Which of the following team events is included in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme?

Correct — A. Hockey is the team sport carried in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme.

TOPS was started by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in September 2014 to fund athletes with a realistic chance of an Olympic or Paralympic medal, and it was revamped in 2018 with a dedicated technical support team.

Selection and review run through the Mission Olympic Cell, chaired by the Director General of the Sports Authority of India.

Hockey is one of the ministry's high-priority disciplines, and that is what puts a squad sport inside a scheme built around individual medal prospects. That makes option (a) the team event on this list.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Cricket — Cricket was not among the disciplines TOPS was built around. The scheme funds Olympic and Paralympic medal prospects, and Indian cricket is financed by the BCCI rather than through the ministry.
• (c)
  Football — Football is an Olympic discipline, but India has not qualified a team for the Olympic football tournament since Rome in 1960, so there is no podium prospect for the scheme to fund.
• (d)
  Tennis — Olympic tennis has no team event at all — it is played as singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Team tennis is the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup, outside the Olympic programme.

TOPS is India's targeted elite-athlete funding programme, and it is distinct from the mass-participation Khelo India Games.

Launched by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in September 2014 and restructured in 2018, it identifies athletes and teams with a genuine medal chance at the coming Olympic and Paralympic Games.

It pays for coaching, equipment, foreign exposure and a monthly out-of-pocket allowance.

Selection sits with the Mission Olympic Cell, chaired by the Director General of the Sports Authority of India, and the ministry works from a short list of high-priority disciplines that includes hockey.

Key facts

• The Target Olympic Podium Scheme was launched by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in September 2014.
• The scheme was revamped in 2018 with a technical support team to manage TOPS athletes.
• Athletes are selected and reviewed by the Mission Olympic Cell, chaired by the Director General of the Sports Authority of India.
• Hockey is one of the high-priority disciplines the ministry funds through TOPS.

Common traps

• Assuming any popular Indian team sport qualifies. TOPS funding follows Olympic medal prospects, not domestic popularity.
• Confusing TOPS with Khelo India. Khelo India is broad-based and grassroots, TOPS is elite and medal-targeted.
• Counting tennis as a team event because of the Davis Cup.

No directly related past PYQ was found.