TOPS athletes list: The first list of TOPS athletes for the 2024 Paris Olympics was finalised during a meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell of the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on December 13, 2021. The list includes 148 athletes including 20 new names from seven Olympic disciplines and six Paralympic disciplines.
The athletes identified for support under the Target Olympic Podium belong to different sporting disciples including shooting, weightlifting, wrestling, sailing, swimming, sailing, cycling and table tennis. The list also includes Para athletes from para-sports including Athletics, Badminton, Swimming, Archery, Shooting and Table Tennis.
The list of TOPS athletes from sporting disciplines including Athletics, Archery, Badminton, Golf, Gymnastics, Judo, Boxing, Rowing, Tennis, Fennis and Equestrian will be decided in a meeting later this month.
The meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) marks the formal beginning of planning and preparation for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Around seven athletes have been elevated from the Khelo India Scheme and are among the new inductees in the TOPS athletes list.
Mission Olympic Cell
The recently-reconstituted Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) includes seven former athletes as new members. The Olympic cell has offered suggestions for preparations for the Paris Olympic Games to enable India to build on the gains made during Tokyo Olympics 2020 when it won 7 medals including one gold medal. The MOC is now scheduled to meet every fortnight to plan for the next Olympic Games.
First TOPS athletes list-
Shooting - Core Group: Divyansh Singh Panwar, Aishwary PratapTomar, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, ElavenilValarivan, AnjumMoudgil, Manu Bhaker and RahiSarnobatVijayveer Sidhu. Development Group: YasahwiniDeswal and Chinki Yadav, Niraj Kumar, Sartaj Singh Tiwana, Dhanush Srikanth, ShahuTushar Mane, Hriday Hazarika, RudrankkshBalasahebPatil, ParthMakhija, Anish Bhanwala, Adarsh Singh, Udayveer Sidhu, Sarabjot Singh, Naveen, Shiva Narwal, KynanChenai, LakshaySheoran, Vivaan Kapoor, Gurjoat Singh, N Gaayathri, Sunidhi Chauhan, Nishchal, AyushiPodder, Shreya Agarwal, ShriyankaSadarangi, ZeenaKhitta, Abhindnya Ashok Patil, Tejaswini, Esha Singh, Rhythm Sangwan, Kirti Gupta, Manisha Kheer, Darshana Rathore, Kartikki Singh Shaktawat, Areeba Khan; Swapnil Suresh Kusale, Arjun Babuta, Anantjeet Singh Naruka and NishaKanwar.
Wrestling - Core Group: Ravi Kumar, BajrangPunia, Deepak Punia, VineshPhogat, Anshu Malik and Sonam Malil. Development Group: Sunil Kumar, Ravi, Ravinder, GouravBaliyan, Sajan, Sanju Devi, Aman, Aman, Rohit, YashTushir, Sandeep Singh, Deepak, Anirudh Kumar, Arjun Halakurki, Sandeep, Ashu, HanniKumari, Sarita, Nisha, Bhateri and Bipasha.
Weightlifting - Core Group: Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Mirabai Chanu. Development Group: AchintaSheuli, Soumya Sunil Dalvi, Garud Harshada Sharad, Kolli Varalakshmi PavaniKumari, Mangkhya Boni, R ArockiyaAlish, Sanker Sargar, GogoiSidhanta, CharuPesi, MarkioTario and SorkhaibamBindyarani Devi, N TomchouMeetei, Niraj Pradhan, Akanksha Vyavahare, Shivani Yadav, KajolSargar, Jyoti Yadav, Komal Kohar, Sarika Shingare and Ajay Singh.
Table Tennis - Core Group: A Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, ManikaBatra and Sutirtha Mukherjee, Harmeet Desai and Archana Kamat. Development Group: Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah and Ayikha Mukherjee, Payas Jain, SFR Snehit, Swatiska Ghosh, Diya Chitale, Suhana Saini and Sreeja Akula.
Swimming - Core Group:Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj. (Development Group to be taken up in the next meeting).
Cycling - Development Group: EsowAlben, Keithellakpam Jemsh Singh, Laitonjam Ronaldo Y Rojit Singh and E David Beckham (new inductee).
Sailing - Core Group: Vishnu Saravanan, Varun Thakkar, KC Ganapathy and Nethra Kumanan.
Para Sports
Archery Core Group: Harvinder Singh
Athletics: T Mariyappan, Sharad Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Sandeep Chaudhary, Sumit Antil, Sundar Singh Gurjar, Amit Saroha, DevendraJhajharia, Nishad Kumar, Navdeep and Yogesh Kathunia.
Badminton: SuhasYathiraj, Krishna Nagar, Pramod Bhagat, Manoj Sarkar, Tarun Dhillon and Parul Parmar.
Shooting: Avani Lekhara, Manish Narwal and Singhraj Adana.
Swimming: Suyash Jadhav.
Table Tennis: Bhavina Patel.
What is TOPS Scheme?TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) is a flagship program of the Sports Ministry that was launched in September 2014 to assist India’s top athletes. The scheme was started by the Sports Ministry to improve India’s performance at the Olympics and Paralympics. The TOPS scheme aims to boost the preparations of these athletes to improve their chances of winning medals in the Olympics. The scheme was revamped in April 2018 to establish a technical support team to manage and provide a holistic approach to the TOPS athletes. The lists of athletes for the TOPS Core and Development Groups are collectively drawn up by the TOPS team and their respective National Sports Federations. It entailed meticulous research, evaluation and projections of the athletes’ performances before being placed before the MOC for consideration. |
Background
India had ended its Tokyo Olympics 2020 campaign with seven medals, including one gold, two silver and four bronze medals, which is India's highest-ever medal tally. India's previous best medal haul at the Olympics was six at the 2012 London Olympics.
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