Govt ends cash awards for junior athletes to curb doping, age fraud | Sports News

Junior athletes winning international medals will no longer receive cash awards from the government. This major Sports Minry policy shift, which came into effect on February 1, is aimed at tackling the twin menace of doping and age fraud as well as “keeping the hunger of youngsters alive”.
According to the old system, a gold medal at the Junior World Championship would fetch an athlete approximately Rs 13 lakh while a top of the podium finish at Asian or Commonwealth had a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh.
A Sports Minry official said one of the key factors behind this decision was to promote junior competitions as developmental events rather than making it all about a podium finish.
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“We noticed that only India follows a model where junior championships are given over-importance. As a result, we have noticed that athletes work so hard at this level that the time they reach the elite stage, they are either burnt out or have lost the hunger,” the official said.
The award policy for senior athletes, too, has seen a rewrite. The Minry has removed Commonwealth Championship and South Asian Games from the events on the award l. Chess players winning International Master or Grandmaster norms, too, will no longer be incentivised.
In an apparent change of stance, following shooter Manu Bhaker’s unprecedented two bronze medals at last year’s Paris Games, sportspersons and their coaches will now be rewarded for “each medal won” at the Olympics and World Championships. Akhara or academy where a medal trained will be eligible for awards as well. The clause that barred an athlete’s “spouse, father, mother, brother and ser” from receiving the award has been removed from the revised policy.
Over the years, cash incentives were seen as one of the reasons that pushed the athletes and their coaches into committing age fraud and doping offences. According to National Anti-Doping Agency data as of January 13, more than 10% of the dope offenders in India since 2022 are minors — 22 out of 204.Story continues below this ad
And while there is no central system monitoring the number of athletes who fudge their age, hundreds have been suspended over the few years across sports — with many more escaping the net.
“It can be said that the cash awards are one of the reasons athletes are lured into adopting unfair means. Most of them come from humble backgrounds, so it is a case of high risk, high reward for them,” said another official.
The decision to drop events like the Commonwealth Championship and South Asian Games, too, was taken to ensure athletes remain focused on competing in tougher and more important international events, like the continental and world cups/championships.
Meanwhile, athletes winning events like the All-England Badminton Championship or the Candidates Tournament in chess will be given the same amount of cash prize as World Championship winners, given the high standard of competition there.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd

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