The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics ended with Indian athletes winning a total of six medals (one silver, five bronze) –three in shooting, and a medal each in hockey, wrestling, and athletics (javelin).
Successful Olympic athletes like Abhinav Bindra and Neeraj Chopra have won golds in the past and have become national heroes, inspiring others. Rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra was the first Indian to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event at Beijing in 2008 and was the only one to do so for over a decade before Neeraj’s javelin triumph at Tokyo in 2020.
Last year in October, Prime Minister Modi expressed hopes that India would host the Olympics in 2036, pledging to leave no stone unturned in the effort. However, there is still a lot of work to be done if we want to get a piece of the global sports action.
The International Monetary Fund in May projected that India will surpass Japan to become the 4th largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP in 2025. With a growth rate of over 7%, India will very likely become the third largest economy in the coming years. However our performance in the Olympics is a different story.
India stands last in terms of number of medals to GDP ratio in the 2024 Olympics, at 0.05 medals for every $100 billion in GDP.
In this week’s Chart of the Week, we explore why India lags so far behind in global sports. Countries like the United States, China, and Australia dominate the medal tally, and even smaller developing nations like Jamaica, Mexico, and Brazil are far ahead of us.
An Olympic medal is a rarity in India: one per 250 million people
India ranks last in medal density among the most populous nations
In 2023, India beat China to become the most populous country in the world, with over 1.4 billion people. More than half of the population is under the age of 25, and the average age in India is 29 years, compared to 37 in China and 48 in Japan.
You would imagine that this kind of demographics would produce hundreds of thousands of talented Indian athletes.
But despite having the highest youth population, only 117 Indians went to compete in the Olympics this year. China in comparison, sent around 388 people who participated in a total of 33 events. From the above chart, it is clear that qualifying for the Olympics events and winning medals is very rare for India. If we look at the tally this year, India has won only one medal per 250 million people, which translates to 0.004 medals per million people. Meanwhile, countries like the United States, Japan and Brazil won 0.38, 0.36 and 0.10 medals respectively per million people.
Sports: A neglected field in terms of government spending
Budget allocation for sports has been below 0.1% for the past decade
The percentage of the total budget allocated to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, which oversees sports, games, and youth welfare programs, is abysmal. For over a decade, this allocation has remained below 0.1% of the total budget. This underinvestment could be a major reason why a country with the largest youth population ranks 71 in terms of medal tally in the 2024 Olympics.
Over the past decade, the government has launched various initiatives to promote sports in India. To enhance Olympic and Paralympic performance, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports introduced the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) in 2014. It ensures that a ‘core group of athletes’ have all necessary, personalised support in terms of foreign exposure, hiring of specific coaches, training and competition abroad.
In 2018, another program was launched by the name “Khelo India Program” which aimed at reviving the sporting culture in India at the grassroots. It has been more than five years since the programme was launched, and has seen participation of around 20,000 athletes. 3,000 athletes identified as Khelo India Athletes are currently training at Khelo India Academies, and are given an out-of-pocket allowance of Rs 10,000 per month.
A lot of noise, but not enough money: China spends ten times more than India on sports
At the outset, it looks like the government has only revamped the names of various sports programs but changed little else. For instance, Sports Authority of India (SIA) centers have been renamed Khelo India Academies, but little to no effort have been put into increasing the budget allocation.
India has aims to become a developed nation by 2047. To compete globally at a level that reflects our rising economic strength, India needs substantial investment in infrastructure and athlete development. In the FY25 Budget, the government has allocated Rs 3,442 crore for the development of sports, which translates to approx. $410 million. In comparison,, China spent around $3.2 billion in 2023, and has plans to spend around $1 billion in 2024.
The cause of our medal drought is clear: sports in India is severely underfunded and has failed to keep up with other nations. The government's ambitious goal of hosting the Olympics in 2036 may not materialze if we don’t do a big overhaul, in funding as well as infra and training for young athletes.
To excel on the global stage and nurture our talent, the Indian government needs to step up to the plate. Else we will continue to finish dead last in the race.
