Sports Ministry to Nurture and Support these Talented Athletes

Noida: According to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, India’s path to the Paris Olympics 2024 was driven by a significant investment of ?470 crore. A total of 117 Indian athletes (including seven reserves) will travel to the French capital to take part in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games 2024. The contingent comprises 29 members (11 women and 18 men) from athletics, followed by shooting (21) and hockey (19).

Table tennis will be represented by eight players, while badminton will feature seven competitors, including two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu. Wrestling (6), archery (6), and boxing (6) will have six representatives each, followed by golf (4), tennis (3), swimming (2), sailing (2), and one each for equestrian, judo, rowing and weightlifting.

India ranked 71st among 206 countries, securing 6 medals in athletics, shooting, wrestling, and hockey and having six near-misses in which athletes finished in fourth place. India won a total of six medals -- one silver and five bronze -- at the Paris Olympics 2024. 

The ?470 crore was not evenly distributed. Instead, it was meticulously allocated based on each sport’s potential. Athletics emerged as the top beneficiary, receiving a lion’s share of nearly ?96.08 crore. Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra’s gold-medal win in the Tokyo Olympics resulted in a significant increase in funding for the athletics discipline at the 2024 Paris Olympics, with the athletics budget experiencing a more than 1600% boost.

Indian Sports Ministry on Paris Olympic Bound Contingent. Indian athletes represented the country across 16 sports and The 117-member strong contingent disciplines at Paris Olympics. India invested ?420 Crores for Paris Olympics campain.  

Hockey- The ministry invested ?41.3 crore Indian men's hockey team for the Olympics while they trained at SAI NCOE, Bengaluru. Indian men’s hockey team beat Spain 2-1 in Paris 2024 Olympics on Thursday to clinch its second straight bronze medal at the Summer Games. Overall, the Men in Blue bagged a record-extending 13th Olympic medal, the most by any team.

Coached by Craig Fulton, here are the 16 members of the bronze medal-winning squad are Goalkeepers: PR Sreejesh, Defenders: Jarmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Harmanpreet Singh, Sumit, Sanjay, Midfielders: Rajkumar Pal, Shamsher Singh, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Forwards: Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh and Alternate players: Nilakanta Sharma, Jugraj Singh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak

Shooting- ?60.42 crore was spent on the shooting contingent for the Olympics and Indian shooting team for Paris 2024. A 21-member Indian shooting contingent compete Indian field five mixed teams - two each in rifle and pistol and one in shotgun - at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Paris 2024 Olympics india won 3 Broonz medals in shooting. Men’s 10m air rifle: Sandeep Singh, Arjun Babuta, Women’s 10m air rifle: Elavenil Valarivan, Ramita Jindal, Women’s 50m rifle 3 positions: Sift Kaur Samra, Anjum Moudgil, Men’s 50m rifle 3 positions: Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Swapnil Kusale, 10m air rifle mixed team: Sandeep Singh/Elavenil Valarivan, Arjun Babuta/Ramita Jindal

Men’s 10m air pistol: Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Cheema, Women’s 10m air pistol: Manu Bhaker, Rhythm Sangwan, Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol: Anish Bhanwala, Vijayveer Sidhu, Women’s 25m pistol: Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh, 10m air pistol mixed team: Sarabjot Singh/Manu Bhaker, Arjun Singh Cheema/Rhythm Sangwan.

Shotgun - Men’s trap: Prithviraj Tondaiman, Women’s trap: Rajeshwari Kumari, Shreyasi Singh, Men’s skeet: Anantjeet Singh Naruka,

Women’s skeet: Maheshwari Chauhan, Raiza Dhillon, Skeet mixed team: Anantjeet Singh Naruka/Maheshwari Chauhan Athletics- Around ?96.08 crore was spent on the Indian athletics contingent in the buildup to the Olympics. While Neeraj Chopra won a silver medal, the overall performance of the Indian athletes on the world stage was not up to expectations, indicating that the investment was not sufficient for long-term success.  Athletics (27 +2) Men: Sarvesh Kushare - Men’s High Jump, Suraj Panwar - Marathon race walk mixed relay, Akshdeep Singh, Vikas Singh, Paramjeet Bisht - Men’s 20km Racewalk, Kishore Jena, Neeraj Chopra - Men’s Javelin Throw, Muhammed Anas, Muhammed Ajmal, Amoj Jacob, Santhosh Tamilarasan, Rajesh Ramesh - Men’s 4x400m Relay, Avinash Sable - Men’s 3000m Steeplechase, Tajinderpal Singh Toor - Men’s Shot Put Abdulla Aboobacker, Praveen Chithravel - Men’s Triple Jump, Jeswin Aldrin - Men’s Long Jump, and Annu Rani- Women’s Javelin Throw, Parul Chaudhary- Women’s 3000m Steeplechase, Women’s 5000m, Kiran Pahal - Women’s 400m, Women’s 4x400m relay Jyothi Yarraji - Women’s 100m Hurdles, Ankita Dhyani - Women’s 5000m, Priyanka Goswami - Women’s 20km Racewalk, Marathon race walk mixed relay Jyothika Sri Dandi, Subha Venkatesan, Vithya Ramraj, Poovamma MR- Women’s 4x400m relay, Athletics reserves- Prachi, Mijo Chacko Kurian

