"India will surely win a gold medal in the Los Angeles Olympics" - Hockey India secretary general

In a bold claim, the secretary general of Hockey India, Bhola Nath, has stated that the men's hockey gold is India's at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics games.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, Nath talked about India's chances of medalling at the next two Olympics.

"I want to assure you that if not the Paris Olympics, India will surely win a gold medal in the Los Angeles Olympics. If they don’t, you can come back to me.”

An ex-player and coach himself, Bhola Nath is looking to make quite a few big-time changes in Hockey India to make his claim a reality.

First on the list is ensuring that India's junior team is getting appropriate international exposure.

“So far, there were only nationals for the U-17 and U-18 sides. But now, they will also have international tournaments against top junior sides in the world. The short-listed kids at the junior level will be selected for a national camp from August 20 in Rourkela,” Nath explained.

The next big challenge is to deepen India's hockey talent pool. To help with this, alongside international exposure, HI will also be working towards ensuring enhanced opportunities for junior players in the country itself.

These enhanced opportunities will include every facility available to the senior national team, including an international coach.

"We also have some grassroots programmes for our junior teams. We have their zonal tournaments, and many more such junior tournaments are expected to start. We will also have a junior national tournament, and the players selected there will get proper training as the senior team,” Nath said.

At the same time, HI is also planning to provide the senior Indian national team with more international opportunities in the months leading to Paris. Bhola Nath claims that this exposure will aid the team before it heads to Paris.

A revival of the Hockey India League

Another major item on Bhola Nath's list to help India's gold medal prospects at the 2024 games is reviving the Hockey India League.

“The groundwork for its revival is more or less complete, and you will see it soon," Nath shared

This time around, the HIL will come with a few tweaks. Namely, there will be eight teams instead of the previous six. There will also be a women's HIL, which will start with four teams.

Talks have already begun with existing franchises according to Nath:

"We have handed letters to the existing HIL franchises. We have asked them if they want to stay or not. It’s a technical matter. A team from Odisha is most likely to come in. If the other franchises want to continue, we are more than happy.”

Hockey India certainly seems to be doing the groundwork to land India on the podium at the 2028 games, and it will definitely be interesting to see it all play out.