20 National Centres of Excellence to be created by Sports Ministry eyeing 2024 and 2028 Olympics
In a groundbreaking first-of-its-kind move, the Ministry of Sports has decided to create 20 National Centres of Excellence (NCE) with frontline coaches to prepare athletes keeping 2024 and 2028 Olympics in mind. Subsequently, sports minister Kiren Rijiju expects athletes to train and perform better.
The Ministry of Sports has decided to create 20 National Centres of Excellence (NCE) with top-of-the-line coaches who will train athletes in the developmental group keeping 2024 Paris and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics in mind.
It will be moving away from the earlier set-up of having various schemes running in the same Sports Authority of India (SAI) regional centres, leading to separate training, diet and kitting to athletes as the NCEs will have the distinction of having a single scheme running in them for elite athletes. Thus, giving an end to differentiation in training and other facilities between athletes within the same campus.
The decision comes just a few months after it was announced that the diet budget of the SAI trainees, senior and junior athletes will be increased to bring parity, irrespective of the level at which the athlete is training.
While the National Centre of Excellence will be reserved for athletes training for Olympics, grassroots level athletes will be trained at other SAI facilities. This two-tier training system will ensure that at both levels athletes get focused training. The athletes will be moved to NCE from the SAI facilities depending on their performance and the possibility of an Olympic medal.
Each NCE will be designated with four to six specific sports.
The 20 SAI facilities that have been identified as National Centre of Excellence include, SAI centres in Trivandrum, Patiala, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Sonepat, Guwahati, Kolkata, Imphal, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gandhinagar, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi, Indira Gandhi Stadium, Delhi, Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, Delhi, Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range, Delhi, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookherjee Swimming Pool Complex, Delhi, National Water Sports Academy (Khelo India), Alleppey, National Boxing Academy (Khelo India), Rohtak, National Wrestling Academy (Khelo India), Aurangabad.
Speaking about the decision, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said to the PTI, “Standardising the training on a campus will enable athletes to attain much higher performances in their respective sport. When athletes of the same level train at a centre and the facilities are made exclusively available to them, they will train better and that will reflect in their performance. We are working in close co-ordination with NSFs to ensure a smooth transition of our existing facilities into NCE and to identify more centres.”