30-04-2025
Over 300 athletes fail to furnish bills worth ₹8cr, SAI contemplates action
New Delhi: Over 300 elite athletes, including Olympic medallists, failed to furnish their travel bills to the tune of ₹8cr in the recently-concluded Paris Olympics cycle, irking the sports ministry and Sports Authority of India (SAI). The matter came to light following SAI's financial audit and came up for discussion on Wednesday in Mission Olympics Cell's (MOC) meeting.
A number of MOC members, it has been learned, proposed penal action against defaulters, including deductions from athletes' Out of Pocket Allowance (OPA) -- which is a monthly stipend of ₹50,000 -- and cash rewards given by the government.
A total of 315 athletes are yet to submit their expenses amounting to ₹8,78,27,962. Some of the prominent athletes whose names came up for discussion include weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, badminton ace Saina Nehwal, and sprinter Hima Das.
Chanu, a senior SAI official said, is yet to produce invoices worth ₹88,88,028 dating back three years. In this period, she and national coach Vijay Sharma made multiple training trips to St Louis in USA where the Tokyo silver medallist trained under Dr Aaron Horschig.
Vinesh Phogat, who agonisingly lost out on a certain medal after failing to make weight ahead of her 50kg final, hasn't produced bills worth ₹42,22,089 dating back two years while Tokyo bronze medallist Bajrang Punia's outstanding invoices are worth ₹12,53,161 over two years.
Saina, another official privy to the meeting said, hasn't given bills worth ₹5,07,555 since 2022 while Hima Das hasn't submitted her invoices in four years, amounting to ₹1,44,404.
While Chanu is still an active athlete, Phogat announced her retirement post Olympics while Punia is currently serving a doping suspension and former world No.1 Saina last competed in Singapore Open 2023. Out of 315 sportspersons, 146 are currently covered by TOPS while 169 are ex TOPS athletes.
'It has been observed that a lot of our athletes haven't furnished their bills going back years even though they are supposed to send their invoices within15 days of their return. Every athlete has a dedicated Athlete Relationship Manager (ARM) who is supposed to take care of these things. Some ARMs have told us that despite several reminders, the athletes haven't forwarded them their bills,' an official said.
'We have sent them multiple reminders by way of emails and phone calls but some athletes didn't even take our calls. The MOC members were certain that some action needs to be taken, but there hasn't been a decision yet,' the official said.
Compound archers added
The MOC also included seven compound archers in TOPS core group following sport's inclusion (mixed team event) in 2028 Los Angeles Games. These include Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami, Ojas Deotale, Abhishek Verma, Parneet Kaur, Priyansh, and Prathmesh Jawkar.
