IOA CEO Raghuram Iyer on India's Asian Games medal hopes

"Hope medal tally keeps improving": IOA CEO Raghuram Iyer on India's Asian Games expectations

New Delhi, August 22

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the IAMGAME Sports Conclave on Saturday, Iyer said India will have a strong contingent participating across multiple disciplines at the Asian Games.

"I cannot give you a medal count number, but everybody hopes that we keep improving. All the NSFs (National Sports Federations) will be participating in about 38 sports. So there is a strong contingent that will be representing India," Iyer said.

"We sincerely hope that the medal count keeps improving and going higher and better than what we've achieved in the past," he added.

India has been working towards fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of hosting the Olympic Games, and Iyer spoke about the learnings from the recent visit to Los Angeles, which will host the 2028 Olympics.

Iyer said India is currently in a continuous dialogue with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding its Olympic ambitions and added that studying existing infrastructure models from previous hosts will be important.

"We are in the stage of a continuous dialogue with the organising committee and the IOC on this. LA will be hosting its third Olympics. They held it in 1932, 1984, and this will be their third Olympics," he said.

He highlighted the importance of utilising existing infrastructure, saying the delegation visited venues including the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where the Olympic Village will be located.

"Going and looking at the kind of infrastructure that they have, they are going to be using all their existing infrastructure for the Olympic Games. So we went and saw the UCLA where the village is going to be. Those were very interesting takeaways for us to try and build on," Iyer added.

On the future use of Olympic infrastructure after 2030, Iyer said sports development remains a shared responsibility, with states playing a major role as sports is a state subject.

"It is not for the IOA to make that the Centre of Excellence, because every state -- sport is a state subject -- so every state is focusing on sport," he said.

He pointed to states such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Odisha for their growing focus on sports development and infrastructure.

"There is a lot of interest right now; states are taking up sports and development of sport," Iyer added.

For those unversed, IAMGAME 2026 brought the business of sport and the culture of sport together for the first time with the introduction of the Sports Fest alongside its industry-focused Sports Conclave.

It was held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, on August 21-22. The expanded two-day format connected athletes, sports leaders, investors, brands and innovators with sports enthusiasts and emerging sporting communities, according to a press release from IAMGAME.

— ANI