22-07-2025
What National Sports Policy can do for India's athletes
As someone who has spent decades in the field of sports medicine, closely observing the physical and psychological toll elite sport takes on athletes, I am both encouraged and excited by the emphasis placed on sports science and technology in the upcoming National Sports Policy 2025. This is not just a policy — it's a paradigm shift.
For the first time in our nation's sporting journey, we are embedding science, technology, and evidence-based medicine at the heart of athlete development. From injury prevention and biomechanics to mental conditioning and recovery, the policy envisions a system where performance is supported, not just expected.
India has made great strides in global sports. But to compete consistently at the highest level, performance needs to be sustained by systems that are smart, adaptable, and medically sound. The National Sports Policy 2025 acknowledges this and integrates sports science, sports medicine, and cutting-edge technology as foundational pillars for the next decade of Indian sports.
It gives me immense satisfaction as a medical practitioner to note that the new policy focuses on: Injury surveillance, prevention, and early intervention, which remain essential for athlete longevity; biomechanics and performance analytics to refine training and technique; nutrition and recovery science — areas where marginal gains often make the difference between podium finishes and missed opportunities; and mental health and cognitive conditioning, which, in today's high-pressure environment, are non-negotiable.
The policy outlines that facilities for sports science and sports medicine will be established and upgraded at major training centres across the country. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has already begun enhancing sports science facilities and installing world-class recovery equipment at its regional centres and National Centres of Excellence, in partnership with the National Centre for Sports Science & Research.
The SAI regional centre in Bengaluru, where our Olympic medal prospects under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) train, has got one of the best sports science facilities in the entire country. Another Return to Sports division was recently established at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi. These are multi-disciplinary hubs where coaches, physiotherapists, psychologists, orthopaedic surgeons and data scientists work together to support athletes.
In a significant step, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had constituted a 10-member medical panel in association with the Indian Olympic Association last year, including myself, to be stationed in Paris during the Olympic Games. For the first time, India had a dedicated medical team on-ground to manage injuries, monitor recovery, and make real-time decisions for our athletes' health and safety.
The policy also rightly champions technology as a tool for governance and performance monitoring. Platforms will be upgraded and restructured to improve the transparency and efficiency of various schemes. From AI-driven performance analysis to real-time dashboards, monitoring training loads and recovery metrics, technology will be harnessed not just to track, but to intervene early, predict outcomes, and course-correct when necessary.
What excites me even more is that we are not stopping at application — we are fostering sports innovation by leveraging technology for data-driven monitoring and implementation of sports programmes. With the proposed sports innovation task force and research grants, educational and research institutions will be encouraged to explore interdisciplinary solutions, creating a pipeline of ideas, tools, and technologies that are India-specific.
In a nutshell, the National Sports Policy 2025 is not just forward-thinking — it is vital. By embedding sports science and technology into the fabric of our sporting ecosystem, we are moving toward certainty — from passion alone to passion empowered by precision.
As someone who has treated hundreds of India's top athletes, I know that talent and training are never enough. Support, science, and systems are what create champions. With this policy, we are finally building those systems.
The writer is a sports orthopaedic surgeon. He was head of a medical panel constituted by the sports ministry to support Indian athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympics
