Don't Count My Tenure If India's Doesn't Reach Top 10 Of 2028 Olympics: Kiren Rijiju

Kiren Rijiju on Monday said that his tenure as Sports Minister would not hold any importance if India is not able to make it to the top-ten of 2028 Olympics. For a long time now, Rijiju has maintained his vision of seeing India becoming a sporting powerhouse and he has repeatedly said that India should reach the top-ten of the 2028 Olympics and the country should go head to head against the biggest heavyweights in the world. Speaking at the inauguration of the Khelo India State excellence center in Pune, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Rijiju said: "If India doesn't make it to the top ten in the medal tally of 2028 Olympics then don't count my this tenure as Sports Minister."

"After the first three months of me becoming the Sports Minister, we announced that India will be in the top 10 in Los Angeles Olympics 2028. We have already started preparation and as I announced earlier, by 2028 we will be in the top ten in the Olympics," he said.

"You will see the effects of this development in 2024 in Paris Olympics, for Tokyo Olympics scheduled in 2021 I won't say we will be champions in a year. But for those who are going for Tokyo Olympics we will provide all kinds of support required," added the Sports Minister.

Repeating the announcement he made a day before about naming the sports facilities after renowned sports players, the minister said: "We have made some policies to respect players, be it a former player or the present player. Yesterday I tweeted the announcement that we are going to name all the facilities of sports after sportspersons. We have already started the whole process and very soon we will start naming them."

Rijiju along with Maharashtra Sports Minister Sunil Kedar inaugurated the Khelo India state excellence center in Pune on Monday. The players who qualified for the Tokyo Olympics were also felicitated.