Abhinav Bindra, India’s first individual Olympic gold medallist, is upbeat about the country’s bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games. Speaking exclusively to Telecom Asia Sport (www.telecomasia.net) during his visit to New Delhi, Bindra, who met the Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, Raksha Khadse, on April 9, shared his views on India’s sporting future.
Engaged in thoughtful interaction with Olympic champion Shri Abhinav Bindra ji. We deliberated on making our sports ecosystem more athlete-centric and performance oriented.
While the discussions primarily revolved around grassroots development, sports governance and the capacity building of manpower, sources indicate that the Olympic bid was also part of the conversation.
Work on this is progressing in the right direction.
Bindra, too, expressed strong support for India’s Olympic aspirations.
It is a very great thing to have Olympic ambitions. Olympics will have to come to India at some point, question only remains when? It should kickstart massive development in sports across India. So much can be achieved by bidding alone.
According to sources familiar with the process, “IOC elections have taken place, they will take some time. If everything goes well, they will come to India. Gujarat has hired consultants, quite a lot of stuff is happening. Everything depends on transparency. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is leading this. I think they need to propose more — perhaps involve Mrs Nita Ambani, who is an IOC member. The bid zeroes in on Ahmedabad only, so far — they need to propose more to IOC.”
Budget estimations also remain a major talking point. “Some time back, the budget was said to be ₹64,000 crore, which was false. The minimum projection is ₹2 lakh crore. In 10 years, the budget will only get bigger. Operational costs, sports infrastructure, and civic infrastructure to make Ahmedabad an Olympic-level city will push the overall budget much higher,” the source added.
Meanwhile, Bindra was visibly thrilled with the performance of Indian shooters at the ISSF World Cup in Buenos Aires. With one day of competition left, India had already claimed four golds, two silvers and one bronze, standing second in the medal tally behind China. More medals were expected on the final day.
“I think what is wonderful is the depth of talent we possess. We have a system in place with regards to nurturing and creating talent. Rudranksh Patil — what a wonderful triumph! Kept on believing in himself, he has matured, terrific performance, kept focused. Suruchi is new talent, young Esha Singh won a medal — so this depth of talent year on year which we see is wonderful. It’s good to see the foundation is very strong. What we want is continuity to work — be at it, results then keep coming. In Paris we got 3 medals — we have to build on it.”
