I had thought about writing down what I thought of India's performance in the London Olympics. Personally I did not think India did very badly in the London Olympics. Obviously we didn't win the number of medals as many of the other countries did. But then, the reason that some people were attributing it to was just nonsense.
Take this article for example from Hindu.
This person probably hates cricket and blames the lack of medals on cricket. How ridiculous can this be. Cricket is a spectator sport. Its entertainment. You wouldn't be able to watch Discus throw and Javelin throws as entertainment for weeks . But that doesn't mean that people do not support or cheer for those athletes in an international event like Olympics if you win or come close to winning.
Take England or America for e.g. England is crazy about football. Barclay's Premier League lasts for months and is followed with as much fanfare as cricket is on a week on week basis. Do they follow the other sports like fencing , athletics, swimming, with the same fanfare. In my opinion not. I hadn't read about Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah as much as I have before they won in the London Olympics.
If a person is not successful at the highest level in their sport , they are not that well known. They are not followed with fanfare till they reach that point with rarest of exceptions perhaps. If Phelps was still the greatest swimmer that he was but had not won any Olympics medals that he has won , yet performed outside the olympics, would he have been as renowned as he is now. Probably not. Even in cricket we know only of the 20-30 people who play international cricket and play successfully. How many of us remember people like Sanjay Bangar for e.g. But we all remember as a nation P.T.Usha , Shiny Wilson, Ashiwini Nachappa , Milka Singh even though they have not won medals. Do we not agree they are legends? Will we ever forget Abhinav Bindra or Susheel Kumar or Vijendar Kumar. I watched Yogeshwar's bronze medal match and it will be one the best sporting moments I will remember.
In every sport the person needs to be at his best for the few minutes when he competes to win. I was very glad that almost throughout the 2.5 weeks I was able to see some indian competing, irrespective of the fact they were winning or losing. Ultimately we will get there. But many came close . Agonizingly close. Even if they did not make the finals of that event. In one of the archery qualifications we lost by 1 point out of some 140 points. And one of the indian archers hit a 5 out of 10 once. And that was the one bad shot in the match and that was it. The room for error is very less and they are competing against the best in the world.
Then there were articles on recognition and rewards for these players. Do we honestly feel that the Olympics medal winners in this era are not recognized and rewarded in India? Only in India we award even the Bronze medal winners with 50 Lakhs and give them ranks like IAS and promotion in their career. We all know about the number of university seats and jobs available for sports quota. So many atheletes get jobs in Railways and Other Services through Sports Quota and get promoted when they do well in international competitions. Not just the public sector. People like Deepika Kumari who has risen in the ranks in the Tata Group she works for by becoming the world champion even though she hasn't won the olympics medal.
From a motivation, rewards and recognition perspective in this modern Era, I do not think that India lacks behind at all. On a comparitive note, the gold medal winners for GB were not given huge cash awards and promotions. They just got Glory.
Again on the comparison, GB won only 1 gold medal in the 1996 olympics. Yet they have turned it around to win 29 this year in spite of not winning Gold in some of the most expected events like diving.
It does not mean that I think that the support for athletes is perfect. But before we finish with that, I think the main reason why we don't produce that many athletes is the Indian parents. The 2 major economic groups in india are the middle class and the lower income class. How many middle class parents want their kids to be athletes. More than 90% of the parents I have known of want their kids to be Engineer or Doctor or IT or at a minimum a college graduate to go into a decent job and for which they have to spend most of their time memorizing their text books in the name of studying in the Indian education system. (Doesn't mean that it doesn't have any merits. I am what I am because of that system.) When the parents dictate the kid's path till they are 21 years old, they don't have much choice in terms of becoming an athlete. The other group which is lower middle class, when struggling to make ends meet, would probably not even think of sports in their dreams unless the natural talent in a kid is discovered by chance and luck by someone in that field.
So the 1.2 Billion population is a myth. More than 90% of them have no interest / time in "participating" in any sport. If you are an IT professional in india for e.g. your kids are probably playing computer games and watching tv more than they actually even play outside? Apart from their School P.E class how much physical sport do they actually indulge in?
