Sports Authority of India begin a 24x7 support system to help athletes address their issues

The Sports Authority of India(SAI) is doing all it can to help India improve their medal tally at next year’s Olympic Games

In a bid to provide the athletes with the best preparations possible for the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Sports Authority of India(SAI) has launched a 24x7 personalised support system to enable 200 medal hopefuls. This is the second such initiative opened by SAI after it began a ‘Target Olympic Podium Scheme(TOPS)’, which consist of the likes of Abhinav Bindra, Rahul Dravid among others, whose objective is to increase India’s medal count at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics.

SAI has taken the decision to help out medal prospects, including those who come under the TOPS scheme in a one-of-a-kind system called ‘Athletes Personalised Contact System(APCS)’ for the 2016 Games aspirants. Through this system, the athletes can directly connect with the senior officials at SAI and address their issues to them.

The APCS is the brain-child of the Injeti Srinivas, who is the new Director General of SAI and has been started by the body, after taking a cue from countries like the United States of America(USA), China, Australia etc, who also begin similar programmes months before marquee events like the Olympics or the Asian Games.

Under the APCS, the SAI have listed out close to 200 athletes who have a realistic chance of qualifying for the Rio Olympics based on their performances on the global stage in the last few years.

With the scheme, we have tried to reduce the tension of the athletes: Srinivas

Revealing further details about the plans put in place, Srinivas said that a separate database had been created for each discipline that India would participate in at the summer games and also they have assigned an official for each discipline whom the athletes can contact at any time.

“For each discipline in which India would be participating at the Rio Games, we have prepared a data base of athletes. For every discipline, we have appointed a Project Officer who can be contacted any time by the athlete. If he is unable to resolve the issue, then the athlete can approach the ED (Teams) and later on, the SAI DG. By launching this initiative, we have tried to free our athletes of uncertainty and tension. This way, we are reducing the paper work and time taken to address such grievances," he told DNA.

SAI have also provided the athletes with the personal contact numbers of the Director General, the Executive Director(ED) (Teams) and Project Officers and they can contact the officials directly with their grievances.

One of the features of the scheme involves the project officer being authorised to sanction a sum of Rs 50000 on his own to the athlete without taking the prior approval of the SAI Director General.The ED teams also have the authority to sanction a Rs 5 lakh while the SAI Director General will himself take a call, when athletes will require more funds for training and equipment needs.

If an athlete wants to meet the SAI Director General personally to talk about any issues, then Srinivas would meet him within a week of the receipt of his request. Regardless of the circumstance it finds itself in, no more than a month would be taken to look into the problem faced by the athlete.

Srinivas also made it clear that the autonomy of the National Sports Federations(NSFs) will not be challenged in any way as the athletes will at all times have the option of seeking the help of either the federation or the SAI to address his/her problems.