Focus on Athlete-Centric, Coach led and System-Driven approach for Promotion and Development of Sports: Vijay Goel

New Delhi: Minister of State (I/C) for Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Vijay Goel has said that during the last 3 years, NDA Government at the centre has focused on Athlete-centric, coach led and system-driven approach for promotion and development of sports. Addressing media persons here today he said the Department of Sports is playing an active role to create the infrastructure and promote capacity building for broadbasing sports for achieve excellence in various international and national competitive events.

Shri Vijay Goel listed following as achievements of Department of Sports in last 3 years..

1. Programmes/Policies/Projects:

• Preparation of Athletes: TOPS is a major initiative and it is a comprehensive mechanism for tailor made training of athletes; Also it is athlete centric and meant to fill up gaps;

• Olympic Preparation: Out of pocket stipend of Rs. 1,00,000 per month was sanctioned to athletes while in India and $100 per day during Olympics for their critical needs;

• Personal Coach: If there is a need, top athletes were allowed to have a personal coach in addition to existing coach. Liberal assistance was given to athletes to procure personal equipment;

• Target Olympic Podium: Equally important component will now include junior athlete development, sports science support as well;

• Annual Calendar for Training & Competitions (ACTC): This time we have enhanced substantially the number of camps and competitions for a number of sports disciplines which will benefit a large number of athletes;

• Coach Led System: For coach development, Federations have been asked to bring in capacity enhancement to existing coaches. For example, Boxing coaches have been recently trained by bringing internationally accredited master coaches;

• NIS: Diploma in sports coaching has been integrated with international modules and best practices followed by respective international bodies of various sports disciplines. Master trainers are being invited to upgrade coach development program. Foreign faculty is being engaged at NIS, Patiala and LNIPE, Gwalior. SAI coaches performance is being reviewed. SAI coaches will be imparted induction training as well as phase wise training during service as part of in-service capacity development program. Structured course modules have been framed and promotions will be linked with their trainings;

Regular coaches will be 50 percent and rest will be on contract based as a flexi-mode and need based on gap analysis. Physical proficiency test has been devised for coaches so that they continue to perform at their highest level. Sending coaches abroad for capacity enhancement is being implemented for strength and conditioning of coaches. 25 coaches have already undergone two weeks training at Birmingham. Sports scientist and coaches were also sent earlier;

100 masseurs and physiotherapists are being provided for elite athletes for development and recovery. In selection of teams, coaches will have a major say now for fair and transparent selection;

• System Driven: Quality of National Coaching camps i.e., pre-camp, during camp and post-camp checklists have been devised and federations have been involved. Government Observers have been appointed to bring collaboration between all stakeholders and improve performance in sports. Camp discipline need to be applied to everyone. Camps continue for about 300 days in some of the important disciplines;

Boxing observer has given reports on equipment, physical fitness, training requirement, training gaps.

Shooting observer has given reports that personal coaches need to be integrated with existing mechanism.

• Medical Checkup: Athletes will be checked for injury before every major international event; 

• National Sports Academies: 13 Academies have been set up so far; 

• National Sports Development Code: A committee has been constituted and the recommendations made are under examination. 

• Integration of Sports and Physical Education with School Education: A joint committee of Department of Sports with MHRD was set up to prescribe curriculum for Class I to X; 

• National Physical Fitness Programme: To measure fitness level of school going children NPFP has been launched; 

• Sports Talent Search Portal: Budding sports talent/parents/teachers can login and upload achievements for consideration of MYAS to make talent hunt process fair and transparent; 

• Long Term Athlete Development: 100 players will be identified and will be provided with Rs. 5 lakh per year for 8 yearsunder Khelo India Scheme; 

• Khelo India National Level School Games: To attract best sporting talent at school level and support them in collaboration with SGFI; Khelo India National School Games will be organized by involving 10000 students; 

• Khelo India National Level University Games:To attract best sporting talent at university level and support them in collaboration with AIU; National University Games will be organized in a big way; 

• National Playing Filed Association of India: To preserve playfields and Geotag them by creating an online database for broadbasing sports so that every Indian has play space; 

• Consultation with Elite Sportspersons: Conferences held to review performance of Indian in Olympics and preparing a future action plan; 

• Sports Infrastructure: Rs.54.64 crore was released to 17 States and 1 UT and 16 new projects were sanctioned under Khelo India;

• National Marathon Day: On 27^th August country wide Marathon will be organized to spread awareness about health benefits of sports;

• Indigenous Games: To preserve, promote and create awareness about indigenous games;

• Task Force for Olympics: Task Force has been set up for the next 3 Olympic games; It has submitted report for 2020 Olympics which is being studied for implementation;

• Mission XI Million: Was launched in 10^th Feb, 2017 to popularize football across the country by involving more than 11 million children;

• Gramin Khel Mahotsav: To promote sports and attract talent from rural areas in Delhi; 

• MOUs with PSUs: MOUs have been signed with PSUs as an initiative under CSR activities to promote sports; 

• Special Package for Jammu and Kashmir: Rs. 200 Crore for development of sports infrastructure in Jammu & Kashmir; 

• Formulation of selection criteria: Teams achieving ranking upto 8^thin the last one year and for individuals upto 6^th in the last year are being taken into account for selection of highest level international tournaments; 

• Categorization of Sports disciplines:New category of ‘High Priority’ disciplines was created for better focus and planning;

1. Major Events: 

• Sports Competitions: National Level Competitions were held in respect of 21 Sports disciplines were hosted by 5 States and Sports Authority of India at 8 venues; 

• FIFA U-17 Football World Cup 2017: India will host the tournament in October, 2017 

• BRICS U-17, Football tournament:BRICS U-17 football tournament was successfully conducted in Goa during October 2016

• 12th South Asian Games:It was hosted by India in Guwahati and Shillong where we won 308 medals out of 789 medals (5–16 February 2016);

1. Success Stories:

• Junior Hockey World Cup 2016: The event was hosted in Lucknow and India won;

• Kabaddi World Cup, 2016: India won their third Kabaddi World Cup was held in Ahmedabad (7 to 22 October 2016);

• Asian Wrestling Championship 2017: India ranked fifth by winning 8 medals;

• Indian Special Athletes in World Winter Games 2017: India ranked fifth by winning 73 medals;

• India Open Badminton Super Series, 2017: Ms. P.V. Sindhu won  the title;

• Blind T20 World Cup: The Indian team  won the cup;
• Rio Olympics: India ranked 67^thby colour of medal and joint 49^th with total numbers of medals

• Rio Paralympics – 2016: India won its highest ever medal tally of 4 medals and ranked 52^nd 

• World Record by Neeraj Chopra: Neeraj Chopra won a gold medal in 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships in  Poland with a junior world record; 

• Ms. Sania Mirza’s performance: Ms. Sania Mirzawith Ms. Martina Hingis won two Grand Slams, Women Doubles at Wimbledon, and Women Doubles at US Open during 2015. 

• Commonwealth Youth Games, Samoa (7-11 September 2015): India won 20 medals and finished 5^th in medal tally;

• Ms. Saina Nehwal’s performance: She became the first Indian woman badminton player to reach the finals of All England Open Badminton Championships, She also became the first Indian women’s player to be World No.1; 

• Special World Olympics 2015, Los Angeles: Indiafinished 3^rdby winning 173 medals;

• Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014: India won 64 medals and was 5^th in medals tally.

• Para-Asian Games 2014:  India won 3 Gold, 14 Silver and 16 Bronze medals.

• Incheon Asian Games 2014: India won 57 medals and was 8^th in medals tally.