HYDERABAD: Indian Olympic dream will be a reality only when different sports bodies and academies that are running parallel in different parts of the country are brought under a unified authority. Sportsmen, media persons and experts, who participated in the day-long deliberations of Olympic Task Force here on Saturday, have echoed this opinion pitching for a national level authority to monitor the development of sports activity across the country.
"There is a strong appeal for a national level unified authority in place of several academies and boards. The Task Force will document this and submit to the Prime Minister with a due recommendation for a national authority for sports," said Om Pathak, chairman, School Sports Promotion Foundation (SSPF) who is also member of the task force.
Prime Minister's Olympic Task Force (OTF) State Level Conference for three states (Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka) was held on Saturday at The Plaza Hotel, Begumpet, Hyderabad.
Speakers at the seminar stressed on taking steps to keep away political intervention in the sports academies. They emphasised the need to improve the existing sports infrastructure and for better emoluments for the physical education teachers.
The 'National Dialogue' engaged key stakeholders in sports in an open conversation and discussed crucial issues of identification of athletes, preparation and practice, coach identification, involvement of different agencies in sports promotion, governance challenges and funding issues. Hockey coach Baldev Singh, Times Group Online chief editor Rajesh Kalra, badminton coach P Gopichand, Andhra Pradesh sports secretary LV Subramanyam and Telangana tourism secretary B Venkatesham participated in the workshop.
The Task Force committee was appointed by the Prime Minister for preparing an action plan for next three Olympic Games 2020, 2024 and 2028. The committee is mandated to suggest a comprehensive action plan, including short-term, medium-term and long-term measures, for effective participation of Indian sportspersons in the next three Olympic Games.
"Identification of sports talent should be done at the age level of 8 to 12 years. This is the right age to pick up the talent and provide training. Rural areas must be scanned to find out the real talent. Several sports are not getting the right attention they require resulting in a big gap. Sports like power lifting are less costly and accessible to rural students, but they are not being given importance," said Olympic bronze medallist Karanam Malleswari.
The ace badminton player Jwala Gutta sought coaching by professional experts for those who have reached the national level so that they would be developed as international players. "Now we are forced to spend on private coaching which is very costly. The government has to fund the expert coaching so that the players could concentrate on their practice to reach the next level," Jwala opined.
More than 125 delegates participated from two states i.e., Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Discussions were held on the Agenda given by the Olympic Task Force members for better performance and winning medals in the forthcoming Olympics in 2020, 2024 and 2028
Along with the above members, officials from both the states, elite athletes, senior coaches, budding athletes, DYSOs, DEOs, physical directors, sports associations, SATS and SAAP officials participated and discussed in detail about the various issues by interacting with OTF members and also submitted their suggestions for submission to the Prime Minister.
source:indiatoday
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