Its Olympics season and all the countries small and big are in the medal hunt. we have already seen even very small countries finding an entry in the medals tally. The big countries are already planning on how to top the medal chart. However we Indians have already started looking the other way. Our shooters have been eliminated in the prelims itself and others in the fray don’t elicit much hope either.
It looks like we have already demonstrated the lack of talent in India when we have fielded a small contingent of just 42 members compared to 620 of China. Even in Athens Olympics, China had fielded 420 athletes. This is really a national shame for a country of more than one billion people.
It was duly noted during the parade in yesterday’s opening ceremony. When Indian contingent made its entry, the commentator noted that having comparable population to China, India has a relatively primitive sports infrastructure. that is evident from the very fact that since 1984 when China made an entry into Olympics, it has won a total of 284 medals compared to India’s just 3. This very fact should silence all such intellectuals who often tend to compare and boast of India’s success against China. In my view I don’t think India can even dream of what China has achieved, let alone surpassing them.
Why does India put up such a pathetic show in every Olympics? It definitely cannot be the physical capability because even Chinese are similar in body build. It cannot be the resources because definitely has the scientific know-how and the necessary resources that is required. Then the question is people’s will and commitment to achieve such goals. I think that is where we lack the capacity and the will to perform.
In China as well as other nations, achieving success in Olympics is considered a matter of national pride. The government considers it of national importance and takes to itself the task of identifying and training talents at a very young age and trains them with a single aim of winning gold. In china this is so serious that children as young as 8 years are sent to the national training center where they are trained in diving, gymnastics, swimming etc. The preparations for the next Olympics start the very next day after the current Olympics. It is that kind of commitment that yields results in the games.
Contrast that with the conditions here. Immediately after the games, every media outlet and govt officials talk about improving the conditions and training so that at least in the next games we fare well. However all such things subside and everybody again wake up only after another failure in the Olympics. I remember our union sports minister lamenting about the poor performance of Indian athletes after Athens Olympics. But what changes have been done to better Indian performance in Beijing Olympics? I don’t think anybody has any answer to that because as it stands nothing has changed. The early exit of our athletes is already an indication of whats in store for us even in this games.
Year after year our govt allocates substantial amount of money towards sports. But what happens to those funds, no one knows. As always, that ends up in the officials/politicians pockets. The Indian Olympics Association is another corrupt institution. Even though there is sufficient finds, no one is held responsible for the poor performance of the athletes in the games.
Even selection of candidates for the games is mired with corruption and favouritism. Just look at the Olympics trials of US and China. Even an internationally acclaimed athlete should prove himself to find a berth in the national team that represents the country in the games. Here, the trials are just an eye wash and it looks like candidates are selected even without the necessary talent. For them money and a foreign tour is dearer than the national pride.
When the situation is at such a sorry state, how can anybody expect a descent show in the games. It is such a sorry sight to see a country of more than a billion people celebrating for just one bronze medal in the games , when a country with just 1/100 the population gets a tally of 15 medals including 4 gold!
Unless the govt of the day wakes up and makes it a national mission and takes upon itself the responsibility to prepare our athletes for the games purely based on the talent, I don’t see any major changes in India’s medal tally.
It looks like this time we might not even win a single medal. What a sorry state for a country of One Billion? We should really be ashamed.
And then there is talk to India hosting Olympics in 2020! Do anybody think we have it in our-self to match what China displayed yesterday to the world seeing our current state of affairs? Truly speaking, India definitely has the capacity and the talent to put up something as spectacular as the one we witnessed. What is lacking is the commitment and the seriousness on our part to accomplish a task of such a nature.
I truly hope that at least now everybody will raise above petty politics to achieve success in 2012 Olympics Games.
