New Delhi [India], September 14 : India's global sporting ambitions, long-term medal prospects and the growth of Paralympic sport were in focus as Hari Ranjan Rao IAS, Secretary (Sports), Government of India; Achanta Sharath Kamal, Olympian and Vice-Chairperson of the IOA Athletes Commission; and Devendra Jhajharia, President of the Paralympic Commission of India, came together at the PlayCom 2025: Business of Sports Summit on September 13.
Hariranjan Rao noted that India had already demonstrated its ability to create infrastructure for mega events such as the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, with facilities from those events still serving athletes today.
He added that the larger issue was ensuring quality facilities for the next generation, regardless of whether India hosts the Olympics.
"Olympics or not, we need to give our future generations very good quality sporting infrastructure," Rao said as quoted by a press release from PlayCom.
He also called for more nuanced spending, pointing out that investment in training and field-of-play facilities often matters more than massive stadiums, and urged greater corporate involvement in sports science, coaching and athlete development.
"In the typical sporting language, spending money on the field of play is more important than building huge, large-scale concrete stadiums," he opined.
Sharath Kamal underscored the need for long-term planning to raise India's medal tally.
"If you plug everything in place from grassroots to high performance for the next 10 to 12 years, you will get athletes who will be at their peak by 2036. This is the generation we're looking to nurture," he said.
He added that medal returns were tied to the proportion of the population engaged in sport.
"In a country of 1.4 billion, at the Olympic Games, we don't get into double digits in medals, as probably one per cent of the entire population has access to sport and sporting culture. But if you're able to make that number bigger, to 10 per cent or 20 per cent, then yes, we're there, as a strong sporting nation," the former player said as quoted by the PlayCom press release.
Devendra Jhajharia, President of the Paralympic Commission of India, highlighted the rapid growth of para sport, noting India's haul of 17 medals in athletics alone at the Paris Paralympics. "Athletics is a strong suit for us, especially high jump and javelin," he said.
Referencing the positive assessment of facilities during the first Khelo India Para Games by visiting international delegates, he added, "India is ready to host the Olympics. We can do it easily. We have the capacity."
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