Why Ahmedabad?: Rudraneil Sengupta writes on India’s Olympic bid
There are Indian cities better qualified, better prepared, more eager – and more in need – of a megawatt event like the Olympics.
India’s proposed bid for the 2036 Olympics rests on an unlikely city, Ahmedabad, becoming a major sporting hub.
As at most Olympics, a few other cities are being earmarked as single-sport venues, including Bhubaneswar for hockey and Pune for canoeing / kayaking, but the singular focus will be on Ahmedabad.
This is not a city one thinks of when one thinks of Indian sporting legacies, neither in terms of the sportspeople it produces nor in terms of infrastructure.
In recent years, in fact, Bhubaneswar has emerged as the premier sporting city of the country. Its flagship Kalinga Stadium complex is India’s only truly world-class multisport venue. Odisha has a rich history of producing excellent sprinters and hockey players too.
If it weren’t for Kalinga Stadium, Bengaluru could perhaps claim the title of top sporting destination. State-run sporting infrastructure in this city has remained stagnant, but it has seen a rise in superbly equipped private mega-centres. The Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence is a multi-sport arena that could give Kalinga a run for its money. A few hours from the city, in Bellary, the Inspire Institute of Sport is hands-down the best-equipped private multi-sport facility in the country.
Bengaluru also has the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre, one of the handful of world-class swimming facilities in the country. And Karnataka has a history of producing stellar athletes across swimming, cricket, track and field, hockey and badminton.
Kerala does not depend on one city to produce its top athletes. It is, in fact, the only state in the country where it is mandatory for every district to have an Olympic-grade athletics track, swimming pool and indoor multi-sport facility. It is also a football-crazy state. It is no wonder, then, that Kerala produces a steady stream of international athletes.
Many other cities have a better claim at sporting glory than Ahmedabad, though some of these would need to overcome significant obstacles to host something like the Olympics.
Kolkata has plenty of sporting infrastructure — football pitches, cricket grounds, swimming pools, and a rich culture of sports clubs — but much of it is crumbling, outdated, and unloved (except for Eden Gardens; cricket is often the exception, across India).
Delhi built Olympic-grade infrastructure and stadia for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, but these colossal structures have largely been allowed to rot.
Haryana is, by far, India’s most successful sporting state. Most of India’s Olympic medallists come from this one state. But its sporting infrastructure is, in a word, pitiful. Manipur, likewise, is a sports-crazy state with little to speak of in terms of infrastructure.
Gujarat is neither particularly sports-crazy, nor does it have much in term of infrastructure. When the 2022 National Games were held there, it was the first time in the history of the event that the host state did not finish in the top five in the medals tally (Gujarat came in at #12, still its best-ever ranking).
Ahmedabad has shown, in the recent past, that it can make good on ambition. It finished building the world’s largest cricket stadium well in time for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup. It then hosted the opening ceremony, a semi-final and the final, an envious tally for a single venue.
There is little doubt that, when it comes to building the kind of mega sporting venues needed for the Olympics, Ahmedabad would be ready in time for 2036.
Would one of India’s struggling-but-sports-obsessed states have benefited more from such attention? Certainly. Instead, what we’re seeing is more of the politics-in-sports-administration that has held us back for so long.
The results are clear in our medals tallies. If India does host the 2036 Olympics, it will likely set a record as the hosting nation with the lowest medals tally in the history of the Games. Canada finished 27th in 1976, winning just 11 medals and no golds, and that is currently the worst performance by a host country. India’s best-ever performance is seven medals, in Tokyo, which earned us a spot at #48 in the world rankings.
Admittedly, 2036 is more than a decade away. But sports in India has been plagued by its chronic disease — a corrupt and clueless administration — for so long, it would be quite the admirable backflip, if we could begin to change that in the next ten years.
(To reach Rudraneil Sengupta with feedback, email rudraneil@gmail.com)
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