The Sports Ministry is set to build India's first-ever SAI National Centre of Excellence for Mountain Terrain Biking and Bicycle Motocross here in partnership with the Himachal Pradesh state government.
The center to be build in collaboration with the Youth Services and Sports department of Himachal Pradesh is being set up to provide world-class training facilities to Indian cyclists so that they can compete for 18 Olympic medals on offer in the disciplines of MTB and BMX.
"The time has come to expand our orbit and train athletes for Olympic in other discipline where Indian athletes are showing prospects and where we can bag more medals to improve the overall tally at Olympics," Sports Minister Anurag Thakur said in a statement.
"This center, one of the best high altitude training facilities in the world, at an altitude of 2000 meters above sea level, will have world-class infrastructure, a state-of-art sports science high performance center, Olympic-level track and coaches of international repute, where India's best cyclists and local sporting talent can train," Sports Authority of India said in a statement.
Owing to the requirement of the sport for a hilly terrain and a suitable climate for training, Shimla emerged as a preferred choice for the NCOE.
The collaboration between the center and the state to set up this world-class facility was formalised with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday, 23 March.
Himachal Pradesh, thus, became the torchbearer of MTB and BMX training in India and a possible venue for future World Championships for the two cycling disciplines. The NCOE, which will have the capacity to train around 200 cyclists for Olympic-level preparations, will be equipped with 1 XCO Olympic level track, 1 training.
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