The Sports Authority of India (SAI) launched two crucial schemes in 2014 and 2018. These were the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) followed by The Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) programme. The objective was very focused — to bring more medals home from the Olympics and other international events.
Khelo India spots talent at both school and university levels and brings youngsters into TOPS. The initiators, like Dr Kurien, the Milkman of India, are visionaries.
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Given that India is making rapid progress in several areas but lagging behind in sports, the schemes are laudable.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Abhinav Bindra won India’s first ever individual gold medal – doing so in shooting — and in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (delayed by a year and held in 2021) Neeraj Chopra took the top podium finish in the javelin.
Two gold medals were won by the country in a span of 13 years but it also means that in 75 years of Independence, those are the only gold medals in our showcase even as, over the decades, we have had the Green, White, Telecom and IT revolutions. That we lag behind in sports stems from the lack of opportunity and finance. But that’s now taken care of by KIYG and TOPS.
TOPS, launched in September 2014, seeks to improve India’s performance at the Olympics and Paralympics. The programme covers athletes’ training at world-class facilities abroad, equipment, hiring physical trainers, sports psychologists, physiotherapists, mental conditioning coaches and an incentive of Rs 50,000 per month.
As many as 148 athletes were identified as TOPS beneficiaries for the Paris Olympics 2024 including 20 new inductees in seven Olympic and four Paralympic disciplines for support. Cycling, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling as well as Para Sports (archery, athletics, badminton and boxing). Of 61 athletes who won medals at the recent Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, 47 of them are supported by TOPS.
The KIYG scheme (run by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports) aims at infusing sports culture and achieving sporting excellence. It includes development of playfields and community coaching, promotion of community sports, establishment of a strong sports competition structure at both school and university level as also for rural/indigenous sports, sports for persons with disabilities and women’s sports.
KIYG are the annual national level multidisciplinary grassroots games held in January or February for two categories namely, under-17 year school students and under-21 college students.
Every year the best 1,000 kids will receive an annual scholarship of Rs 5 lakh (US$6,300) for eight years to prepare them for international sporting events.
It covers 18 sports — athletics, archery, badminton, basketball, boxing, football, gymnastics, hockey, judo, kabaddi, kho kho, wrestling, weightlifting, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, swimming and shooting.
In 2022, Haryana were crowned champions of the 2022 KIYG. The hosts bagged 137 medals, including 52 gold, 39 silver, and 46 bronze to dethrone Maharashtra.
Selected candidates will be eligible for either a grant of scholarships or for admissions to SAI Centres and sports academies.
The Khelo India University Games is the largest ever competition held at university level in India and will involve 3,399 athletes from 159 universities in 17 sports.
India sparkled at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires where its athletes bagged a total of 13 medals including three gold and nine silver.
We expect much from Neeraj Chopra, P V. Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, and Mirabai Chanu, but newcomers like Lakshya Sen, Jeremy Lalrinnunga, Achinta Sheuli, Eldhose Paul and others can also spring surprises at the Olympics, given their stellar show in Birmingham.
TOPS’ scouting must be commended. Mirabai Chanu lives in a village in Mizoram. Collecting wood from the forest at an early age, she would easily lift a load of wood which her older brother of 16 couldn’t and was duly spotted at 12 in a local competition.
Mirabai’s Father was a construction worker in Imphal and her mother ran a small tea and snack shop in her village.
Many others also come from humble backgrounds. Daughter of a bus conductor, Sakshi Malik was inspired to take up weightlifting by her grandfather.
Achinta Sheuli of West Bengal won the weightlifting gold in the 73kg category. His father was a rickshaw puller and his mother an embroider
Jeremy Lalrinnunga’s father was a labourer on contract in the Public Works Department. Eldhose Paul, triple jump gold medalist, is also son of a labourer. Bhavina Patel, a polio victim, won a table tennis gold medal in the para athletics category.
But where is Goa? We have just one club (Sesa Goa) registered in football and a few athletes who won medals at the Khelo India Youth Games. Though there were over 100 Universities in India that participated in the University Games but not Goa University.
It’s about time Goa lays emphasis on other sports besides football (in which we are not doing so well anyway). The TOPS list includes hockey teams – both men and women — and another 10 events besides para athletes — but does not include cricket or football.
But since TOPS provides support to probable athletes in terms of equipment, choice of a coach and physio along with Rs.50,000/- as a monthly allowance, there should be no excuse for not aiming for a spot, especially since it admits athletes in the lower age group.
(The author is a career guidance counsellor who operates from Jesuit House, Panjim)
