Amidst the excitement of the 20th Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, India has started rapidly advancing its long-term strategy on the global sports arena. Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya held a high-level bilateral meeting with Captain Hussain Al-Musallam, President of World Aquatics and Director General of Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) in Nagoya. The main focus of this meeting was to make the infrastructure of swimming, diving, water polo and other aquatic sports in India world class and to take the country's athletes to the international podium. This initiative of the Sports Minister is being seen as a decisive step in the history of Indian sports, because India now wants to register its presence in those disciplines where the number of medals is highest, not limited to only traditional sports.
The Government of India and the Sports Ministry have a clear vision to establish India among the top sporting nations of the world. To achieve this goal, mastering aquatic sports is the most basic requirement. If we look at the statistics of modern Olympic Games, aquatics events like swimming and diving are considered to have the largest store of medals. For example, in the Paris Olympics, a lot of medals were at stake in the aquatics events, including a total of 49 gold medals. Top sporting nations like the US, Australia and China rely primarily on aquatics to strengthen their overall medal tally. India has so far stayed away from big medals in these events, but now the Ministry has decided that unless the country presents global level competition in swimming and diving, it will not be possible to make it to the top 10 of the Olympic medal table.
After the meeting, Sports Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, while sharing the information on social media platform The main focus of this action plan will be on identifying emerging young talents from rural and semi-urban areas of the country and providing them world class coaching at the grassroots level. It was also decided in the meeting that top technical experts and international level trainers from World Aquatics will be associated with Indian academies, so that the skills of local trainers can also be enhanced. Through modern training techniques, biomechanics and establishment of high-performance centres, the country's young swimmers will be groomed to meet international standards from an early age.
This meeting held in Nagoya is not limited only to the technical development of sports, but also has deep international diplomatic significance. India is strongly in the race to host the 2036 Summer Olympic Games and the country has also shown its official interest to host the 2038 Asian Games. The support of international sports federations and the Olympic Council of Asia is considered extremely important to win the right to host such mega events. Since Captain Hussain Al-Musallam is the head of World Aquatics as well as the Director General of OCA, this positive interaction of the Sports Minister with him will prove to be extremely helpful in garnering huge support for India's hosting bid at the international level.
To expand aquatic sports in India, the Sports Ministry is now working with states and private sports academies to create a national level infrastructure network. Plans are being made to set up world-class Olympic size swimming pools, temperature controlled training centers and state-of-the-art diving facilities in the major metros of the country as well as in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Under Khelo India scheme also, adequate budget and scholarships are being allocated by including aquatics among the priority sports. With this discussion between the Sports Minister and World Aquatics, many young swimmers of India will be fully prepared to bring glory to the country in international competitions in the coming years.