Kiren Rijiju, the Youth Affairs and Sports minister of India, declared on Sunday, that the Indian government will do their utmost best for the inclusion of Kabaddi in the Paris Olympics in 2024. Although he refused to elaborate on how this will be done, but adding a new type of sport in the Olympic roster is an extremely long and massive process, which requires intense lobbying.
“Kabaddi is a perfect example of how an indigenous sport has grown successfully. This I feel is the beginning of the sports culture that we envisaged for India which is now becoming a reality,” Rijiju said in an interview with Star Sports on Sunday.
“We will definitely push hard for Kabaddi to be part of the next Olympics as we are a billion plus powerful nation and so for this to become possible, we will have to put all our efforts together, but I am very confident about it” he further added.
India who has been a dominant force in Kabaddi since a very long time, won the bronze and silver medal at the Jakarta Asian Games held in Indonesia last year through men’s and women’s category respectively.
Moreover, the inclusion process of a new sport is itself very cumbersome, as the sport in question has to be recognised by the International Olympic Committee, then, the governing body of the game in return will have to become a recognised International Federation (IF) of the IOC. Lastly, the sport’s IF will then apply for admittance as an Olympic sport by filing a petition establishing its criteria of eligibility to the IOC.
But the idea of Kabaddi in Paris 5 years later seems a bit farfetched as the IOC after a vote earlier this year, decided that no further sports can be put forward for inclusion on the programme of the 2024 Olympic Games.