Improve sports amenities at grassroots level

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India is focussing not just on strengthening infrastructure capabilities but also intellectual preparedness as it eyes hosting rights for the 2036 Olympic Games, Indian Olympic Association president P T Usha said recently, according to the Press Trust of India.

The former track and field star noted India's engagement with the quadrennial international games, which goes beyond competitive sports to embracing its true spirit of promoting peace and cultural exchange.

She was addressing the 1st International Olympic Research Conference at Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) near Dehgam in Gandhinagar district.

She claimed that India intended to host the Olympics and for that, the country was strengthening infrastructure capabilities as well as intellectual and research preparedness.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, said recently at the opening ceremony of the 38th National Games in Dehradun that his government was focussed on bagging the hosting rights of the 2036 Olympics. Research, which may sound vague at first, is about how sports infrastructure can drive urban regeneration, what economic models can make mega events financially sustainable and how to ensure technological innovation benefits people.

While this sounds exciting, it is important to see that such announcements mean something and are not just feel-good, grandiose pronouncements that eventually come to nothing. We need to begin by giving our city athletes grounds to practise.

Our amenities at the grassroots level are pathetic. Our athletes need money and government support while coming up through the system.

School students arrive at sporting grounds that have no or dirty drinking water and unsanitary toilets. Improve the bottom rung before making speeches about research and financial models or whatever.