The Third Edit: How to fund the Olympic medal quest

In presumption of India’s sub-par show astatine the Paris Olympics, the authorities and the experts connected its committees person zeroed successful connected 1 occupation area: Funding. Spending tens of crores connected athletes nether the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) — giving each of them the liberty to plan their grooming programmes — gave the administrators the anticipation that India would instrumentality with a double-digit medal haul. Instead, they managed lone six — and nary golden medal. Now, the authorities is considering a restructuring of TOPS successful a mode that lone the genuine medal hopefuls get these benefits.

To beryllium sure, determination is nary nonstop correlation betwixt wealth spent and medals won. But immoderate dots tin beryllium joined. India spends much than galore countries for an Olympic medal. The Daily Mail reported that the mean outgo of each medal Britain won successful Paris was £3,782,118 (about Rs 41.2 crore). In comparison, India spent astir Rs 78.3 crore per medal connected an average. So adjacent arsenic India’s athletes person much funds astatine their disposal than ever before, it is important that each spot is spent wisely.