India must not delay planning and preparation for next year’s CWG and Asian Games

There are 17 months left for the start of next year’s Commonwealth Games and 19 months for the Asian Games and yet the bid for the Olympic Games which is more than 12 years away appears to be hogging the greater attention of the Indian sports ecosystem. Those charged with planning and leading India’s sporting evolution must quickly bring their focus to the immediate needs.

More than six months have lapsed since the curtain came down on Paris 2024 and yet there seems to be inertia on that front. By all accounts, the meetings among officials of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Sports Authority of India and the respective National Sports Federations have been non-starters thus far in 2024-25.

If there has been an attempt to introspect on the learnings from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, it has been tucked away in secret corridors. If there has been a collective plan for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games to be held in Glasgow and in Aichi-Nagoya respectively, it has been kept in the wraps thus far.

There are many athletes – and their coaches and support staff – who have depended on funding through TOPS to prepare for the multi-discipline competitions. At the moment, a vast majority of them, across disciplines, are unsure of whether TOPS funding is still available to them. The uncertainty does have an impact on their training and competition plans.

The 29 medals won by Indians in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games have been used to ignore soul searching opportunities. Athletes who have had the unsavory experience of finishing fourth and lower in the Olympic Games have been left to their own devices, rather than be involved by the Ministry, SAI and, in many cases, by their own National Federations for introspection.

Of course, less than a couple of weeks ago, the Sports Authority of India formed a six-member Target Asian Games Group (TAGG) with TOPS Joint CEO Col. Rakesh Yadav as its head. But there seems to have been no further development, including the announcement of a list of athletes who would be supported by this new and welcome initiative.

It is not as if there have been no meetings of the Mission Olympic Cell since the conclusion of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games last year. Cdre. Pushpendra Garg exited as TOPS CEO and Col. NS Johal has taken over that role. The incumbent CEO may have spent time pruning the list of TOPS athletes in the Core Group and Development Group.

With more para sport athletes than Olympic sport athletes on the TOPS list being considered, TOPS officials may find it hard to tell a number of athletes to fend for themselves. It is well established that India must invest more in Olympic sport to win more medals while para sport competition allows higher returns on investment at the moment.

If India wants to climb higher in the Olympic Games medal table, it must find more athletes who can win medals and some who can win gold. The Olympic chart ranks nations in order of the number of gold medals won and not total medals claimed. And it is no rocket science that India must back a larger segment of sports and sportspersons to be able to rise in the Olympic ranks.

India’s 41 medals in Olympic Games history have come in Hockey (13), Wrestling (8), Shooting (7), Athletics (4), Badminton (3), Boxing (3), Weightlifting (2) and Tennis (1). At the moment, plans may be in place only for Hockey, Shooting, Athletics and, to some extent, Badminton as far as next year’s multi-discipline competitions are concerned.

It is also worrisome that there seems to be no concrete plan for other sport like rowing, swimming, cycling, gymnastics, judo, rowing and sailing, each of which offers double-digit medals in the Asian Games. India must start doing well in these sport in the continental level before it can aspire to get Olympic medals in these disciplines.

The focus on governance issues has meant that few have turned their attention to the need to start preparing for next year’s Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in a planned manner. And since that has not happened yet, India will be sternly challenged to get many more medals in Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The sooner India gets its act together the better.

Some who have to focus on bidding for the 2036 Olympic Games can do that but there are so many others in the ecosystem who are charged with the task of assisting Indian sportspersons in their bid to take the nation higher on the Olympic medal table. Hopefully those who have their hands on the wheel will not be distracted and deliver more competently and more efficiently.