Focus on sports, everything else will be taken care of: PM Modi to athletes

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said athletes should only focus on sports and everything else will be taken care of by the country.

He made the comments while inaugurating the first-ever Khelo India University Games 2020 through video conferencing.

"Athletes should only focus on sports and everything else will be taken care of by the country," the Prime Minister said while addressing the gathering at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Cuttack.

"... The selected athletes through the Khelo India program gets the support of almost Rs 6,25,000 annually. Apart from that, they get training in more than 100 academies around the country. Till now, around 3,000 athletes got selected. We have recently launched the Khelo India mobile application," he said.

Modi urged the youngsters to download the Khelo India application to know more about the Indian athletes.

"I urge all youngsters to download the Khelo India mobile application irrespective of whether you play or not. You will get to know all the information of Indian sportspersons," he said.

The Prime Minister lauded the Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS) athletes as they bagged more than 200 medals in various competitions including Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Youth Games.

"Through the Olympic Podium Scheme, we are preparing athletes for high-level competitions. We are training 100 top athletes from the country under this program. They are those athletes who are probables for the Tokyo Olympics. For the meritorious sportspersons, we have started lifetime pension for them," Modi said.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, among others were present at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium where the inauguration ceremony is being held.

The Khelo India University Games are supported by the Government of India in association with the Government of Odisha. The Khelo India University Games will conclude on March 1.

It is the largest ever competition held at the university level in India and will have about 3,500 athletes from over 150 universities across the country taking part in it.

There will be a total of 17 sports namely archery, athletics, boxing, fencing, judo, swimming, weightlifting, wrestling, badminton, basketball, football, hockey, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, rugby, and kabaddi at the event.