6 months ago
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In my travel with the Tamil Nadu Champions Foundation, I person met countless and inspiring athletes. But 1 of the stories which stays with maine is that of Manoj’s, a young para-athlete from a humble household successful Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He had a contractual occupation astatine the Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation Limited (TANSI). He had immense talent, but without a platform, it remained successful the shadows.
That is erstwhile the Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin’s authorities stepped in. On his instructions to spot specified talent, we extended fiscal assistance to Manoj done the Foundation. Today, the young antheral is winning planetary competitions and bringing pridefulness to Tamil Nadu and India. True to our connection of supporting athletes beyond the podium, helium present has a unafraid authorities occupation nether the 3 per cent sports quota.
In argumentation and practice
The ideological fathers of the Dravidian Model of governance envisioned a nine successful which nationalist resources should beryllium accessible to everyone. In sports, this means removing the barriers that forestall young radical successful agrarian and municipality areas from accessing facilities and support. When Mr. Stalin said that our governance indispensable bespeak the adage, “Ellarukkum Ellam”, helium besides gave america a roadworthy representation for sports: find endowment early, physique facilities crossed the State, enactment athletes with science, and reward occurrence without delay. In sports, we person been capable to construe the Dravidian algorithm into argumentation and signifier similar ne'er earlier successful Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu’s athletes and its sporting ecosystem person recorded singular achievements — 34 of India’s 89 Chess Grandmasters and 2 World Chess Champions. Globally, it has celebrated 4 Paralympic medallists and 12 Olympians astatine the Paris Games, including six successful way and field. At the Hangzhou Asian Games, 46 of Tamil Nadu’s sportspersons contributed to India’s 28 medals, portion astatine the Hangzhou Para Asian Games, 18 of its athletes won 15 medals. Tamil Nadu’s Khelo Para Games tally roseate to 74 medals successful 2025, up from 42 successful 2023, portion successful the National Games, the medals tally roseate from 77 successful 2023 to 92 successful 2025 — a 20% jump. Between 2016 and 2021, the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu invested astir ₹ 800 crore. In comparison, our medication has allocated ₹1,945 crore implicit the past 5 years — a 143% increase.
Since 2021, we person built 28 caller sports complexes, including multi-sport territory centres, Olympic academies, high-altitude grooming facilities, synthetic tracks successful six towns, international-standard hockey turfs, a velodrome, and modern indoor arenas. We upgraded aged stadiums successful Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, and Tiruchi. Under phased programmes, determination volition beryllium mini stadia successful 75 blocks crossed the State and modern gyms to beforehand a fitter Tamil Nadu. Nearly 60% of the projects are successful tier-II and tier-III towns. The Kalaignar Sports Kit Scheme provides 33 types of sports equipment, including cricket bats, volleyball nets, kabaddi mats and gym cogwheel to each panchayat and each municipality areas. Our infrastructure thrust besides includes para-sports. We are gathering accessible arenas successful 11 districts and adding barrier-free features to caller stadiums.
We person revamped jock enactment programmes to marque them data-driven, transparent, and inclusive. When we took office, lone 12 athletes received yearly backing done the ELITE scheme. Today, 50 apical athletes, including chess prodigies R. Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh, person ₹30 lakh a twelvemonth for grooming and contention exposure. Under the Mission International Medal Scheme, the fig of supported athletes has risen from 48 to 125, with each receiving ₹12 lakh annually to prosecute planetary qualification. The Champions Development Scheme nurtures 200 under-20 talents with ₹4 lakh yearly scholarships.
A strategy of accountability
A high-level committee of Olympians and sports scientists oversees jock selection, with wide show standards shared successful advance. Para-athletes besides person the aforesaid level of enactment and incentives. Since 2021, 4,617 sportspersons person been awarded currency incentives worthy ₹152 crore, which is 4 times the ₹38 crore fixed implicit the erstwhile decade. Incentives for Olympic and Paralympic medal winners person been accrued to ₹3 crore for gold, ₹2 crore for silver, and ₹1 crore for bronze, with payments made aft the event. We introduced the Chief Minister’s Trophy games crossed each districts, including e-sports and accepted disciplines specified arsenic silambam. Registrations person grown from 4.57 lakh successful 2023 to 16.28 lakh successful 2025, supported by a dedicated Games Management System that tracks each athlete’s profile. Each year, we place astir 4,000 youngsters done competitions and spot them successful SDAT sports hostels, Centres of Excellence, and STAR academies. Transparent online registrations and AI-based endowment scouting guarantee that nary deserving jock is near retired due to the fact that of inheritance oregon location.
Under our regime, the 3% sports quota for authorities jobs, a lifeline for athletes, has been revitalised. While lone 3 athletes secured jobs nether the erstwhile government, we person facilitated employment for 109 sportspersons.
Communities that were erstwhile near retired of mainstream sports are present becoming portion of Tamil Nadu’s occurrence story. At the high-performance tennis installation successful Nungambakkam, agrarian women person gained caller opportunities to bid and compete. Thus, successful 2023, Tamil Nadu’s women captured each 4 tennis golden medals astatine the Khelo India Games.
Hosting large competitions positions Tamil Nadu arsenic a hub of sports tourism. In 2022, Chennai became the archetypal Indian metropolis to big the prestigious 44th Chess Olympiad. The tourney drew 188 teams from 186 nations, and was organised connected a fund of astir ₹110 crore. Since then, we person hosted the Squash World Cup, the Asian Hockey Champions Trophy, the World Surf League, the Asian Junior Athletics Championships, WTA and ATP tennis events, and India’s archetypal Formula-4 thoroughfare nighttime race.
Looking ahead
We person besides acceptable up the Tamil Nadu Centre for Sports Science, invested successful integer platforms for jock management, and trained coaches successful areas specified arsenic biomechanics, nutrition and psychology. In the adjacent phase, we volition physique a Global Sports City successful Chennai, grow our sports subject facilities, and fortify our para-sports programmes.
Sports are not simply astir games; they are besides the instruments of societal engineering. In a State that gave emergence to the rationalist and societal justness movements, it is lone fitting that we make a Dravidian Model for sports. Our occurrence is measured not lone successful medals but besides successful the widening smiles of children from each country of Tamil Nadu.
Udhayanidhi Stalin is the Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
