By hosting the prestigious World Athletics Continental Tour, Odisha has signalled that it is ready for bigger things. Long celebrated as the powerhouse of Indian hockey hosting, the state is now turning its sights to athletics, with a clear ambition to establish itself as the next multi-sport hub.
On August 10, as athletes from 17 countries competed in sprints, jumps and throws at Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Stadium, Odisha once again proved that it could not only host world-class events, but do so with polish, professionalism, and a strong sense of pride.
But why does it matter?
It matters because the world is one family. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. As India nurtures its , the pressing question is: who is ready to carry the weight? While Ahmedabad is projected as the frontrunner, the country may also explore a multi-city model – an approach recently endorsed by the International Olympic Committee. What India needs now is a coordinated national effort – and that is where Odisha comes in.
For a long time, India has struggled to live up to the ancient philosophy of collective progress. States have fought over water, forest rights, and resources, often forgetting that we are part of a larger whole. But Odisha, once one of the poorest regions in the country, is charting a new course. From hockey to athletics and beyond, the state is showing what it means to invest in sport not just as infrastructure, but as culture.
RISE OF A SPORTING CULTURE
The seeds of this sporting revolution were sown in 2017, when Odisha pulled off a remarkable feat: hosting the Asian Athletics Championships at just 90 days’ notice. That one event flipped the script and gave Odisha the belief that they could be a part of something bigger.
“When we hosted the Asian Athletics event, we had such a short notice,” laughed Odisha Sports Secretary Sachin Jhadav while speaking to India Today in the aftermath of the Continental Tour.
An IAS officer from the 2007 batch, Jhadav has worked in the tourism and the revenue departments, helping him understand the ecosystem of the state.
“At the time, the state did not even have enough rooms to accommodate the athletes and staff, so we had to call in the universities to help us out. Now we knew that we did not have the infrastructure to host the event, but we saw that as an opportunity, and we did not back out,” he added.
Odisha’s rise in sporting stature is a unique story in itself. Some might call it coincidence, some might call it design, but the truth is a simple one: that Odisha has tried to grab the opportunity whenever one presents itself.
Take, for example, hockey. When the sport was at its lowest ebb in terms of popularity, investment, and infrastructure, Odisha took the bold steps of not only sponsoring the Indian national team but also hosting two FIH Hockey World Cups. The Kalinga Stadium and the new Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela were made and are now regarded as two of the best venues in the world.
“Many eyebrows were raised at that time. One state whose priorities should be poverty reduction, why are they getting into these things? Little did people understand at that point of time, that sports is an economy in itself. If you are promoting sport, it is not at the cost of your economic developmental goals. Sports also contribute to the economy,” Jhadav scoffs.
NEW ODISHA’S BOLD VISION
Odisha’s latest push into athletics is a continuation of that vision. Under the leadership of newly elected Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, the ambition is clear: Odisha wants to become India’s sporting backbone in the run-up to the 2036 Olympics.
“Frankly it takes political will to first have a vision and then to pull off a big project,” Majhi told India Today in an exclusive interview.
Majhi has recently announced a massive undertaking. A Rs 4,124 crore investment that has never been heard of before in the Indian landscape.
The BJP government under Majhi has declared an ambitious scheme for construction of the stadiums at block level.
There are 314 blocks in Odisha. Each block will have one stadium, which will consist of one football ground, one athletic track of 400 meters, two badminton courts, and one indoor hall.
“It’s a holistic complex. We have finalised lands, we have finalised the procurement processes, and the construction process will start in the next three or four months. It is a five-year scheme,” Majhi said, gleaming with pride.
Odisha is aiming to become India’s sporting backbone in the run-up to Olympics 2036 (Courtesy: Kingshuk Kusari/India Today)This project, once it reaches the public, is expected to earn laurels from athletes, who for long have asked for block-level interventions in the sporting landscape of India.
Players like Manasi Joshi, former world No. 1 in para badminton, have vouched for these facilities that help the masses get access to sport with ease.
The Odisha government right now understands that it is addressing the three pillars while building a sporting culture:
Infrastructure. Coaching. Competition.
The infrastructure is already there, and it is expanding. Kalinga Stadium is perhaps the only sporting complex in India which has an indoor stadium, a practice arena, a main stadium, and a sports science centre, side by side.
With the infrastructure sorted, Odisha’s next focus is on finding coaches, both local and international, to help out the new crop of players. And that part is expected to feed multiple competitions that Odisha is hosting, at a state, national and international level.
