Madhya Pradesh to host 5th edition of Khelo India Youth Games

New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh will host the upcoming Khelo India Youth Games 2023 across eight different cities in the state, announced Sports minister Anurag Singh Thakur in presence of MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and MP sports minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia on Thursday in Delhi.

The games will be hosted from 31st January 2023 to 11th February 2023.

The eight host cities named are Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Ujjain, Maheshwar, Mandla and Balaghat. The state sports of Madhya Pradesh, Mallakhambh, will be a part of the games too.

Mallakhambh, which is the state sport of Madhya Pradesh, and Breaking, which will be a part of the 2024 Paris Olympics, were showcased at the event in New Delhi on Thursday.

"Madhya Pradesh will be holding the next edition of Khelo India Youth Games. I am happy that states like MP are coming forward to build and promote our sports ecosystem. All the states should learn from it. Sports is a state subject and they need to contribute as a whole to develop it from the district to the state level," Thakur said. He also mentioned that indigenous games will once again be part of the upcoming KIYG.

"I congratulate Madhya Pradesh for adopting Mallakhambh as the official state sport. It will be one of the five traditional sports that will be part of the Games," he added. Madhya Pradesh CM thanked PM Narendra Modi for giving his state a chance to host the Games and promised to make the event "special".

Khelo India Youth Games were started in 2018 as Khelo India School Games. Delhi hosted the games in 2018, followed by Maharashtra in 2019, Assam in 2020 and Haryana in 2021.

In December 2020 four indigenous games were added – Gatka, Kalaripayattu, Thang-Ta and Mallakhamba.

In the last edition of the Khelo India Youth Games, a total of 12 national records were broken. Host state Haryana emerged as the winner with a count of 137 medals followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka.