — hundreds of wannabe shot putters across towns and villages in India. The video was an offer to provide them with lessons in Hindi, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).

From his office overlooking the Leipzig railway station in Germany, Storl — who works there as a police official — saw the video go viral. Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra recently shared it, hailing Storl’s initiative. By Friday, the reel had more than 7 lakh views, he says.

"Last year, I started analyzing shot put techniques of athletes from all over the world," Storl, revealed while speaking to Indian Express from Leipzig. "I recognized that many athletes from India were contacting me via Instagram because they had to prepare for a police test or a special event."

The volume of requests — “they were in hundreds” — surprised Storl but from an Indian athlete’s point of view, it was understandable. Storl, after all, is considered one of the finest exponents of the “glide” technique over the last two decades..

He saw no point in making videos for his Indian base in English. So, he shot the clips in German and sent them to his partners in the US who — with the help of AI — changed the language into flawless Hindi.