In 2017, when Odisha hosted the Asian Athletics Championships at the eleventh hour after a state opted out, they had to build from scratch. Back then, the Kalinga Stadium, the venue for the event, wasn’t good enough to host a national level competition, leave alone an Asian Championship.
Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha, however, was determined to host the event and ensured that everything was top-class. That was the start of Odisha’s journey to become a sporting benchmark for the country.
“The Kalinga Stadium was in very bad shape, but the chief minister said we would rise to the occasion,” Vineel Krishna, IAS, Sports & Youth Services Department, Odisha Government, said at RevSportz’s Trailblazers 2.0 Conclave on Friday. “We had only 90 days to prepare and in the end, Sebastian Coe (President of the International Association of Athletics Federations) praised us,” Krishna added.
He has co-authored the book, Odisha and Sports: A Story of Hope and Glory, with RevSportz founder and editor-in-chief Dr Boria Majumdar. And as champion shooter Shriyanka Sadangi said during the session, Giving back to Sport: “A few years ago, we didn’t think Odisha would be the sporting capital of the country. But now, Odisha is going to be the sporting capital of the world.”
Adille Sumariwalla, the president of the Athletics Federation of India, recounted how the Kalinga Stadium didn’t have a warm-up track and how its rapid development, which stunned everyone.
Hockey star Rani Rampal gave credit to the Odisha Chief Minister. “I never thought India would be hosting world events in women’s hockey and we were playing there. All credit to the Chief Minister,” she said.
Asian Games gold medal winner in team dressage Anush Agarwalla, who has secured a quota for India at the Paris Olympics, spoke about how Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the importance of awareness, availability and accessibility in gradual development.
Sports professor Vijay Pereira tipped his hat to the Odisha Story that needs to be celebrated. “The learning needs to be translated into how other states can do it,” he said.
Multiple Grand Slam winner Mahesh Bhupathi spoke about the importance of state support in the upliftment of the entire sporting ecosystem. “State support is very important and Odisha is leading by example.”