Inter IIT Sports Meet



Inter IIT Sports Meet is the annual sports tournament of the Indian Institutes of Technology. It is organized in December, with the Aquatics events held separately in October. It is the longest-running Inter-collegiate meet where all IITs participate, having been held since 1961. This year (2023), the event was held at IIT Bombay and IIT Gandhinagar jointly.

Sports and participating institutes
Tournaments are held in 13 different sports, namely:
 * 1) Athletics
 * 2) Badminton
 * 3) Basketball
 * 4) Cricket
 * 5) Football
 * 6) Hockey
 * 7) Lawn tennis
 * 8) Squash
 * 9) Swimming
 * 10) Table tennis
 * 11) Volleyball
 * 12) Water polo
 * 13) Weightlifting

All the 23 IITs participating in the Inter-IIT Sports Meet:
 * 1) Indian Institute of Technology Bhilai
 * 2) Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneshwar
 * 3) Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi
 * 4) Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
 * 5) Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
 * 6) Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad
 * 7) Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad
 * 8) Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar
 * 9) Indian Institute of Technology Goa
 * 10) Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
 * 11) Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad
 * 12) Indian Institute of Technology Indore
 * 13) Indian Institute of Technology Jammu
 * 14) Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur
 * 15) Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
 * 16) Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
 * 17) Indian Institute of Technology Madras
 * 18) Indian Institute of Technology Mandi
 * 19) Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad
 * 20) Indian Institute of Technology Patna
 * 21) Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
 * 22) Indian Institute of Technology Ropar
 * 23) Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati

History
The proposition for an Inter IIT Sports Meet was brought up in 1961, and IIT Bombay hosted the first ever Inter IIT Sports Meet. Only five IITs were in existence then, namely IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi; who competed in five sports only.

History and winners
Note: Before 1978, the meet numbering was not consistent. For example, IIT Madras annual reports record the 1977 meet as the 13th and the 1975 meet as the 11th

IITs with most overall wins
The Meet in 1971 was cancelled due to the India-Pakistan war, while the one in 1992 was to be held at IIT Bombay but was cancelled owing to the communal riots in Mumbai. The 2015 meet that was supposed to be held at IIT Madras was washed out due to unpredictable rains.

49th Inter IIT Sports Meet 2013
Source:

The 49th Inter IIT Sports Meet was held at IIT Guwahati from 16 to 23 December 2013. MC Mary Kom launched her autobiography Unbreakable during the ceremony; along with former Miss Universe and Hindi film actress Sushmita Sen.

The mascot for the 49th Inter IIT was Bhaiti, a bamboo. Inspired by the slenderness and strength of its namesake plant, Bhaiti was designed by Thomas G. Manih, a student of IIT Guwahati, under the guidance of Dr. D. Udaya Kumar, who is credited with designing the Indian Rupee sign.

IIT Kanpur emerged as the winners of the General Championship in the Men's tournament, while IIT Roorkee won the Women's General Championship.

50th Inter IIT Sports Meet 2014
The Golden Jubilee edition of the Inter IIT Sports Meet was hosted by IIT Bombay in October and December 2014. The Inter IIT Aquatics Meet took place during 1–4 October 2014. The Opening Ceremony of that was graced by the presence of Virdhawal Khade. The 50th Inter IIT Sports Main Meet took place during 12–19 December 2014 at the IIT Bombay campus. The Opening Ceremony of that was graced by the presence of Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. The institute has undertaken massive renovations of the play fields in anticipation of the meet. Sachin gave the most anticipated address of that day. The last time IIT Bombay hosted an Inter IIT Sports Meet was in 2007, as a part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the institute. IIT Kanpur declared as the overall champions, winners of the General Championship in the Men's tournament and second in the Women's Championship, while IIT Bombay won the Women's General Championship.

51st Inter IIT Sports Meet 2016
The 51st edition of the Inter IIT Sports Meet was hosted by IIT Kanpur in October and December 2016. The Opening Ceremony of that was graced by the presence of Paralympic Javelin Thrower Devendra Jhajharia, who won Gold at 2016 Rio Paralympics and is also the current World Paralympic Record Holder in Javelin Throw under F46 events. IIT Madras Aquatic Team has won the Overall Championship in the Inter-IIT Aquatic Meet held at IIT Kanpur during 2 to 5 October 2016 IIT Kanpur continued their winning spirit and emerged as overall champions for third consecutive time.

52nd Inter IIT Sports Meet 2017
The 52nd edition of the Inter IIT Sports Meet was hosted by IIT Madras in October and December 2017. The Inter IIT Aquatics Meet took place during October. The 52nd Inter IIT Sports Main Meet took place during 15–23 December 2017 at IIT Madras' lush green campus. The Opening Ceremony was graced by the presence of renowned Indian Field Hockey Team's former Captain Viren Rasquinha, who also is the CEO of Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ). IIT Bombay were declared the Overall Champions.

53rd Inter IIT Sports Meet 2018
The 53rd Inter IIT Sports Meet was hosted by IIT Guwahati. The 34th Aquatics Meet took place during 3-7 October, while the Main Meet was being hosted in December. This edition held a special significance for IIT Guwahati as it is being conducted to celebrate the silver jubilee of the institute. It was also the first time that Para-powerlifting event had been introduced.

The Aquatics Meet Opening Ceremony was graced by the presence of Sajan Prakash, the man with the highest number of National Records in short course and long course swimming events. The Chief Guest for the Main Meet's opening ceremony was Shiny Abraham, she has represented India in more than eighty international meets and was the first Indian woman to reach the semi-finals of an Olympic event. The ceremony also had Rio Paralympics gold medalist, Mariyappan Thangavelu as its guest of honor.

53rd Inter IIT sports meet was won by IIT Delhi with 106 points, 26 points clear of the runner up.

54th Inter IIT Sports Meet 2019
The 53rd Inter IIT Sports Meet was hosted jointly by IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bhubaneswar. The 35th Aquatics Meet took place during 29th September to 4 October, while the Main Meet was held from 14th December to 22nd December.

54th Inter IIT sports meet was won by IIT Kharagpur with 123.6 points, 28.4 points clear of the runner up.

55th Inter IIT Sports Meet 2022
The 55th Inter IIT Sports Meet was hosted jointly by IIT Roorkee and IIT Delhi. This event was held between 14-22 December 2022.

56th Inter IIT Sports Meet 2023
IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Bombay jointly hosted the 56th Inter IIT Sports Meet. This event was held between 10 -15 December 2023 at IIT Bombay and 15-22 December at IIT Gandhinagar. IIT Madras clinched the general championship in 2023 (Controversial)