Modi says India still skips half the Olympic sports and wants surfers
Speaking to the Khelo India Dialogue, he noted that India entered 16 of 32 sports in Paris 2024 and 13 in London 2012. No Indian has competed in Olympic surfing or sport climbing. A talent hunt for children aged 5 to 15 is promised ahead of a 2036 Games bid.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Khelo India Dialogue on Thursday that Indian teams “don’t even participate in half” of Olympic sports and that the medal table cannot move far until that changes. He called it a “bitter truth” and pointed to surfing and sport climbing — events on the Los Angeles 2028 list in which India has never had an athlete.
India competed in 16 of 32 sports at Paris 2024 and in 13 at London 2012. “Other countries win medals in those sports, and we don’t even participate,” he said. He argued that a long coastline and a large mountain belt should produce surfers and climbers if the country builds the clubs, coaches and selection path. Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya joined from IIT Gandhinagar.
The 2036 bid and the age band
Modi repeated the ambition to host the 2036 Olympics and noted that India will stage the 2030 Commonwealth Games. He said a talent hunt will run through villages, cities and schools for children now aged five, ten and fifteen — the cohort that would be of medal age in 2036. The Independence Day speech from the Red Fort had already used that age band. Thursday put names of missing sports under it.
Medal tallies rise when countries enter more events, not only when they train harder in the ones they already play. That is the arithmetic Modi put on the table. Whether surfing federations and climbing walls follow is a Sports Ministry file, not a dialogue line.
