new delhi as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged 2020 kiren rijiju union minister of sports and youth affairs feels the dreaded year was challenging with athletes being deprived of international competitions going into the tokyo olympicsthe sports minister however said everyone utilised the lockdown to plan develop and hone their skillsthe year 2020 has been challenging for all of us especially sports as it was damaging all our resources athletes could not take part in international events except the end of 2020 so it has not been a year good for sports and sports world rijiju told aniwe have to utilise the moment to plan develop and invest in our skills but as i said this was a challenge and we have dealt with it he addedtalking about the coronavirus vaccine for olympic athletes and its due process rijiju said that health workers frontline coronavirus warriors are naturally the priority as for the sports ministry the vaccine will first be given to the athletes preparing for the olympic games and other major world championshipsthe prime minister has given a very clear road map and the health ministry has made a detailed plan for the covid19 vaccine and its distribution so the priority naturally goes to the health workers front line corona warriors he saidthe sports ministers elaborated further and said when it comes to the ministry we would like to ensure that our athletes and technical people who are there in the field and who would be there for the preparation of the training for olympics and other major championships be given priority we have to ensure that whatever opportunity comes to us the players should be able to avail thatrijiju opined that there would be many hurdles leading to olympics and winning in the showpiece event wont be easy amid the pandemic nothing is easy when it comes to the olympics as the whole world would be competing for a medal the preparation must also be needbased the bigger the competition harder should be your preparationwhen asked about introducing international level infrastructure in india he said that all the facilities at the sports authority of india sai have been made available to the athletes the registered clubs or accredited coaches have also been given permission to use sports facilities free of costwe would like to see the state governments taking more proactive steps along with the private sector everybody has to chip in the government cannot alone do this kind of adequate affiliation of sporting facilities he saidthe sports minister exuded confidence in the indian athletes saying that they would finish in the top ten at the 2028 olympics he said that the young players talent would be crucial hence nurturing them would help the country reap good results at the big eventyou have to prioritise the sporting disciplines and of course when we set a target you have to step accordingly for example we have set targets for paris olympics and los angeles olympics rijiju saidso these are very