Last Updated:
India will host the Commonwealth Games in 2030 and aims for the Olympic Games in 2036, with Abhinav Bindra urging focus on athlete development and grassroots sports growth.
Bindra he clinched gold in the men’s 10m air rifle event, becoming the nation’s first individual Olympic champion. (PTI Photo)
India is set to host the Commonwealth Games again in 2030, marking a significant milestone in its quest to become an Olympic host in 2036, with the event proposed to be held in Ahmedabad.
India’s first individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra is certain that the quadrennial Summer Games will be held in the country.
“I think the Olympic Games will come to India. There is no doubt about it that the Games will come to India. It is a matter of timing on when they will eventually come. It is a good thing that we are bidding and we are going into that journey,” Bindra was quoted as saying at a press conference in Goa on the sidelines of the FIDE World Cup.
“In the double-digit countries that are interested in hosting the Games, most bids will fail. But I think the important thing for a country like India is to use the bid — whether it will win, fantastic, but even if we don’t get it — to ensure sport must win and go forward. We have already seen signs of that happening. The National Sports Governance Act 2025 came into play in the Parliament a couple of months ago. There is a little bit more sense of purpose which we have seen all around. The attitude towards the bid, I think that is wonderful to see. I wish our big team all the very best. And of course, as an Indian athlete, I would love to see the Olympic Games come to India sooner rather than later. I am sure that they will come at some point.”
“We can see that in our population the consumption of sport, whether people are enjoying sport, just watching as spectators, or actively participating in it, that number is rising. What I would like to see is that our 1.4 billion population, our playing population increases. When schools get more opportunities for children to experience sport — experience sport not to become some champion or Olympic gold medallist or whatever, but just experience sport to become healthier, to imbibe values to sport — when these opportunities increase, automatically the by-product will be that the participation in elite sport will also increase,” he added.
Abhinav Bindra though, wants India to focus not only on infrastructure but the actual athletes also bettering themselves for a good showing as hosts.
“It’s no secret that you have to work on both aspects. There is, of course, an aspect of development in sport, and you already know that we’ve done a lot of work that’s happened in this course in the last few years to really give elite athletes a lot of support, and that is being done at a really good level,” he said.
“But of course, we would like to see more athletes win medals, and especially if you’re hosting an Olympic Games in your own country, you would like to see your own athletes do well, because that will just take it from there. And there has to be work done. But I think I’ll give an even deeper, maybe a different way of answering the question. I think we have to use the Olympic bid and the Olympic Games as an opportunity to develop them. We don’t want the Olympic Games to be just a two-week sporting extravaganza, or the ten days or two weeks of the Paralympics as a sporting extravaganza. We really should use the Games as a catalyst for change, for developing sport, developing sport at different levels, whether it be, I talked about the school level, whether it be grassroot community sport, whether to make this country healthier, to make this country active, to really invite sport into the fabric of our society. And while, I think, being a young demographic, sport is becoming more popular, but I do believe that we need to actively work much harder to get the playing population, like your colleague just asked, to increase the playing population of this country,” said Bindra.
“I do believe that we need to actively work much harder to get the playing population, like your colleague just asked, to increase the playing population of this country. We are 1.4 billion people, how many of that 1.4 billion actually play sport? The number is actually quite little, if you really look into it. So I think the work that needs to go in to increase that participation, I think, is important. And if the Olympics can help us get there, and it must help us get there, because as I said, the Games and the Olympic Games must be used as a catalyst for development and a catalyst for sportsmanship,” Bindra added.
Ritayan Basu, Senior Sub-Editor, Sports at News18.com. Has been covering domestic and and international football for nearly a decade. Has played and covered badminton. Ocassionally writes cricket content, havin…Read More
Ritayan Basu, Senior Sub-Editor, Sports at News18.com. Has been covering domestic and and international football for nearly a decade. Has played and covered badminton. Ocassionally writes cricket content, havin… Read More
Goa, India, India
November 25, 2025, 13:28 IST
Read More
