New Delhi, Jan 28 (PTI) In the corridors of power where India’s 2036 Olympic bid is taking shape, infrastructure is hardly a concern given “how prepared” contender city Ahmedabad already seems to be.
But what’s keeping the officialdom occupied is the brainstorming over some foundational changes in India’s medal strategy to ensure that the country finds its footing in disciplines like aquatics and cycling. Both these events offer over a 100 Olympic medals combined but none so far for India.
“Would it look nice if at our home Olympics, our athletes end up 71st in the overall tally with six medals, like it happened in Paris (2024)? We have to address that most urgently.
“Host countries scale up their Olympic performances to ensure that they don’t feel left out of their own party,” a Sports Ministry source, privy to the developments with regards to the high-profile bid, told PTI.
This is exactly what China did in the 2008 Beijing Games, drastically improving its performance in disciplines that it didn’t do well previously, such as boxing, canoeing and archery, for a record tally of 100 medals.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has kept the host selection process on hold to reassess its criteria after taking feedback from member nations.
“That process will restart in another six months,” the source said.
“India is at an inflection point in its sporting journey. And the challenge is to make sure that we rise and not fall from here. It’s not infrastructure that is a concern, that’s the easiest box to tick and perhaps the most visible, that’s why the obsession with it.
“The bigger concern is our standing as a sporting nation,” he pointed out.
And that’s why the increased focus going forward would be on schools where the potential stars of 2036 are currently scattered across the length and breadth of the country.
The disciplines in which India does not have much of a standing but which yield a high medal count are the ones where talent identification programme would turn its aggressive attention. So, aquatics, rowing, and cycling are set to figure high on the priority list.
Aquatics, which includes swimming, diving, waterpolo, artistic swimming, and open water swimming, will offer 55 of the more than 350 overall medals that will be up for grabs across 36 disciplines in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. But India is not expected to get any.
Ditto for rowing, which has 45 medals at stake in Los Angeles across 15 events, and cycling, where 22 events will throw up 66 medals.
“The challenge is to shift our focus from events that we have mastered to a great extent to events, where the medal yield is high but we are nowhere in the picture,” said another official closely linked to the country’s athlete development programme.
“It does not mean that we ignore something like boxing or wrestling or shooting. But the plan is to steer potential performers towards these high medal-yielding disciplines so that our tally can hit the top-10 mark. We cannot afford to ignore them.” “Even in athletics, we have to get better results on track.” How will it happen? ============ This is where Artificial Intelligence will come in handy going forward through fitness battery tests, a series of exercises to measure cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, speed and agility, flexibility and balance along with movement.
“Grassroot Talent Identification is where AI will be useful. So, AI can be used to get accurate readings from basic battery tests. This would help us find talent which may not even be aware of its own potential and give them access to our training facilities,” the source said.
“Not every school-going kid would know his sporting capabilities or take to sport naturally. But if we are able to take our talent hunt nationwide through basic tests to understand individual capabilities, we might find kids who are good at sport but don’t yet know about it.” Right now, the government’s Khelo India Talent Development (KITD) scheme focuses on identifying young sporting talent at all levels. The programme provides formative training and creates a pathway to Khelo India Academies, National Camps, and other elite sports schemes. As per sports ministry, there are 1067 Khelo India Centres (KICs) for this across the nation.
“The Government of India is fully aware of the historical financial challenges associated with hosting the Olympic Games,” said Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in response to a query on the 2036 bid in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
“As far the Union Government is concerned, the primary objectives of its policies and schemes are sustainable sports infrastructure, grassroots development, and high-performance preparation for events like the 2036 Olympics,” he added.
The 2030 CWG ============ Before the 2036 ambitions, India has the task of hosting the 2030 Commonwealth Games, also in Ahmedabad. It’s an event struggling for relevance but one in which India has almost always managed excellent results across disciplines.
The challenge, in this case, therefore is to deliver within a budget that doesn’t cause public outrage and the operations pass of smoothly.
If Ahmedabad manages to do this then it would heal the scars of the 2010 CWG, which was mired in controversies related to allegations of financial misappropriation and the tag of costliest Games of all time with a spending of over Rs 70,000 crore.
“Firstly, the 2030 Games won’t be as centralised as 2010. Decision-making would be collective and an Organising Committee will be in place by March,” said the Ministry source.
“India mostly does a good job in envisioning and planning things but it’s the implementation part where we stumble. That bit would be done well in 2030,” he added. PTI PM KHS PM PM
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