SAI to set up 20 Centers of Excellence to groom athletes for Olympics

In a first-of-its-kind move, the Ministry of Sports has decided to create 20 National Centers of Excellence (NCE), which will have the distinction of having a single scheme running in them for elite athletes, thus ending differentiation in training and other facilities between athletes within the same campus. Each Center of Excellence will be earmarked for four to six specific sport, depending on the infrastructure available in that center and will train athletes in the developmental group for Olympics 2024 and 2028.

Moving away from the earlier setup of having various schemes running in the same SAI regional centres, leading to separate training, diet and kitting to athletes, this scheme will ensure that athletes in the same premises have access to similar facilities. The decision comes just a few months after it was announced that the budget for diet of athletes will be made equal, irrespective of the level at which the athlete is training.

While the National Center of Excellence will be reserved for athletes training for Olympics, grassroot level athletes will be trained at other SAI facilities and will be moved to NCE depending on performance and possibility of an Olympic medal. The two-tier training system will ensure that at both levels athletes get focused training.

The 20 SAI facilities that have been identified as National Center of Excellence include, SAI centers in Patiala, Trivandrum, Chandigarh, Sonepat, Lucknow, Guwahati, Imphal, Kolkata, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gandhinagar, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi, Indira Gandhi Stadium, Delhi, Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, Delhi, Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range, Delhi, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookherjee Swimming Pool Complex, Delhi, National Water Sports Academy (Khelo India), Alleppey, National Boxing Academy (Khelo India), Rohtak, National Wrestling Academy (Khelo India), Aurangabad.

Speaking about the decision, Kiren Rijiju said,

"Standardizing the training on a campus will enable athletes to attain much higher performances in their respective sport. When athletes of the same level train at a center and the facilities are made exclusively available to them, they will train better and results will show. We are working in close co-ordination with NSFs to ensure a smooth transition of our existing facilities into National Center of Excellence and to identify more centers."