NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India’s Olympic performance can improve only if the country expands participation in sporting disciplines where it has traditionally remained absent.
Addressing athletes, students and volunteers virtually during the Khelo India Dialogue, Modi said India currently does not compete in a large number of Olympic events, limiting its chances of increasing the overall medal tally.
“In the Olympics, there are so many different sports… Indian teams don’t even participate in half of them,” the Prime Minister said, calling it a “bitter truth”.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, India participated in 16 of the 32 sports on the Games programme.
Modi said that as long as India remains absent from a large share of Olympic disciplines, it will continue to miss opportunities to compete for medals.
“Other countries of the world win medals in those sports, and we don’t even participate in them. To increase our medal tally, we will have to master these sports as well,” he said.
The Prime Minister also referred to the nationwide talent hunt for children in the 5–15 years age group, which he had announced during his Independence Day address on August 15.
The initiative is aimed at identifying sporting talent at an early age and broadening India’s participation across Olympic disciplines.
Modi said his sporting vision was not limited to medal-winning alone but was closely linked to youth development and nation-building.
“When I talk about sports… it is not merely about winning medals. It is a campaign to integrate India’s sporting power and youth power together in the construction of a developed India,” he said.
The Prime Minister said India must build deeper capacity across a wider range of sports if it wants to emerge as a stronger Olympic nation in the years ahead.
