One Olympic medal is all it takes to raise the profile of a sport and if the colour happens to be gold, it is just icing on the cake.
Ask the practitioners of track-and-field disciplines in India, who were the biggest beneficiaries of government funding in this Olympic cycle after javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra's top finish in the Tokyo edition three years ago.
According to official data from the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) Mission Olympic Cell (MOC), which is available with PTI, the government has spent a whopping Rs 96.08 crore for athletics.
It's the biggest chunk in the close to Rs 470 crore which has been spent on India's preparation for the Games this time across 16 disciplines.
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