Union youth affairs and sports minister Vijay Goel on Thursday said that during the last 3 years, NDA Government at the centre has focused on Athlete-centric, coach led and system-driven approach for promotion and development of sports. He said that sports federations have been asked to bring in capacity enhancement to existing coaches.
Listing out the achievements of his ministry, Goel said that the department of Sports is playing an active role to create the infrastructure and promote capacity building for broadbasing sports for achieve excellence in various international and national competitive events.
The minister said that to help the athletes, stipend of Rs one lakh per month was sanctioned to them while in India and $100 per day during Olympics for their critical needs. “If there is a need, top athletes were allowed to have a personal coach in addition to existing coach. Liberal assistance was given to athletes to procure personal equipment,” he added.
“This time we have enhanced substantially the number of camps and competitions for a number of sports disciplines which will benefit a large number of athletes. Federations have been asked to bring in capacity enhancement to existing coaches. For example, Boxing coaches have been recently trained by bringing internationally accredited master coaches,” said Goel.
The minister said that diploma in sports coaching has been integrated with international modules and best practices followed by respective international bodies of various sports disciplines. “Master trainers are being invited to upgrade coach development program. Foreign faculty is being engaged,” he added.
Apart from this, the ministry has also started sending coaches abroad for capacity enhancement and 25 coaches have already undergone two weeks training at Birmingham.
Goel said that to attract best sporting talent at university level national university games will be organized in a big way. Apart from this, task force has been set up for the next three Olympic Games and it has submitted report for 2020 Olympics which is being studied for implementation.