Nitish Chiniwar

Chiniwar trained as a motorsport engineer, working in garages in Bengaluru before taking a master's degree in motorsport engineering in the United Kingdom. His plan to work in racing was blocked when teams declined to sponsor work visas for non-European candidates, and he returned to India. He later attended an executive programme for non-profit leaders at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Chiniwar founded Bridges of Sports in 2016 to give children with athletic ability but no access to facilities or coaching a route into competitive sport. The organisation works with schools in north Karnataka and runs a track-and-field centre at Mundgod. It has described its approach as building 'a hyperlocal sports ecosystem' intended to produce sustainable talent while also supporting the social and economic development of the community; a majority of its coaching and support staff are recruited from the communities it works in.

Early work included the sprinter Ravikiran Francis Siddi, whose 100 metres time the foundation helped bring down to about 11 seconds. By 2022 the organisation reported having worked with more than 10,000 children over six years, with 25 athletes enrolled at its Mundgod centre and a further 240 children supported in Adivasi communities in Maharashtra. It has partnered with ALTIS, an athlete training and coaching-education organisation, and later launched 'Project Toofan', a five-year programme aimed at developing athletes from Uttara Kannada district for the Asian Youth Games, Asian and world junior championships, the Youth Olympics and the Olympic Games.[2][3][4][5]