New Delhi, Jan 7: Union Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports Mansukh Mandaviya chaired the 152nd Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) meeting here at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Tuesday in the presence of eminent sportspersons, administrators and coaches.

The main agenda of the meeting was introduction of members for the newly constituted MOC and planning for Los Angeles 2028 towards improving India's medal tally at the Olympics.

The Sports Minister emphasised employing a 360-degree approach to improve the Indian sports ecosystem with consolidated efforts from National Sports Federations (NSFs), State governments, Corporate houses, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

"This is an important forum for me, many actions have already started as per ideas shared by all of you. Winning medals in the Olympics is not a one-year or 6 months job. It requires preparation well in advance. India's sports infrastructure and funding is at par with the countries performing well at the Global stage. As you are aware, our Prime Minister is fully invested in the idea of making India a sports superpower. So, we have to hold each other's hands and all stakeholders have to contribute to take the country forward," Mandaviya said during the two-hour meeting as quoted by the SAI Media press release.

Olympic medallist Gagan Narang, Pullela Gopichand (Vice-president, Badminton Association of India), Viren Rasquinha (Olympic Gold Quest), Aparna Popat, Dronacharya awardee para coach Satyapal Singh, Arjuna awardee Prashanti Singh, Sports psychologist Gayatri Madkekar, Kamlesh Mehta (Secretary General, Table Tennis Federation of India), Cyrus Poncha (Secretary General, Squash Rackets Federation of India), Deepthi Bopaiah (GoSports Foundation), Siddharth Shanker (Reliance Foundation), Manisha Malhotra (JSW Sports), Gautam Vadehra (Joint Secretary, Petroleum Sports Promotion Board) and Prem Lochab (Railway Sports Promotion Board) attended the meeting along with officials from the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports (MYAS) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

Secretary (Sports), Sujata Chaturvedi welcomed the newly-constituted MOC members followed by a brief introduction of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme and the objective of the meeting by newly-appointed CEO Nachhatar Singh Johal.

The key points discussed during the meeting were:

1. Formulation of robust talent identification criteria for the Development Group for Brisbane 2032

2. Developing short/medium/long term targets for athletes included in TOPS

3. Monitoring preparedness and actual performance vis-a-vis short/medium/long-term targets

4. Approval of budgetary requirements for customised training of individuals and teams

5. Identifying and availing services of High-Performance Experts to meet the training needs of athletes

On the 152nd Mission Olympic Cell Meeting, Indian badminton legend & chief national coach Pullela Gopichand told the media, "We had a fruitful discussion on the way forward. It is good to see that the minister has been enthusiastically pushing to ensure that our performances go in LA 2028 and beyond. Our ecosystem is pretty challenging with diverse nations, diverse sports and varied players coming from different ecosystems. The last 10 years have been phenomenal for Indian sports in terms of the support the sports persons are getting. Today, players are aspirational, govt is wanting to make the sport big. The PM is responsible, by the way he has interacted with the sportspersons...We have grown aspirationally too fast while our systems are not in place."

On the Mission Olympic Cell meeting, Olympic medallist shooter Gagan Narang told the media, "The meeting was very progressive and productive. Many points for the development of sports from grassroots to elite were discussed. The drawbacks the Paris (Olympics 2024) cycle had and how to make systems much better for the LA 2028 cycle were discussed. This was the first MOC meeting under Mansukh Mandaviya."(ANI)

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