India to push hard for Kabaddi's inclusion in 2024 Olympics: Kiren Rijiju

Kabaddi is a regular sport in the Asian Games, but it never gets recognition from the International Olympic Committee. The only time Kabaddi featured in the Olympics was in 1936, Berlin.

New Delhi: Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said that the Indian government will launch a campaign for kabaddi's inclusion in the 2024 Summer Olympics, that is scheduled to take place in Paris..

"As a Sports Minister, I am very excited and have always thought of how to promote indigenous sports in a big way. Kabaddi is a perfect example of how an indigenous sport has grown successfully," Rijiju said.

"This I feel is the beginning of the sports culture that we envisaged for India which is now becoming a reality. We will definitely push hard for Kabaddi to be part of the next Olympics as we are a billion plus powerful nation and so for this to become possible, we will have to put all our efforts together, but I am very confident about it," he added.

Kabaddi is a regular sport in the Asian Games, but it never gets recognition from the International Olympic Committee. The only time Kabaddi featured in the Olympics was in 1936, Berlin.

Ac action from Pro Kabaddi League.

For a sport to be included in the Olympics, it must be played by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents and by women in no fewer than 40 countries and on three continents.There are currently 40 countries who have their national Kabaddi teams. A total of twelve countries participated in the Kabaddi World Cup 2016 in Ahmedabad.At the 2018 Asian Games held in Indonesia, Iran became the first country outside of India to win gold medals in Kabaddi, with India's men's team winning bronze, and India's women's team grabbing the silver.