Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) is a scheme created by Government of India to promote sports in India. [1] In September 2014, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India started a scheme to train and promote high-performance athletes with a target of getting medals at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. It constituted a committee called as TOPS Elite Athletes’ Identification Committee to identify the elite athletes who can be supported in their training to get the Olympic medals. [2] TOPS was expanded to include junior athletes in 2020. [3]
TOPS, along with other nationwide sports initiatives such as Khelo India, have been recognized as improving India's performance at major sporting events. [4]
India first participated at the Olympic Games in 1900, with a lone athlete Norman Pritchard winning two medals – both silver – in athletics and became the first Asian nation to win an Olympic medal. The nation first sent a team to the Summer Olympic Games in 1920 and has participated in every Summer Games since then. India has also competed at several Winter Olympic Games beginning in 1964. Indian athletes have won 35 medals, all at the Summer Games. For a period of time, the Indian Men's Field Hockey Team was dominant in Olympic competition, winning eleven medals in twelve Olympics between 1928 and 1980. The run included eight gold medals of which six were won consecutively from 1928 to 1956.
Abhinav Apjit Bindra is an Indian Olympic gold medallist, retired sport shooter, and businessman. He is the first and one of only two Indians to win an Individual Olympic Gold Medal. He is the first Indian to have held concurrently the world and Olympic titles for the men's 10-meter air rifle event, having earned those honors at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships. Bindra has also won seven medals at the Commonwealth Games and three medals at the Asian Games.
The National Games of India consist of various disciplines in which athletes from the different states of India participate against each other. The country's first few Olympic Games, now renamed as National Games, were held in North India (Delhi, Allahabad, Patiala, Madras, Calcutta and Bombay.
The Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, also known as Balewadi Stadium, is a sports complex located in Pune, India. The complex is situated about 15 km from Pune downtown and 5 km from Hinjawadi. This complex was the venue for the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, Khelo India Youth Games in 2019 and AFC Women's Asian Cup.
India has a history of sports dating back thousands of years. Cricket is the most popular spectator sport; it generates the highest television viewership, with the Indian Premier League (IPL) being the most-followed league in the country. Football has also gained popularity, with the Indian Super League (ISL) being the highest level of domestic football, and the national team winning multiple gold medals at the Asian and South Asian Games. Additional football accomplishments include India having reached the semifinal of the 1960 Olympics, qualified for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, and won the SAFF Championship. Other sports include kabaddi, badminton, tennis, and athletics, with kho-kho becoming the fourth-most viewed sport. India has also had success in field hockey, winning the World Cup and multiple medals in the Olympic Games. Sports such as golf, rugby, boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, motorsport, wrestling, and basketball are featured throughout the country.
Atul Verma is an Indian archer. He won the bronze medal in Men's Recurve Archery at 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China beating Mete Gazoz of Turkey 6-4.
Popular sports in Jammu and Kashmir include cricket, football and winter sports along with sports like golf, water sports, Ice stock sport and adventure sports. The National Winter Games have been held in Gulmarg in 1996, 2004 and 2009. The first Khelo India Winter Games were held in February and March 2020 in Leh and Gulmarg. Jammu and Kashmir won the most gold medals while the Indian Army team came second with 8 gold medals. The second edition of the winter games were also held successfully in Gulmarg in 2020 with Jammu and Kashmir coming first and Karnataka second.
Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG), are the annual national level multidisciplinary grassroot games in India held in January or February for two categories, namely under-17 years school students and under-21 college students. Every year best 1,000 kids will be given an annual scholarship of ₹5 lakh (US$6,300) for 8 years to prepare them for the international sporting events.
Amit Sheoran is a pistol shooting coach, who also competed at a national level, He had to leave shooting due to the death of his father. He has produced several national and international-level Indian pistol shooters. He has coached Saurabh Chaudhary.
Lovlina Borgohain is an Indian boxer. She won a bronze medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in the women's welterweight event, becoming only the third Indian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics. She won gold medal at 2023 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships and bronze medals at the 2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships and the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships. Borgohain is the first female athlete and the second boxer from Assam to represent the state in the Olympics. In 2020, she became the sixth person from Assam to receive Arjuna Award.
Fit India Movement is a nation-wide movement in India to encourage people to remain healthy and fit by including physical activities and sports in their daily lives. The movement was launched by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi at Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi on 29 August 2019. Fit India was founded by Shri Suparno Satpathy in 1993.
Ravi Kumar Dahiya, also known as Ravi Kumar or Ravi Dahiya, is an Indian freestyle wrestler who won a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 57 kg category. Dahiya is also a bronze medallist from 2019 World Wrestling Championships and a three-time Asian champion. At the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, he won the gold medal in the men's 57kg freestyle wrestling category in Birmingham, England.
Khelo India University Game is a national level multi-sport event held in India, where athletes from universities across the country compete in different sports disciplines. The inaugural edition held in Odisha started on 22 February and concluded on 1 March 2020. It is organised by Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports along with Association of Indian Universities, Indian Olympic Association and National Sports Federation. It is the largest university level sports competition in India.
Ajeet Singh Yadav is an Indian Para Athlete who competes in men's javelin throw, in F-46 category. Ajeet was included in Sports Authority of India Government of India program under Target Olympic Podium Scheme, and also currently being supported by the Olympic Gold Quest. He is pursuing his PhD in physical education and sports from LNIPE Gwalior. He made his Paralympic debut representing India at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Khelo India: National Programme for Development of Sports, branded as Khelo India, aims at improving India's sports culture at the grass-root level through organized talent identification, structured sporting competitions and infrastructure development. It is a Government of India programme launched in 2017-18 under the tenure Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sports Ministers Vijay Goel and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. There has also been an emphasis on including traditional Indian games in Khelo India events in order to revive their popularity.
Khelo India Winter Games are the national level multidisciplinary grassroot winter games of India. Events include skiing, alpine skiing, nordic skiing, snow rugby, Ice stock sport, snow baseball, mountaineering, snowshoe running, ice hockey, figure skating and speed skating. It was decided to hold the first Khelo India Winter Games in 2020 after the success of multiple editions of the Khelo India Youth Games.
Malvika Bansod is an Indian badminton player from Nagpur, Maharashtra. She has won international titles such as the Maldives and Nepal International in 2019. Bansod has won several gold medals at the national level-events in junior and senior categories.
Aadil Manzoor Peer, also known as Syed Aadi, is an Indian international ice stock sport athlete. Aadi has a right hand style. He has represented India at an international level. In 2018 Aadil Manzoor Peer represented India in Austria and attained 10th rank.
Prachi Yadav is an Indian Paracanoe Athlete who participated in 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. Yadav won the bronze medal in the 2022 Paralympic World Cup.
The Khelo India Para Games (KIPG) are an annual sports event under the Khelo India initiative for disabled athletes.