2036 Olympics: India Needs Athletes Over Arenas

With only 2 Olympic golds since 2000, India should first invest and diversify in its own sports rather than rushed bids of global events for the sake of political clout. 

The appeal of the five rings over Ahmedabad’s skyline can be intoxicating. With the tag of the  “fastest growing economy of the world” already in its bag, India’s soft power shall naturally grow by hosting the Olympics. However, the only thing that stubbornly refuses to grow at a quick pace is India’s sports budget, with a mere 4479.88 crores allotted in FY 2026-27. In contrast, the nation does not mind spending more than 41,000 crores for a mere seventeen-day event. This concerning  trend of prioritizing the glamour of global attention over the grit required for building a real world-class sporting ecosystem hurts India’s athletes the most. 

Since the turn of the millennium, India’s Olympic ledger has only seen two individual gold medals added to the tally – Abhinav Bindra (2008) and Neeraj Chopra (2021). For a nation of 1.4 billion people, it is not a statistical anomaly but a systematic failure. Reports from 2021 have shown that 87% sports sponsorships in India remain locked within the boundaries of a cricket pitch. Other sports which could fetch us medals remain poorly funded. See, for instance, the state of hockey today. A sport responsible for the nation’s 8 out of 10 gold medals, since the Olympics’ inception,  struggles to find support and sponsors. It is the state government of Odisha which had to step in and keep hockey afloat to keep India’s legacy intact. Yet, Odisha is not going to receive any fruits of appreciation due to the regional biases of the leadership in Delhi. 

To please the former Gujarat Chief Minister and now Prime Minister, the Indian Olympic  Association (IOA) has submitted a hasty and disappointing bid for hosting the 2036 Olympics.  The only good call made in the IOA’s letter of intent was to not choose the Indian capital, New  Delhi. The toxic atmosphere of Delhi’s venues has already driven global athletes to opt for $5,000 fines rather than participate in once-prestigious tournaments like the India Open. The  proposal limits potential venues majorly to cities concentrated in the BJP-ruled states of Gujarat  and Maharashtra. Definitely, there must be something special in the air around there. 

Furthermore, such a proposal risks repeating former corruption scandals similar to the 2010 experience with Delhi’s Commonwealth Games. Flashy stadiums would be built but Indian  athletes would not be allowed to train there. Budgets would be overshot and money would fill the coffers of contractors. The harsh reality is that only 10.4% of the nation’s sports facilities across 334 districts meet international standards of Olympics. If the venues are limited to only certain  regions, then aspiring youth across the other states of the nation shall suffer.  

Albeit poor, an attempt was made in December 2025 for making a National Sports Policy. Now,  India must ensure that it is an indiscriminatory one. The government’s flagship Target Olympic  Podium Scheme (TOPS) provides elite facilities to those who already succeeded, while fresh talent of the grassroots remains underfunded. A new policy should be devoid of any political biases to be  able to gain yields from its rich demographic dividend. The Indian public must learn how to celebrate and value a gold in a 100 m sprint as much as a century at Lord’s. 

The political leadership must reward states encouraging sports, like Odisha, Manipur and Haryana, through tourism benefits. This can be simply achieved by opting them as host venues for future international sports events. Spending crores of rupees on stadiums concentrated in the Prime Minister’s favorite states are a waste of the taxpayer’s money. 

Additionally, even before hosting such events, a genuine effort needs to be made to exponentially  increase and meaningfully utilise the sports budget. The same capital could fund thousands of  sports centers across all the 28 Indian states, providing nutritional support and international  exposure to lakhs of “Neeraj Chopras” in waiting. The desire to host an Olympics is not wrong, it is just premature. India must learn to win by building athletes, not arenas.