Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke to India’s Tokyo Olympics bound athletes virtually, wishing them the very best. The Tokyo Games will go on from 23 July to 8 August.
Along with the sportspersons like Sania Mirza, Mary Kom, Dutee Chand, and Manika Batra to name a few, Indian Olympic Association Narinder Batra was also present on the occasion.
Newly appointed Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Nisith Pramanik, and Law Minister Kiren Rijiju also attended the interaction.
The Prime Minister started off his interaction with Archers Deepika Kumari and Pravin Jadhav and their families before it was javelin ace Neeraj Chopra and ace runner Dutee Chand. The PM took note of the achievements of the athletes in their build-up to the Games, praising them for their fantastic performances.
"Dutee Ji, you have won a lot of medals for India, I hope that this year, you make your mark at the Tokyo Olympics, I wish you all the best", said the PM.
“Don’t be bogged down by expectations, just give your best,” Modi said to javelin star and big medal hope Neeraj Chopra.
Out of the 119 athletes, 67 are male and 52 female participants, Batra said during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with Olympic-bound athletes.
“The total Indian contingent for Tokyo Olympics will be 228. There will be 67 male athletes and 52 female athletes. We are fighting for 85 medal events,” Batra said in the virtual interaction.
“The first contingent will leave for Tokyo on July 17. It will have 90 athletes and officials in total.”
This will be India’s largest-ever contingent of athletes at the Olympics.
For the first time in history, India will compete in fencing after fencer Bhavani Devi qualified for the Olympic Games. Nethra Kumanan will be the country’s first ever female sailor at the Summer Games while Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj are the first swimmers to qualify for the showpiece Games after achieving the ‘A’ qualification standard.
He asked tennis star Sania Mirza about what does it take to become a tennis player? Sania replied that one needs "a lot of hard work and talent to make it big. Family's support and dedication is also important and destiny does play a role. But there is no substitute for hard work and talent".
She said things have improved a lot since she started and now we have better infrastructure and hoped that there will be more tennis players.
He asked Vinesh Phogat whether being part of a famous family means extra pressure. Vinesh replied: "There is pressure and expectation but I feel that is important and we push more due to expectation. There is no pressure, I will do well and hope to win a medal."
He inquired with Vinesh about her recovery process the injury that ended her Rio Olympics dream in the quarterfinals. Vinesh said support of family, friends, federation and SAI helped her in those tough times.
"It is tough but as a top-level athlete, you have to be mentally strong. The family plays an important role but also the federation and SAI, and you don't want to disappoint them. We can't stop, this is how I think."
The Prime Minister asked Commonwealth Games gold medallist table tennis player Manika Batra how did she get the thought to help underprivileged kids play TT. Manika told him that she saw talent in them and felt that they can do well if she helped them.
"I have seen you paint your nails with the National Flag. Why do you do that?," he asked. Manika replied that she wants the flag close to her while playing and seeing the flag on her serving arm inspires her.
The Prime Minister asked reigning world champion in badminton and Rio Olympic silver-medallist, PV Sindhu, if she is staying away from mobile phone and ice creams just like before Rio when coach P Gopichand had taken away her mobile phone and did not allow her to eat ice creams.
Sindhu replied she had to take care of her diet and therefore she is not having ice cream much. The PM offered to have ice-cream with her when he hosts the medallists after they return from Tokyo.
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