The High Performance Director at IIS Bellary is confident India can win multiple gold medals at the LA Olympics, with combat sports leading the charge.
At the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) campus in Bellary, a giant countdown clock reminds everyone that every minute counts toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Created by Gary Hall, the institute’s High Performance Director, the clock serves as a constant wake-up call against complacency.
“You’ve got to remind everybody every day that complacency is a killer of elite sport. You can’t let a day miss. Those days matter, those minutes matter,” Hall said.
“In any elite high-performance business, you have to take that seriously. We now have great coaching, science and medicine, planning, analysis and performance departments. I don’t believe you can compete in Olympic sport anymore without that,” he added.
India finished 71st at the 2024 Paris Olympics with six medals (one silver, five bronze), a sharp drop from 48th place at the delayed Tokyo Games three years earlier. It tied the nation’s lowest-ever Olympic finish, matching the 71st positions in Sydney 2000 and Atlanta 1996.
“India being 71st on the Olympic medal table is not acceptable. Not because somebody wrote it in a newspaper, but because it’s one of the largest populations in the world with extremely talented athletes,” said Hall.
“I think India has a genuine chance of winning far more gold medals than it ever has before,” he added.
“Our target is to deliver two Olympic gold medals out of the IIS. I get a very warm feeling when I walk into combat space. I believe that should be the minimum level. India has never really had multiple gold medals at an Olympics, so it would be a significant step forward,” he said.
The LA Olympics countdown clock stands at the heart of IIS Bellary.
Expanding Horizons
The IIS recently partnered with the Rowing Federation of India (RFI) to launch a dedicated women’s rowing programme, housing 24 elite rowers at the RWP-3 training facility in Bellary. Early results from the 2025 Asian Rowing Championship and 2026 Asian Rowing Cup suggest the system is working.
“On a positive note, that’s what you want to be saying. You want to be delivering,” Hall said.
At the 2025 Asian Rowing Championship, Gurbani Kaur and Diljot Kaur won silver, ending a 15-year medal drought for Indian women rowers. Indian rowers also secured two bronze medals in the Women’s Double Sculls (Poonam & Priya Devi) and Women’s Coxless Pair (Diljot Kaur & Suman Devi) at the 2026 Asian Rowing Cup in Chungju, South Korea. Both teams have qualified for the upcoming Asian Games.
According to Hall, the focus is no longer just on identifying talent, but on ensuring the support system matches the demands of elite sport.
“It’s no longer about guessing. It’s about whether the system matches what you’re trying to achieve, which is Asian Games success. Will we win medals at the Asian Games? I think we’ve got a great shot at it. But Los Angeles is our key benchmark. The Asian Games are an important milestone along the way,” he said.
On whether India needs to accelerate its pace for the LA Games, Hall said: “Pace matters. It’s not about worrying about the time ticking away. It’s about the quality of what we’re doing in that time. We’re going to have good Games and bad Games, but we’ll learn from both. Ultimately, we want to peak at the Los Angeles Olympics.”
One of the Best HPCs in Asia
Having established residential academies for Taekwondo and Rowing, the institute plans to expand to other sports soon.
“There are sports that undoubtedly could be brought in. We are looking at more racket sports potentially. We’ve got archery on the outside and might bring that on the inside. We’re also working across our other centres in Odisha to uplift the offer there,” he said.
“We’re never going to say no to new sports, but a lot depends on how effectively we can collaborate with National Federations and alongside SAI,” he added.
Recently, the Indian kabaddi team trained in Bellary. “They wanted to do a lot more physical exercise and strength and conditioning. We’ve got a world-class S&C team, so it made total sense to join up and support them,” Hall said.
The Bellary campus is renovating its high performance center, and Hall is confident it will become “one of the best HPCs in Asia, if not the world.”