Establishing direct interaction with athletes from the state set to represent the country in the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath praised them for their struggle, determination and sustained efforts and also urged every citizen to bolster their enthusiasm.
Uttar Pradesh has a representation of a total of 10 players for the Tokyo Olympics, namely Priyanka Goswami, Annu Rani, Seema Punia, Shivpal Singh, Satish Kumar, Vandana Kataria, Saurabh Chaudhary, Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Lalit Upadhyay and Arvind Singh.
Hailing their spirit as an inspiration amid COVID-19 crisis, the chief minister in his one-hour chat motivated and encouraged them while communicating with each of the ten athletes and their guardians.
“It is inspiring that despite the pandemic, you all continued to practice and upgrade your abilities. The devotion that you all have towards your games and the perseverance that you all possess is admirable and should also be adopted by the upcoming generations,” he said.
Yogi set the ball rolling by speaking with race walker Priyanka Goswami and javelin thrower Annu Rani. Both athletes told the chief minister about their struggles and how they prepared for the Olympics which is the ultimate test of an athlete’s abilities. On being informed that Priyanka has been practicing in Bengaluru due to the absence of a synthetic turf in Uttar Pradesh, Yogi assured her to equip the state with all required resources and well-trained coaches for promotion of sports culture across the state.
“Talented players of our state have been deprived of adequate resources for a long. However, our government is leaving no stone unturned to provide necessary assets and facilities to them in order to promote sports activities and ensure their participation nationally and internationally. I would urge all you talented athletes to help the government and Department of Sports to develop the state into a place suitable for athletes to hone their skills. It would be even better if you all could frame your suggestions into a well-detailed proposal for the state government to work accordingly and develop Uttar Pradesh as a sports hub.
In response to shooter Mairaj Ahmad Khan who has been practicing in Italy, the chief minister asked him to visit UP after the mega event and inspect the shooting range being developed in Lucknow and Varanasi.
During his conversation with the Tokyo-bound players, Yogi said, “Every village in UP will soon have a sports ground and an open gym which will motivate the youth to stay fit and develop a passion for sports. The departments of Sports, Rural Development, Urban Development, Panchayati Raj and Revenue have been working collectively to foster a culture of sports in the state and efforts are also underway to provide special sports kits to every budding athlete.”
Earlier, the UP government had announced that all athletes from the state who win a gold medal at Tokyo Olympics would be rewarded with Rs 6 crore, every silver medalist with Rs 4 crore and bronze medal winners with Rs 2 crore. For team events, each winning player will be rewarded with Rs 3 crore for gold medal, while silver and bronze medalists will be rewarded with Rs 2 and Rs 1 crore each respectively. Besides all UP athletes participating in the Olympics will be rewarded with Rs 10 lakh each, independent of their performance at the games.