CM reaching out to star athletes for sports varsity plans

New Delhi: The Delhi government, through its Delhi Sports University, is taking several steps to support and produce many international level players, who will bring the maximum number of medals for India in Olympics and other international level sports.

In a bid to get more support from star athletes and high-achieving sprotspersons, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has now had regular meetings with several Olympics medal-winning athletes and award-winning sportspersons over plans for the Delhi Sports University. On Thursday, the chief minister met Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist wrestler Bajrang Punia for this as well.

"Our government is absolutely serious about promoting sports and has always been ready to provide all possible help to the players. With the aim of promoting sports in Delhi, we have established Sports University in Mundka," Kejriwal added.

An official from the CM office said that the Chief Minister has been meeting several athletes and will continue to do so as he wants the government to be also known for its Sports University and getting the support from the young achievers may help in that direction.

"We are trying to make the Sports University fully operational as soon as possible. In this we would also like to take Bajrang Punia's services. At the same time, we also want all the good players from across the country to come to our sports university and cooperate with the Delhi government in producing world class players," the CM said on Thursday.

The Delhi Sports University aims to be an institution in the world of sports which will confer degrees up to the PhD level with Olympian Karnam Malleswari holding the position of the Vice-Chancellor.

During the meeting with Punia, Chief Minister Kejriwal assured Punia of getting him the benefits of the schemes run by his government for the medal winners at the earliest which will be extended to future Olympic winners too, the official added.

Punia had met the CM earlier also along with his coach Satpal Singh in September after winning a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

The CM had in his endeavours to encourage sports training, also met Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Ravi Dahiya in August 2021 and Para-High-Jumper Sharad Kumar, who has won a bronze medal in the Tokyo Paralympics. In October, Kejriwal met Chess world Championship silver medalist Tania Sachdev and after the meeting he had said that the sole purpose of the Sports University is to develop talent so that many more medals can be won.