India sets its sights on global sporting power

“Indian sport is poised for a massive leap and when I say this, it is with conviction,” she says.

Speaking to GN Focus, the former sprint queen says, “I have been part of the Indian sports ecosystem for over five decades as an elite athlete, as a coach, as someone who still runs an athletic academy in Kerala, and now as President of the Indian Olympic Association for four years. I am convinced that our sporting ecosystem will witness growth never seen before. The work is in that direction, full tilt, with all the stakeholders on the same page. I am sure that not only the 2030 CWG but even as far as the 2036 Olympics is concerned, India will be a strong candidate, even though the whole process of selection by the IOC has changed. I am in touch with the world sports bodies at large and can tell you that today, India is looked at as huge in the sporting world and this is not just about our athletes performing.”

Backing the ambition

The big question, then, is: what tangible steps are being taken to create a roadmap for India to become more than a one-sport nation beyond cricket? The Union Budget for 2026-27 has allocated a record Rs44.8 billion (Dh1.74 billion) to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, reflecting a sharp 18 per cent year-on-year increase. The funding will bolster sports infrastructure, strengthen elite athlete support programmes such as the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), expand athlete training initiatives and support the overhaul of the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

If the unprecedented financial backing is one pillar of the master plan, the Union Sports Ministry also deserves kudos for going the whole hog with the Khelo India Mission, which has resulted in more than 1,000 training hubs springing up across the country to identify talent from rural and semi-urban pockets. Add to this the National Sports Governance Act, which seeks to introduce best practices across National Sports Federations (NSFs), including athlete representation in decision-making bodies, eliminating gender bias and bringing federations under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

A breakdown of the sports budget shows that a whopping Rs9.17 billion has been allocated to SAI to manage national camps and elite training logistics — so much so that questions have often been raised over whether the so-called return on investment (RoI) has been commensurate.

“As a member of the Mission Olympics cell, I can tell you that we hardly say no to any request. However, there is also a review system in place for TOPS as the athletes should consider themselves accountable,” says M.M. Somaya, India’s captain at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, who has worn many hats in sports administration.

Joydeep Karmakar, a 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist shooter who finished an agonising fourth in the 50m rifle prone event at London 2012, had been privy to the support system that the government had been providing to athletes from close quarters.

“It may be still a work in progress but we are getting there as a sporting nation. There is a lot of money coming into the system and it has really made the elite athletes’ lives a lot easier in the run-up to a big event, which was not the case during our times,” says Karmakar, now a celebrated coach in the country.

Lauding the Khelo India movement, which was born out of the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Karmakar says the initiative has certainly made an impact in select disciplines.

“Khelo India has been one of the best things to have happened to Indian sport. Manu Bhaker, the double Olympic medallist in Paris 2024, caught the eye from there while the solid bench strength that we see in shooting today owes a lot to Khelo,” says Karmakar whose son Adriyan’s career also took off with a Khelo India gold in 2023.

India’s growth as a sporting power will be seen as a boost to its soft power arsenal, but Somaya hits the nail on the head when he says, “There is certainly a gap between our Asian performance and Olympics.”

A perfect example of this was the contrast between India’s record 100-plus medal haul at the 2023 Asian Games in Guangzhou and its six-medal return at Paris 2024, less than a year later — though there were a number of unlucky fourth-place finishes.

Usha, who knows a thing or two about the pain of fourth-place finishes, however, believes the country is on the cusp of something big.

“Near misses are a thing of the past – it cannot be coming up again and again like a bad dream. We will win more medals in LA 2028. For me, LA is emotional as this is where I lost a bronze medal in the 1984 Olympics in the 400m hurdles ever so narrowly. I dream of seeing Indians do well in LA and there is every reason to believe that we will excel across sports, cricket included.”