India finishing 71st at the Olympics is unacceptable: High Performance Director Gary Hall

Bellary: Before the hustle bustle of morning training sessions and long after the dining hall empties out, one thing glows brighter than anything else at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) campus here – a giant countdown clock signalling towards the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

A brain child of Gary Hall, the High Performance Director at the institute, the clock is a constant reminder that every minute counts and that the race towards Los Angeles 2028 has already begun.

"You’ve got to remind everybody every day that complacency is a killer of elite sport. You can’t let a day miss. Those days matter, those minutes matter," Hall said.

"In any elite high-performance business, you have to take that seriously. We now have great coaching, science and medicine, planning, analysis and performance departments. I don’t believe you can compete in Olympic sport anymore without that," he added.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, India finished 71st with six medals (one silver, five bronze). It was 23 spots below their 48th finish at the delayed Tokyo Olympics three years prior.

It also was the Indian contingent’s lowest-ever finish in the history of Olympic Games, having finished 71st at the 2000 Sydney and 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

"India being 71st on the Olympic medal table is not acceptable. Not because somebody wrote it in a newspaper, but because it’s one of the largest populations in the world with extremely talented athletes," said Hall.

"I think India has a genuine chance of winning far more gold medals than it ever has before," he added.

"Our target is to deliver two Olympic gold medals out of the IIS. I get a very warm feeling when I walk into combat space. I believe that should be the minimum level. India has never really had multiple gold medals at an Olympics, so it would be a significant step forward," he said.

"I believe the potential is even higher than that, but there will be challenges along the way," he added.

Expanding horizons

The IIS recently joined hands with the Rowing Federation of India (RFI) to launch a dedicated women’s rowing programme, housing as many as 24 elite rowers, at the RWP-3 training facility in Bellary.

The results at the 2025 Asian Rowing Championship and 2026 Asian Rowing Cup are early indicators that the system is beginning to work.

"On a positive note, that’s what you want to be saying. You want to be delivering," Hall said.

At the 2025 Asian Rowing Championship, Gurbani Kaur and Diljot Kaur won silver to end a 15-year medal drought for Indian women rowers.

Indian rowers secured two bronze medals in the Women's Double Sculls (Poonam & Priya Devi) and Women's Coxless Pair (Diljot Kaur & Suman Devi) at the 2026 Asian Rowing Cup in Chungju, South Korea last month. Both teams are now qualified for the upcoming Asian Games.

According to Hall, the focus is no longer merely on identifying talent, but on ensuring that the support system around athletes matches the demands of elite sport.

"It’s no longer about guessing. It’s about whether the system matches what you’re trying to achieve, which is Asian Games success. Will we win medals at the Asian Games? I think we’ve got a great shot at it. But, Los Angeles is our key benchmark. The Asian Games are an important milestone along the way," he said.

On whether India needs to accelerate its pace while preparing for the LA Games, Hall said: "Pace matters. It’s not about worrying about the time ticking away. It’s about the quality of what we’re doing in that time. 

"We’re going to have good Games and bad Games, but we’ll learn from both. Ultimately, we want to peak at the Los Angeles Olympics," he stressed.

‘One of the best HPC in Asia’

Having set up residential academies for Taekwondo and Rowing, they envision expanding to other sports too in near future.

“There are sports that undoubtedly could be brought in. We are looking at more racket sports potentially. We’ve got archery on the outside and might bring that on the inside. We’re also working across our other centres in Odisha to uplift the offer there,” he said.

"We’re never going to say no to new sports, but a lot depends on how effectively we can collaborate with National Federations and alongside SAI,” he added.

Recently, the Indian kabaddi team too trained in Bellary.

"They wanted to do a lot more physical exercise and strength and conditioning. We’ve got a world-class S&C team, so it made total sense to join up and support them," Hall said.

The Bellary campus is in the process of renovating its high performance center and Hall is confident it will be ‘one of the best HPCs in Asia’.

"Facilities matter too. Once the new HPC structure is completed, it will be one of the best HPCs in Asia, if not the world," he concluded.