Tokyo Olympics 2020: Kiren Rijiju gives weightage to support staff over officials

India's Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has made it clear that no officials from Sports Ministry will be sent as part of the delegation to the Tokyo Olympics except for necessary protocol needs.  Giving further clarification on the same, Kiren Rijiju has added that the idea is to send more support staff including the likes of coaches, physiotherapists, doctors. etc. to optimize the performance of the athletes.

Even the netizens welcomed Kiren Rijiju's decision months ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The status of Tokyo Olympics 2020

If everything goes to plan for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 organising committee, the initial rounds of the historic tournament should begin, officially, on July 23. According to the current Olympics schedule, the first events to kick-off will be the football and softball/ baseball competitions which will actually take place much earlier, on July 21. The games will close out on August 8, with Athletics, Boxing, and Basketball among the final events.

The Indian contingent for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

The Indian Olympic team will be fairly strong this time around and with the country's medal hopes pinned on shuttler PV Sindhu, wrestler Bajrang Punia, shooters Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil among others. Atanu Das - Men’s individual - and Deepika Kumari –Women’s individual will lead the Archey contingent while rising star Neeraj Chopra is expected to do well in the javelin throw. Amit Panghal and Mary Kom will make up the head of the 9-person boxing group. Pranati Nayak - just the second Indian woman to qualify for the gymnastics events, will look to improve on Dipa Karmakar's result from 2016.

Besides this, the nation's hopes also rest on weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, athletes Dutee Chand, Hima Das, Jinson Johnson, tennis duo Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina, table tennis player Manika Batra and the Men's and Women's hockey teams. The Summer Olympics 2020 will hopefully produce a better result for Indian than the Rio 2016 games when 117 participants could bring home just 2 medals. PV Sindhu won a silver in the Badminton women's singles while freestyle wrestler Sakshi Malik took home the bronze medal in the women's 58 kg category