India must reflect on its Paris debacle and start preparing for the Los Angeles Games – Firstpost

As expected, everything has gone quiet. After the anything but lukewarm performance at Paris 2024, the well-known and famous forgetfulness curve sets in. And that too in less than a month. I don’t even think that a review meeting has taken place at the political level, let alone at the federation level, to discuss the debacle or to make plans for the future.

Although the number of Olympic medals in the last decade is higher than the total number of medals won since independence, it is still far from respectable for a country like India.

Also, much of the success has been due to individual initiative rather than a planned institutional programme. Flagship programmes like Khelo India and Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) have added some focus, but a lot more needs to be done to increase the impact at the grassroots level. Here are a few suggestions:

Political stability

If ministers can remain consistent in important departments such as finance and defence, why not in sport? Sport naturally requires political stability. An athlete plans for the long term and sticks to a strict schedule. If politics remains stable along that schedule, it only contributes to results.

Water sports, athletics and gymnastics

These three disciplines are where the highest number of medals are won at the Olympics. If we don’t focus on these three, there is no point in discussing why we are not getting a respectable medal haul. While the Athletics Federation of India is doing some work, it is anyone’s guess what the Indian Swimming Federation and the Indian Gymnastics Federation are doing.

It would be great to hear about their outstanding achievements.

Responsibility of the Federation

In India, every Olympic sport has a political arm in the form of a federation. While some do a good job, most are a political and bureaucratic cesspool of dynastic rulers. Even if not a single athlete from a sport is represented at the Olympics, the officials are given preferential seats as spectators at these events and regularly attend them. Every federation must be required to publish a five-year plan for the Olympics on its website along with details of resource allocation, individual athletes and a calendar of events.

Obligation of states

Fortunately, sports have been moved to the concurrent list by the states, making it easier to implement central programs. However, most states themselves are lagging far behind in their individual commitment to sports. Many get away with just lip service in their annual budgets, spending peanuts on prize money and grants instead of making meaningful commitments on infrastructure.

State-company-association partnership

Big corporates like Tatas, Reliance and Adani already support the sport through their foundations, but a targeted tripartite partnership can produce magical results. Orissa, for example, along with the Indian Hockey Federation, is a beacon in hockey.

If the Ministry of Sport succeeds in brokering a trilateral partnership through an open and public tender, results are guaranteed.

defense

Our armed forces have served sport excellently, particularly in disciplines such as rowing and sailing, probably due to access to facilities. The choice of disciplines should be left to the armed forces, with full financial support from the Ministry of Sport and without interference from the federations.

Complete overlap plan

The event schedule for Los Angeles 2028 (LA2028) has been finalized. There are approximately 35 disciplines with 350 medal events. The goal should be to qualify for all disciplines with a quota size that at least exceeds the number of events. A national-level planning conclave should be convened immediately to set a roadmap.

TOGS not just TOPS

The Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS) is the sports ministry’s flagship programme to develop elite athletes, but perhaps there needs to be a Target Olympic ‘grassroots’ programme to help identify talent in organised and unorganised catchment areas. I cannot for the life of me imagine why we cannot qualify children for gymnastics despite our yoga and Mallakhamb traditions. Or why we cannot find swimmers among children in our coastal states or towns.

“KREEDAPATH” like “AGNIPATH”

Perhaps it would be useful for the Sports Ministry to launch a ‘Kreedapath’ scheme on the lines of the ‘Agnipath’ scheme of the Ministry of Defence. This is a short-term sports programme that provides incentive-based severance pay to selected young athletes after they finish their sports careers. A disciplined former sportsman can be as valuable to society as a disciplined former soldier and will go a long way in spreading a sports culture. The application process for Kreedapath can be based on the best practices adopted for Agnipath.

All of the above suggestions can only be implemented if there is committed sports policy stability at the top. We have the money and operational requirements such as infrastructure, coaches, etc. will emerge once the political direction is clear.

For India, the time for LA2028 has now begun – otherwise there is a risk of another medal disgrace in the not too distant future!

The author is an entrepreneur and columnist with keen interests in history, social anthropology, public policy and economics. He tweets at @vikramlimsay. The views expressed in the above article are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Firstpost.