Wrestling- Ministry spent about ?37.80 crore on Wrestlers taking part in Paris Olympics.  A six-member Indian wrestling team and Vinesh Phogat qualified for the gold medal bout in the women's 50kg event but failed the weigh in on the morning of her medal match and was disqualified. Aman Sehrawat went on to win a bronze in the men's 57kg category and also became India’s youngest Olympic medal winner at 21 years and 24 days old. Paris 2024 Olympics wrestling: Indian team and weight categories Men: Aman Sehrawat (57kg), Women: Anshu Malik (57kg), Vinesh Phogat (50kg), Antim Pangal (53kg), Reetika Hooda (76kg), Nisha Dahiya (68kg).

Weightlifting- ?27 crore was invested behind training Indian weightlifters.  Only Mirabai Chanu secured the only weightlifting quota for India at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Mirabai Chanu finishing fourth in women’s 49kg weightlifting event at the South Paris Arena. Competing in her third Olympics, the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, lifted an overall weight of 199kg (88kg snatch + 111kg clean and jerk) to finish just outside the podium places in what was a tight four-way contest.

Table Tennis- Ministry invested ?12.92 crore to get medal or put up good fight in Paris Olympics. Men’s team: Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai, and Manav Thakkar; Reserve player: G. Sathiyan, Men’s singles: Sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai, Women’s team: Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, and Archana Kamath; Reserve player: Ayhika Mukherjee, Women’s singles: Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula.

Badminton: ?72.03 crore was spent behind the contingent for Paris Olympics. A seven-member Indian team, including two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, competed at the Paris 2024 Olympics badminton tournament. Lakshya Sen created history by becoming the first male Indian badminton player to make the semi-finals at the Summer Games. However, he fell one win short of a medal.

Paris 2024 Olympics badminton team - PV Sindhu (women's singles), HS Prannoy (men's singles), Lakshya Sen (men's singles), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty (men's doubles), Tanisha Crasto/Ashwini Ponnappa (women's doubles)

Archary: The Ministry invested ?39.18 crore in the archery team to win medals or put up a strong fight, but the Indian archery team did not secure any medals and did not perform well at the Paris Olympics 2024. Despite having talent and potential, Indian archery needs a fresh approach and a stronger support system to convert that potential into Olympic success.

Tennis- The Ministry spent ?1.67 crore on the three-player tennis contingent for the Paris Olympics. However, 44-year-old Rohan Bopanna did not secure a medal for India, and the country continues to search for a medal-winning tennis player.

Six medals are below the expected tally, especially taking into account the six fourth-place finishes and Vinesh Phogat being disqualified despite qualifying for the final. However, there were silver linings such as shooting getting back among the medals and back-to-back medals from the hockey team. However, India could well have had their best-ever campaign at the Games, had it not been for a series of heartbreaking fourth-place finishes. They had as many as six fourth-placed finishes.

India’s fourth place finishers began with shooter Arjun Babuta, finishing with 208.4 points in the 10m Men's Air Rifle final. Manu Bhaker misses historic hat trick and second fourth-place finish in the 10m air pistol event. More heartbreak was on the cards with the Indian mixed archery team consisting of Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara losing to the USA in the bronze medal match 2-4. The Mixed skeet team represented by Maheshwari Chauhan and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka also continued the rendezvous with a fourth place, losing against China in the bronze medal match.

Lakshya Sen was the fifth victim of the dreaded position when he lost to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the bronze medal match in the men’s singles badminton event. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu also failed to win her second successive Olympic medal by 1 kg, finishing in fourth place in the women’s 49kg category.