Sports Minister Vijay Goel on Monday emphasised on identifying and coaching budding athletes at par with seniors while calling for the integration of sports in the academic curriculum.
Chairing a round table to review India’s performance in the Rio Olympics and creating a roadmap for the future, Goel also called for a revamp of the existing coaching systems and addition of good support staff for the athletes.
The conference was attended by eminent sportspersons including Rio bronze medallist wrestler Sakshi Malik, London bronze medallist boxer Mary Kom, star athletes P.T. Usha, Anju Bobby George, hockey stars Sardar Singh, P.R. Sreejesh, shooter Gagan Narang, national badminton coach Pullela Gopi Chand, swimming coach Khajan Singh and wrestling coach Satpal.
The minister in his address also called for development of second and third strings of players besides setting up more academies in specific sports discipline at the state level.
He also advocated for optimum utilisation of the existing sports facilities and urged former Olympians and players to take part in coaching assignments.
Goel also called for corporates to adopt academies and sports persons under their various Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes besides extending the provision of reservation for sports persons in Group A and B posts against the existing reservation in Group C posts only.