Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra said on Tuesday that India will be sending a 228-strong contingent to the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. The contingent will be including 119 athletes in it.

Batra made the announcement while interacting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a virtual event.

“The total Indian contingent for Tokyo Olympics will be 228. There will be 67 male athletes and 52 female athletes. We are fighting for 85 medal events,” Batra said.

This will be India’s largest-ever contingent of athletes at the Olympics.

“The first contingent will leave for Tokyo on July 17. It will have 90 athletes and officials in total,” Batra added.

During the interaction, PM Modi wished India’s Olympic-bound athletes luck and said that the whole of India is backing them to shine at the Summer Games.

He spoke to boxer MC Mary Kom, badminton player PV Sindhu, talented shooters Saurabh Chaudhary, Elavenil Valarivan and veteran table tennis player A Sharath Kamal during a virtual interactive session.

“Don’t be bogged down by expectations, just give your best,” Modi said in the interaction.

While speaking to Mary Kom, he asked the boxer about her favourite boxing punch and her favourite boxer. To which she replied: “I draw my inspiration from Muhammad Ali. I chose boxing after getting inspired by him.”

PM Modi also spoke to world number 1 archer Deepika Kumari. She said, “…There are expectations, but one expects the most from oneself. So, I am focussing on my practice, and the way in which I will perform.”

Talking to her Modi said that her journey to the top has been very special. To which she replied, “My journey has been good from the beginning, I started with bamboo bow and then moved to modern bow gradually.”

The Tokyo 2020 is all set to start from July 23 among various COVID-19 protocols which are in place to curb the spread of the virus.