Tokyo Olympics 2021: Parliamentary standing panel to monitor medal preparedness of THESE five disciplines

The Tokyo Olympics, which was initially supposed to be held in July 2020 has been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The preparations of all the nations have taken a hit or have suffered some changes due to the nature of the pandemic. For India, some disciplines have resumed training while others are patiently hoping that they can resume their quest for glory in the Tokyo Olympics. Amidst all this, the Parliamentary Standing Committee of the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has called for a presentation by National Sports Federation (NSF) of five disciplines that are touted to give the Indian team medals in the Olympics.

According to a report in the Times of India, the National Sporting Federations which were called to give the presentation included the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), Weightlifting Federation of India (IWLF), Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) and Hockey India (HI). The reason – The parliamentary standing committee wanted to review the medal preparedness of all the five disciplines ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

The committee included 30 parliamentarians from both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha and according to the Times of India report, there will be more such meetings in the near future. This parliamentary committee is headed by BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and it includes Jyotiraditya Scindia, Arvind Kumar Sharma and Bhubaneswar Kalita.

Agendas of the meeting

Times of India reported that the Parliamentary standing committee discussed the country’s preparedness for Tokyo Olympics 2021, resumption of sports activities, training, status of the national camps and size of the contingent with the HRD ministry and Sports Authority of India (SAI). It is believed that the government wants India to come with more than 10 medals from Tokyo.

India has never won more than 10 medals in the Olympics, with their best haul coming in the 2012 London Olympics where they won six medals. In the last couple of Olympics, Wrestling and shooting have been the major disciplines that have fetched India glory, with the wrestlers in particular giving close to three or four medals followed by shooting. In 2016, PV Sindhu clinched silver in badminton after suffering a loss to Carolina Marin in a tense final.

With Hockey not giving India a medal ever since the 1980 Moscow Olympics, it will be an uphill task but Indian hockey has staged a resurgence in the last couple of years with good showings in the Asian Games 2018 in Jakarta as well as in the Champions Trophy, World Cup and the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament.