At the recent Khelo India Dialogue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed out how India competes only in a handful of Olympic sports (16 out of the 32 sports featured) while other countries walk away with medals across a far wider range. So on National Sports Day today, as India continues to rally for hosting rights of the 2036 Olympics, we ask some of our Olympians: What is the one change they’d like to see in sports in India? Here’s what they have to say:
When there is no infrastructure, how do you expect us to grow?
Wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya is a Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, and a three-time Asian Champion. He feels: “Winning just one or two medals in a country this big, honestly, is shameful for us as athletes too! We need infrastructure, badly. Barring one or two, we don’t have proper multi-sport facilities in our country where different sports can be trained under one roof. When there’s no infrastructure, no culture, nobody practising around you, how do you expect us to grow? Take Haryana for instance, it’s a state with one of the strongest sporting cultures in India. Even there, you won’t find a single multi-sport complex that works in all weather. Training stops for two to three months because of pollution. One day of training matters more than people realise. Here, we lose months of it. Federations have a massive role to play here. Look at what the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) did with cricket. Nobody saw the sport the way it is today, until they built their own structure, their own teams, and pushed the sport hard. That’s what federations are supposed to do for all sports.”
Khaali medal matter karta hai, athlete nahi?
Boxer Jaismine Lamboriya is a Paris 2024 Olympian who became the first Indian to win gold at the World Boxing Championships in the 57kg category, and followed it up with Commonwealth Games gold in 2026. She says: “One thing I want to see change is that we start respecting the journey of our athletes, not just the result. Humare yahan, medal ka rang matter karta hai, athlete nahi. Gold, silver, bronze — that’s all people see. All I’m asking for is that appreciate us before the podium, not just when we are on it.We judge our athletes purely on medals and where they won it. Nobody appreciates us or highlight us when we are in the heat, in the gym, grinding through injuries, failing, getting back up, doing it again. That part of the story just doesn’t exist for people. We only show up on their screens the day we’re on a podium. If we started following an athlete’s journey from the very beginning, backing them when they’re still coming up, investing time and resources before there’s a medal to show for it, this country would have more champions across sports. When people see the struggle, they invest in it, emotionally, financially, and that support is what actually gets an athlete to the podium in the first place.”
We need more monetary sponsorship for athletes
{{/usCountry}}Boxer Jaismine Lamboriya is a Paris 2024 Olympian who became the first Indian to win gold at the World Boxing Championships in the 57kg category, and followed it up with Commonwealth Games gold in 2026. She says: “One thing I want to see change is that we start respecting the journey of our athletes, not just the result. Humare yahan, medal ka rang matter karta hai, athlete nahi. Gold, silver, bronze — that’s all people see. All I’m asking for is that appreciate us before the podium, not just when we are on it.We judge our athletes purely on medals and where they won it. Nobody appreciates us or highlight us when we are in the heat, in the gym, grinding through injuries, failing, getting back up, doing it again. That part of the story just doesn’t exist for people. We only show up on their screens the day we’re on a podium. If we started following an athlete’s journey from the very beginning, backing them when they’re still coming up, investing time and resources before there’s a medal to show for it, this country would have more champions across sports. When people see the struggle, they invest in it, emotionally, financially, and that support is what actually gets an athlete to the podium in the first place.”
We need more monetary sponsorship for athletes
{{/usCountry}}Shooter Kynan Chenai is a Rio 2016 Olympian and won gold in the men’s team event and bronze individually at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, India’s first-ever gold in that discipline. He opines: “We need more monetary sponsorship for athletes; from corporates, NGOs, whoever is willing. Athletes at the grassroots level, and even those at the elite level need far more support. At the Olympics, the second or first medallist is almost every time a US citizen. The US government doesn’t pay athletes much either, but it’s corporate sponsorship plus solid government facilities. The same model is what we need here in India... For shooting, we have only two facilities in the entire country, Bhopal and Delhi, to live, eat, train, sleep. And when monetary sponsorships, infrastructure exists, the results follow. Neeraj (Chopra) just won gold at the World Cup, something that’s never been done before. That’s not an accident. That’s what facilities and financial backing can do.”