Explained | TOPS, India’s bid to boost its Olympic medal tally
The Hindu
The Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) aims to support Indian athletes in their bid for global sporting glory
The story so far: Gearing up for the Olympic Games in 2024 in Paris and 2028 in Los Angeles, the Centre on June 29 invited ace shooter Gagan Narang to join as a member of the Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) for the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).
39-year-old Gagan Narang, who won bronze in the 2012 London Olympics, was invited to join the committee for selecting athletes to be trained under the TOPS core and development groups for the two Games. Mr. Narang, as part of the MOC, will monitor the preparedness of athletes selected under TOPS, and approve budgetary requirements.
The TOPS scheme currently supports 104 core group athletes across 13 disciplines and two hockey teams (men and women). 269 development group athletes are also being groomed at a junior level under the scheme. India’s TOPS athletes are currently participating in the World Athletics Championships in the United States, which began on July 15.
Flagged off in September 2014, the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) was launched to improve India’s performance at the Olympics and Paralympics, thereby improving India’s medal tally in the Rio Olympics 2016. A committee called the TOPS Elite Athletes’ Identification Committee was constituted to shortlist worthy candidates and provide targeted training.
The first Committee was attended by Olympic gold-medal winning shooter Abhinav Bindra, former national cricket team captain Rahul Dravid, long jump champion Anju Bobby George, former badminton player P Gopichand and Olympic bronze-medal winning boxer Mary Kom, along with then Union Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Lok Sabha MP Anurag Thakur and sports administrators from Sports Authority of India (SAI).
This Committee formed the first Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) which was tasked with:
The MOC, which meets on a weekly basis, has a selection and review committee to shortlist TOPS athletes based on their performance. The scheme receives funding from the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) and the Khelo India scheme launched in 2017.