Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath showered cash prizes worth Rs 42 crore on the Tokyo Olympic medal winners in a grand ceremony at Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana International Stadium here on Thursday.
Terming Olympics as the Kumbh of sports, Yogi said, “Uttar Pradesh is a land of Kumbh and we are honouring the athletes who won the medal at the Kumbh of sports.”
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Governor Anandiben Patel felicitated gold medal winner Neeraj Chopra and presented him a cheque worth Rs 2 crore. Silver medalists Ravi Dahiya and Mirabai Chanu were given Rs 1.5 crore each while bronze medal winners PV Sindhu, Bajrang Punia, Lovlina Borgohain and each member of the Indian men’s hockey team were given Rs 1 crore.
Members of the Indian women’s hockey teams, which finished fourth, were given Rs 50 lakh each. The support staff also got a purse of Rs 10 lakh each. The 10 athletes from Uttar Pradesh, who participated in the Tokyo Olympics, were also given Rs 25 lakh for motivation.
Taking a cue from the Odisha government, whose official sponsorship garners good results for Indian hockey, the UP government will be adopting two sports, wrestling being one of them.
“UP government will adopt two sports for the next 10 years with one game being wrestling. We will bear all the expenses of the players and events as well. The second game to be adopted will be announced later,” Yogi said.
The chief minister also announced plans to start a wrestling academy in Lucknow and promised to appoint international medal winners as DySP in UP Police.
“The state government has increased the cash prize from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh for an international medal and more cash prizes will be given to the players winning a medal in both senior and junior category at Asian, national and state levels,” he added.
Meanwhile, the medal winners were awestruck with the arrangements and environment and thanked Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for honouring them in such a gala manner.
Golden boy Neeraj Chopra said, “I am thankful to chief minister sir for organising such a big event for us and it feels like the entire nation is present here. This will motivate the youngsters present here to repeat our feat.”
Indian women's hockey team captain Rani Rampal shared how the girls turned the tables despite the three losses in group stages. She also expressed gratitude to Yogi Adityanath for not restricting the honouring ceremony for UP players only.
Indian hockey team member and Varanasi lad Lalit Upadhyay remembered how CM Yogi motivated the UP players before their departure to Tokyo and promised all possible support. Lalit’s skipper shared how Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s phone call after semi-final loss increased the confidence and proved to be a driving force behind winning a medal.
Assam's silver medalist Lovlina and PV Sindhu also expressed happiness over their felicitation by the UP government.
"If we believe in ourselves then we can achieve success. I hope this grand event will inspire many players from UP to win medals for the country and state,” she said.
Wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya thanked the chief minister and Wrestling Federation president Braj Bhushan Sharan Singh, for taking care of the wrestlers.