Sports Ministry's task force, constituted to prepare an action plan for the next three Olympic Games, today recommended setting up an empowered steering committee to take charge of 2020 Games in Tokyo.
The eight-member task force, including lone Olympic individual gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand met Sports Minister Vijay Goel today.
"We put up a few pointers during our (task force) meeting and the main recommendation was to set up an empowered steering committee to take charge of the next Olympics," Gopichand told PTI.
"We have been meeting at regular intervals. And, besides 2020, of course the discussions are also being held for 2024 and 2028.
"We debated several issues and brought to the table ideas that can eventually be implemented to bring in greater synergy among all the stakeholders and supplement the efforts being made by different segments," Gopichand added.
The responsibility of the immediate goal, i.E., to prepare an action plan for Tokyo Olympics has been entrusted to the three sportspersons in the panel -- Bindra, Gopichand and former India hockey captain Viren Rasquinha.
The setting up of the task force was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi just days after the end of the Rio Olympics, where India won just two medals, in order to help plan for the "effective participation" of Indian sportspersons in the next three Olympics - in 2020, 2024 and 2028.
Besides, the three sportspersons, the other five members of the task force are School Sports Promotion Board head Om Pathak, hockey coach S Baldev Singh, who runs an academy in Shahabad, G L Khanna (Professor and Dean of Exercise and Physiology at Manav Rachna International University at Faridabad), journalist Rajesh Kalra and Sports Authority of Gujarat Director General Sandeep Pradhan.
"Mr. Pradhan, Om Pathak and Baldev Singh will be in charge for 2024 and 2028 Olympics. Rajesh Kalra and G L Khanna will be helping both the sub-committees. But our first priority is 2020," Rasquinha, who has also been named as the spokesperson of the committee, had said on February 3, when the task force has met for the first time.
"Me, Abhinav and Gopi will help the other committee once we finish our immediate job of preparing a plan for 2020 Olympics," he had said.
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