THE ODISHA SPORTS MODEL
Odisha’s expansion as a sporting ecosystem has not happened overnight. It was done with meticulous planning. Once Odisha decided to shift in this direction, it took a two-pronged approach.
First, multiple officials were sent across the world to find out how the best stadiums were being run, and what it took to build venues like that. with the help of private entities like Reliance, Tata and Nippon Steel, who have picked up one discipline each and are in charge of building that ecosystem.
Take the Sports Science Centre at the Kalinga Stadium for example. Run jointly by the Abhinav Bindra Foundation and the state government, the facility gives world-class recovery options including cryotherapy, dream pods and an anti-gravity treadmill to help athletes make a comeback from injuries.
It is open for all athletes from the country, but they have to take permission from the state government to avail the facilities.
The Sports Science Centre at the Kalinga Stadium offers world-class recovery facilities for athletes (Courtesy: Kingshuk Kusari/India Today)The second one was slightly unrelated. Over the course of the last 5 years, Odisha started to heavily invest in tourism to bring up the number of top hotels in the state.
What was the logic, you ask?
“When you bring in top players from other countries, where will they stay? You need to bring up facilities to accommodate them, something we learnt from the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships,” Jhadav said.
Sport, at the end of the day, generates massive indirect development. Jhadav, who is the former director of tourism of the state, says that any one-star hotel sees an investment of about Rs 1 crore. A five-star room generates direct employment of 3 people, and an indirect employment of 10, and that is how sports works.
The Sports Science Centre at the Kalinga Stadium is run jointly by the Abhinav Bindra Foundation and Odisha state government (Courtesy: Kingshuk Kusari/India Today)The Rs 4000 crore investment is only an extension of that idea.
“Any investment must have a multiplier effect,” said the Odisha CM. “We’ve ensured that our spend on sports builds not just athletes, but tourism, jobs, and local identity. From logistics to lighting, from school engagement to crowd management, everything was planned with precision.”
RETURN OF INVESTMENT
Odisha expects to gain a massive socio-economic dividend from the investment. CM Majhi and the Sports Secretary both state that Rs 4000 crore over a period of 5 years is a small part of the annual budget of the state, which runs in the range of Rs 3 lakh crore.
For them, the percentage is not daunting at all, in fact, it is quite reasonable.
CM Majhi takes the example of a high-performance centre in Puri, which specialises in Kho Kho players.
“In our Puri HPC, the total investment was Rs 52 crore. We built the infrastructure there, and it is maintained by a private entity.”
“Now our Kho Kho kids have beaten Maharashtra in the nationals. This has brought a wave of enthusiasm in other districts. So now many more kids want to get into the game.”
Majhi states that once the kids win a tournament, they get cash prizes, the kind of money their families have never seen before. Further, the kids are given education, which combines with the sporting excellence and gives them an edge in securing government jobs through sports quota, helping them take care of their families.
“It is a holistic development. Whoever gets into these sports hostels, they are almost assured of some form of financial security. I believe that this model will be followed in the country sooner or later,” Majhi states proudly.
The government sees these moments as critical for shaping long-term sporting culture. Exposure, aspiration, and access are being built simultaneously – a rare combination in Indian sport.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: WHY ODISHA MATTERS
India’s Olympic ambitions are bold, but they need a solid foundation. As things stand, the country would benefit from multiple cities stepping up to share the responsibility of hosting the Games. If states like Odisha take responsibility for key verticals – like athletics or hockey – and continue building infrastructure, India may just be able to present a decentralised model of Olympic readiness. After all, only in 2020, the Olympics body approved the idea of hosting the Games across cities.
“There are 28 states and 8 union territories. If five or six of us take leadership on different sports, India can prepare for the Olympics in a way no one has imagined,” CM Majhi said. “Odisha is ready to shoulder that responsibility. We’ve done it before. We will do it again.”
In that sense, Odisha isn’t just preparing itself. It’s preparing India.
From hosting international events to lighting up Sunday nights with fireworks, Odisha is rewriting the rulebook on how a state can shape national sports policy. Whether it’s hockey, athletics, or grassroots engagement, the state’s approach is bold, structured, and deeply intentional.
In a country where sport is often treated as an afterthought, Odisha is treating it like a calling. And as India prepares to knock on the doors of the International Olympic Committee, the rest of the country would do well to watch and learn.