Zee News reports IOA President Suresh Kalmadi says the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) in India is just the “stepping stone” in his quest to bring the 2020 Summer Olympic Games to India. He said successfully hosting the CYG and Commonwealth Games would give India a strong chance when bidding for the 2020 Games. Kalmadi is the organizing committee chairman of the CYG.
He said, “CYG in Pune is just the first step towards achieving (the late Prime Minister) Rajiv Gandhi’s dream of bringing the Olympics to India. I hope that CYG, where athletes from 71 countries are vying for top honours in nine disciplines, becomes a roaring success so that we make a mark for a strong bidding in 2011. The distribution will be made in 2013 – that’s the ultimate dream.
“Beating Canada to bag the CWG 2010 (Commonwealth Games) was a sporting milestone. Delhi is going on the right way to stage the games after two years. We have to show the foreign athletes that India is capable”.
He added that India’s good showing at the Beijing 2008 Games has given a huge flip to the Olympic discipline sports and hoped that the country’s sporting culture gets a boost, reports Zee News.