In a first, the Indian contingent for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has a sleep expert and a top class medical team to enable participants to give their best at the quadrennial sports spectacle.

Contingent chef de mission and four-time Olympian shooter Gagan Narang said on Thursday in an interaction with journalists at the Main Press Centre.

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Narang and the other support staff had arrived in Paris 5-7 days in advance to set these up and the athletes were all satisfied with the medical facilities on offer, according to the ace rifle shooter.

Additionally, they just need to come down to their building in the Games Village and not go to the central Polyclinic to avail of these facilities.

“(I want to say) just a few things about what’s going on in the Village. Athletes are well settled. We arrived 5-7 days before the athletes came in, trying to sort out setting up spaces for them. Our NOC (Indian Olympic Association) spaces and our medical team are well set today. Athletes have been using it quite frequently and are quite satisfied with it.

“The good part about this is that they can just come down from their building and if you need an ice bath you can go to the medical room instead of going to the main Polyclinic. It’s an advantage they have this time.

“The medical team is fantastic. It’s under the leadership of our CMO, Dinshaw Pardiwala. He’s worked with a lot of athletes.

“We understand what is required from the perspective of elite athletes’ needs. We have physiotherapists, we have masseurs (and) we have a sleep expert. We have just installed our sleep pods for someone who is not able to sleep properly or comfortably.

“Also, we have a nutritionist and so on and so forth who are working remotely to be able to help our athletes in whatever requirements that they might have. So, this is unprecedented and I’m very happy that we are able to provide these to our team.”

He was, however, non-committal about the number of medals that the country would go away with at the end of the Games on August 11.

“When I was an athlete I would always say that every athlete comes here to win. No athlete comes here to lose. I remain with the same quotes as chef de mission. Every athlete here is positive, wanting to give their best. And we are hoping that their best is good enough to get us the medals that we are expecting.”

In the last Games held in Tokyo India had carved up one gold, two silvers and four bronzes – the country’s best-ever haul at the Olympics. It was a vast improvement on the two medals (one silver, one bronze) scooped up four years earlier in the Rio Games.

Previous to that Narang himself had contributed to the medal haul in London by winning a bronze that was part of six medals (two silvers and four bronzes) raked up by the Indians there.

Narang also requested the Indian media persons to highlight the achievements of the contingent here to keep the team’s morale up.

“Everyone reads what you write about. My request to you is – try and do as many positive stories as possible and keep the morale of the team very high because they need to stay in a very positive frame of mind. I would appreciate it if negativity is kept out from team India, which includes all of you as well. You are an integral part of team india.

“As a safety mission, we are trying to do whatever we can to make the team as comfortable as possible and to be able to provide them with whatever is necessary to keep them at their maximum comfort to be able to give those performances.

“There are a few teething issues (in the village) that we are trying to mitigate with the organising committee. They have promised these issues would be sorted out very soon. I would not like to discuss (more) in order to keep the environment positive for all of us and the team.