Team depth to individual gaps: India’s Asian Games report card for LA 2028

Why in the News

India’s flagship elite sports fund is meant to back future champions, yet only about 2% of its spending since the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games went to athletes who won gold at Nagoya. India finished fourth at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has announced a performance review focused on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

What is TOPS, and how is elite sport funded?

1. What it is: The Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) is the Sports Ministry’s flagship fund for Olympic hopefuls. Like a scholarship, it pays for chosen athletes’ customised training, foreign exposure, coaches and equipment.
2. Who gets in: A TOPS team monitors athletes and inducts them into a Development Group or a Core Group, based on performance, potential and medal prospects.
3. Wider funding: The Annual Calendar for Training and Competitions (ACTC) funds camps, tournaments, coaches’ salaries and other competition expenses across federations.
4. What went wrong: Most of this money missed the athletes who finally won gold, so the system spots winners late.
5. The takeaway: Funding that arrives after an athlete has broken through cannot build the next generation of champions.

What did Nagoya reveal about where the money went?

1. TOPS spending: Of ₹97.84 crore spent under TOPS since Hangzhou, only ₹2.05 crore went to athletes who won gold at Nagoya.
2. ACTC spending: Only one-eighth of ACTC spending since 2023 was linked to Nagoya golds.
3. Kumkum Mohod: She became India’s first individual Asian Games champion in women’s recurve archery without being part of TOPS.
4. Shooting golds: Mixed team champion Suruchi Singh joined TOPS only recently, and partner Kamaljeet Singh is not on it. Trap champion Neeru Dhanda remains in the developmental group.
5. Three golds, little support: The archery and two shooting golds above together drew only ₹3.5 lakh of TOPS funding.

What do team and individual results show?

1. Team depth: 13 of 21 golds came in team events, some of which are not Olympic events. Eg. Cricket, kabaddi, hockey, archery, athletics relays and shooting.
2. Individual gap: 19 of 27 silvers came in individual events, from athletes who reached finals but could not convert silver into gold.
3. Strongholds slipping: Badminton won no individual medal for the first time in 12 years. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu’s silver was India’s first weightlifting medal at the Games since 1998, with no obvious successor.
4. Bright spots: The women’s recurve archery team ended South Korea’s 28-year run as champion. Women’s hockey, after specialised penalty-corner and goalkeeping clinics, beat China for gold and qualified for Los Angeles.
5. Combat sports: Aman Sehrawat and Sujeet Kalkal won wrestling gold, and boxing returned to the top of the podium.

Is the problem talent spotting or medal counting?

1. Talent identification: The same pattern appeared at the Paris Olympics. The question is whether the system spots future winners early enough for money to reach them before they win.
2. Ministry’s position: The Ministry calls the performance encouraging and says TOPS follows “a dynamic and continuous evaluation process”. Its review will identify gaps where results fell short.
3. Medals as the wrong yardstick: The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) argued that improvement in performance, not the medal count alone, should guide Olympic preparation.

Challenges

1. Late selection: Funding follows proven results, so emerging athletes go unsupported during their breakthrough years.
2. Non-Olympic medals: Team golds in non-Olympic events flatter the tally ahead of Los Angeles.
3. Silver-to-gold gap: Individual athletes reach finals but lack the edge to win them.

Way Forward

1. Wider Development Group: The Sports Ministry should induct junior and national-level medallists into TOPS earlier, using performance trends, not only podium finishes.
2. Spending audit: Track TOPS and ACTC spending against results by athlete and discipline.
3. Final-stage coaching: Fund specialised mental and technical coaching for athletes who repeatedly finish second.
4. Replicate clinics: Extend the women’s hockey model of foreign expert clinics and injury rehabilitation to other sports.

Conclusion

India’s Asian Games result shows a funding system that rewards athletes after they rise, not before. The Ministry’s review will show whether TOPS selection shifts toward spotting talent earlier.

Key numbers

1. Medal tally: 21 gold, 27 silver, 37 bronze (85 in all).
2. Against targets: Short of the 100-medal target, and 21 medals below the record Hangzhou 2022 haul.
3. ACTC spending since 2023: ₹702.86 crore, of which 12.5% was linked to Nagoya golds.
4. Athletics and shooting: 39 medals (athletics 24, shooting 15), down from 51 at Hangzhou.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2024] Consider the following statements regarding ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’: 1. Provisions will come into effect from the 18th Lok Sabha. 2. This will be in force for 15 years after becoming an Act. 3. There are provisions for the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes Women within the quota reserved for the Scheduled Castes. Which of the statements given above are correct? (a) 1, 2 and 3 (b) 1 and 2 only (c) 2 and 3 only* (d) 1 and 3 only Answer: C”