What TOPS Athletes Do About Their Education

PV Sindhu completed a BCom degree from St. Ann’s College for Women, Hyderabad while competing as one of the highest-ranked badminton players in the world. She did not pause her career for her degree. She structured her academic schedule around training and competition, and completed it.

Most athletes on TOPS are adults, typically in their early to mid-twenties. The question of school is largely behind them. The question of how to hold some academic or professional qualification alongside full-time training is one that many have answered, and answered differently.

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The honest picture

TOPS-level training demands are extreme. National camps, international competition cycles, recovery protocols and federation commitments fill most of the year. There is no school schedule that survives this intact.

Athletes at this level have made a clear choice about their priority. Sport comes first. Education, where pursued, is structured to survive around that commitment. This is not a failure of planning. It is the reality of what podium-level training requires.

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How TOPS athletes typically handle academics

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How TOPS Athletes Manage Academics

Distance degree

Most common. IGNOU or DU SOL enrollment allows a training-first schedule. Exams twice a year, no attendance required. Fully UGC recognised.

Sports quota college

For athletes who can manage both. College enrolled but academic load managed around training. Works best when the college is near the training centre.

Deferred academics

For athletes in the final 2 years before Olympics. Degree paused with institutional support, resumes after the Games cycle. Requires coordination between SAI, NSF and college.

Many TOPS athletes return to complete graduation at 25–30; both IGNOU and traditional universities accommodate returning students. There is no standard TOPS academic support package, each athlete's arrangement is individual, ask your SAI case officer directly.

Distance education: IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) and DU SOL (School of Open Learning at Delhi University) are the most commonly cited options. Both offer undergraduate and postgraduate degrees through distance mode with no requirement for regular classroom attendance. Exams can be scheduled around off-peak competition periods. The degrees carry the same legal weight as regular university degrees.

NIOS for under-18 development athletes: Athletes on the Development Group who are still of school age frequently use NIOS. It allows the training schedule to dictate the academic calendar rather than the reverse, the same arrangement described in the SAI center academic structure.

Government and armed forces service provisions: Several TOPS athletes serve in the Indian Army, Railways or public sector organizations. These institutions have internal provisions that allow athletes to pursue qualifications through service channels while maintaining full training commitments. Neeraj Chopra, who trained with TOPS support before his Tokyo 2020 gold, holds a position in the Indian Army and his academic path ran through service channels.

Deferral: Some athletes pause formal education entirely during the active TOPS period and return to it after retirement. This is a personal choice with real implications. Athletes who defer education to 30 or 35 have fewer options than those who managed distance education alongside training.

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Post-sport planning at TOPS level

The end of a TOPS career does not arrive gradually. It arrives when Olympic cycles close, when the body can no longer perform at that standard or when a federation’s assessment shifts. Athletes who plan for this from within the scheme are in a different position than those who do not.

What TOPS athletes who have planned well hold by retirement:

• A degree, even if completed part-time over several years
• A coaching certification or sports science qualification
• A national federation relationship that transitions into selector, committee or technical director roles
• Government service record: Arjuna Award and Khel Ratna recipients receive tenure-based benefits that continue post-retirement
• A public profile that opens commentary, institutional or endorsement work

Athletes who retire from TOPS without a qualification or institutional relationship have a harder transition. This is not unusual, and it is documented in coverage of former national athletes who find themselves without structured paths after sport ends.

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What this means for families reading this platform

Your child is almost certainly not on TOPS right now. If they are school-age and state-level, TOPS is a distant possibility, not an immediate concern.

What this article establishes is a principle: the question of education does not disappear when sport becomes serious. It only becomes harder to answer without a structure in place. The athletes who handle it best, at every level from SAI STC to TOPS, made a deliberate choice about their academic path early, rather than deferring the question until it forced itself.

Building that structure at 14 or 16, using the tools available (NIOS, flexible schooling, the SAI academic framework), puts an athlete in a stronger position at 22 when full-time training demands arrive, whether that is TOPS level or not.

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