India plans national sports medicine framework for 2036 Olympics

India plans to build a national sports medicine framework that will shift athlete care from a fragmented, injury-driven system to a preventive model, as the country prepares for a possible 2036 Olympic Games bid, the Economic Times reports.

The proposed framework is expected to standardise injury screening, diagnosis, rehabilitation and return-to-play protocols while linking medical institutions with athlete training programmes and creating a national repository on sports injury data, people aware of the deliberations told ET.

The government is considering a phased rollout by 2028, and the proposal could find a mention in the union budget 2027-28. NITI Aayog last week convened a meeting of the expert group on sports science under M Srinivas to deliberate on the ecosystem.