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Top-down approach: India should focus on filling the gaps instead of hosting the 2036 Olympic Games
By Shahid Judge
The dust may have settled on the Paris Olympics, but there is a continued rustle in Paris. In another week, the Paralympic Games will begin in the French capital.
From the opening ceremony of the Olympics on July 26 to the closing ceremony of the Paralympics on September 8, Paris has been the centre of world sport. There is a great degree of prestige that comes with being host of these two galas. Now India wants a slice of that fame.
In October 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s intention of hosting the 2036 Olympic Games, claiming it was the “dream and aspiration” of 1.4 billion people.
If India, or rather, the preferred city Ahmedabad, does win hosting rights for the Olympics, it will also have to host the Paralympics. That means six weeks of work around the clock to put on a show the whole world will be watching. As it is for the athletes competing at the Olympics and Paralympics, hosting those events is a different beast altogether.
It is estimated that the French spent over $8 billion to host the Paris Games. The country finished fifth in the medal tally, with 64 medals including 16 gold. Those medals came from 22 sports, demonstrating that France is indeed a sporting nation. India, which won six medals at the Paris Games, is not.
This is not the first time India has tried a top-down approach to develop sports.
When the country hosted the Under-17 Men’s Fifa World Cup in 2017, for instance, there was a hope that it would create a long-lasting legacy in the sport. To be fair, India did put on a show as hosts. As for the state of Indian men’s football, the national team failed to score a single goal in the AFC Asian Cup in January, is ranked 124th in the world, and does not have a national coach dedicated solely to the team.
India even hosted the Under-17 Women’s Fifa World Cup in 2022. A year later, the Women’s Football League, the top-tier competition for Indian women, was held amidst a heat-wave with almost all matches being held during the day. That domestic tournament, incidentally, took place in Ahmedabad.
To host the Olympics, a great deal of money will have to be spent on creating infrastructure in sports in which India has had no top-level participation, such as beach volleyball or the canoe events.
This money, instead, could be used in plugging the gaps in the Indian sports system.
The elite athletes are well provided for by the government and the national federations. But in a recent podcast, former India football captain Sunil Chhetri talked about severe shortages in talent identification in the country. A better equipped scouting network has to be put in place to recognise talent and introduce children to high-quality training from an early age.
In 2017, India’s chief badminton coach Pulella Gopichand spoke about a shortage in coaches. This is also a major area of concern.
Indian hockey legend PR Sreejesh, who retired after helping the team win bronze in Paris, was appointed the head coach of the junior India team. Now imagine if there was a system in place, where a former player of Sreejesh’s calibre and expertise could be refined and turned into an elite coach…
The same could be done for other ageing stars across sports. It is just a good way to aid the transition and keep the conveyor belt of athlete development running. That is the foundation.
Talk to any of the elite athletes today and they will mention that support came to them much later in their careers, only when they had already established themselves. That support has not yet trickled down to the grassroots level – a stage at which a small amount care can make a telling difference.
Then there is the access to facilities. Take a sport like swimming, for example. In Paris, 37 gold medals were on offer in the swimming events. In India though, it remains an elite sport with access limited to those able to pay for club memberships. The same is true for sports like tennis and squash, which will make its Olympics debut in 2028.
Hosting the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games is another top-down vanity approach given how things stand at the moment.
India, and it has been proven very well, does know how to put on a show. But what is the point of hosting a ball if you cannot dance?
Fun fact of the week: The 2024 Paris Paralympics gets underway next week with 549 events to be held in 22 sports. India will be represented by 84 athletes across 12 sports. Here are a few facts about India’s Paralympians over the years.
1) Before Abhinav Bindra, there was Murlikant Petkar. Petkar became the first Indian to win a gold medal at an Olympic or Paralympic Games when he took gold in the men’s 50m freestyle event in 1972, 36 years before Bindra won gold at Beijing 2008.
2) Before javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, there was Devendra Jhajharia. Jhajharia was the first Indian to win a track and field medal at an Olympic or Paralympic Games when he won gold in the men’s javelin throw F46 event in Athens 2004.
3) Jhajharia, who is now the president of the Paralympic Committee of India, is also the most decorated Indian Olympian or Paralympian in an individual event, having won two gold medals and one silver medal in his career. Jhajharia and Joginder Singh Bedi, who won one silver and two bronze medals in 1984, are the only Indians to have won three Olympic or Paralympic individual medals.
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