New Delhi: The Indian government is reportedly said to cut short on the expenses spend on the Olympics-bound athletes under its ‘Target Olympics Podium Scheme’ for the next cycle, which will run till the Los Angeles Olympics 2028 edition. With India returning with six medals after fielding a 117-member contingent apart from the 140 support staff, many of them backed by the government support, the disappointment was clear in the air with no gold medal in their ranks.
India finished at the 71st position after claiming five bronze medals and one silver, falling behind Pakistan who finished on the 62nd position in the overall medals tally at the Paris Games by the dint of their lone medal – a gold.
Ahead of the Paris Olympics in July, the Sports Ministry and Sports Authority of India (SAI) revealed that the government had spent Rs 470 crore through the TOPS scheme across 16 sporting disciplines. As per the data available on SAI’s portal, 120 Olympic-bound athletes were part of the TOPS core list.
Only five athletes part of the TOPS returned with medals and the Indian hockey team, which wasn’t part of the TOPS, being the only exception.
Debate on for cutting funds from TOPS
According to a recent report by The Indian Express, the Government of India is considering “cutting the flab” from its flagship TOPS, though there is a debate going on internally within the Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) comprising of former athletes, coaches, and government officials. Two members part of the MOC told The Indian Express. One of them mentioned that the number of TOPS athletes can be reduced to half in case the rules get strict.
The other thing being pondered is to keep all the TOPS athletes accountable for their expenses after many failed to submit their bills in the previous cycle (2021-2024).
“Many athletes who have retired are also yet to submit their expense sheets. We have no doubts over their intent, the money was sanctioned only after the proposals were carefully vetted. But the accounts need to be settled,” an official told The Indian Express.
The strict rules if applied is likely to have ramifications on the Indian sporting ecosystem as the government was the major supporter for financial funding in multi-sporting events such as the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the Olympics.