I had been supportive of the system for most part of my post. But I read one of the most disturbing articles about the Indian Beuracratic Officials administering testosterone injections for athletes and how its affecting their life. If this is true, I wouldn't want my kids to go through some thing like that for whatever be the rewards.
If anything needs to be changed, that is what needs to be changed first. This is again in the hands of the media. If NDTV has the courage to publish this article, why don't they fight for stopping it. Does the 4th estate not have the moral responsibility to challenge something more fiercely than it does currently?
Take this article for example from Hindu.
This person probably hates cricket and blames the lack of medals on cricket. How ridiculous can this be. Cricket is a spectator sport. Its entertainment. You wouldn't be able to watch Discus throw and Javelin throws as entertainment for weeks . But that doesn't mean that people do not support or cheer for those athletes in an international event like Olympics if you win or come close to winning.
Take England or America for e.g. England is crazy about football. Barclay's Premier League lasts for months and is followed with as much fanfare as cricket is on a week on week basis. Do they follow the other sports like fencing , athletics, swimming, with the same fanfare. In my opinion not. I hadn't read about Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah as much as I have before they won in the London Olympics.
If a person is not successful at the highest level in their sport , they are not that well known. They are not followed with fanfare till they reach that point with rarest of exceptions perhaps. If Phelps was still the greatest swimmer that he was but had not won any Olympics medals that he has won , yet performed outside the olympics, would he have been as renowned as he is now. Probably not. Even in cricket we know only of the 20-30 people who play international cricket and play successfully. How many of us remember people like Sanjay Bangar for e.g. But we all remember as a nation P.T.Usha , Shiny Wilson, Ashiwini Nachappa , Milka Singh even though they have not won medals. Do we not agree they are legends? Will we ever forget Abhinav Bindra or Susheel Kumar or Vijendar Kumar. I watched Yogeshwar's bronze medal match and it will be one the best sporting moments I will remember.
In every sport the person needs to be at his best for the few minutes when he competes to win. I was very glad that almost throughout the 2.5 weeks I was able to see some indian competing, irrespective of the fact they were winning or losing. Ultimately we will get there. But many came close . Agonizingly close. Even if they did not make the finals of that event. In one of the archery qualifications we lost by 1 point out of some 140 points. And one of the indian archers hit a 5 out of 10 once. And that was the one bad shot in the match and that was it. The room for error is very less and they are competing against the best in the world.
Then there were articles on recognition and rewards for these players. Do we honestly feel that the Olympics medal winners in this era are not recognized and rewarded in India? Only in India we award even the Bronze medal winners with 50 Lakhs and give them ranks like IAS and promotion in their career. We all know about the number of university seats and jobs available for sports quota. So many atheletes get jobs in Railways and Other Services through Sports Quota and get promoted when they do well in international competitions. Not just the public sector. People like Deepika Kumari who has risen in the ranks in the Tata Group she works for by becoming the world champion even though she hasn't won the olympics medal.
From a motivation, rewards and recognition perspective in this modern Era, I do not think that India lacks behind at all. On a comparitive note, the gold medal winners for GB were not given huge cash awards and promotions. They just got Glory.
Again on the comparison, GB won only 1 gold medal in the 1996 olympics. Yet they have turned it around to win 29 this year in spite of not winning Gold in some of the most expected events like diving.
It does not mean that I think that the support for athletes is perfect. But before we finish with that, I think the main reason why we don't produce that many athletes is the Indian parents. The 2 major economic groups in india are the middle class and the lower income class. How many middle class parents want their kids to be athletes. More than 90% of the parents I have known of want their kids to be Engineer or Doctor or IT or at a minimum a college graduate to go into a decent job and for which they have to spend most of their time memorizing their text books in the name of studying in the Indian education system. (Doesn't mean that it doesn't have any merits. I am what I am because of that system.) When the parents dictate the kid's path till they are 21 years old, they don't have much choice in terms of becoming an athlete. The other group which is lower middle class, when struggling to make ends meet, would probably not even think of sports in their dreams unless the natural talent in a kid is discovered by chance and luck by someone in that field.
So the 1.2 Billion population is a myth. More than 90% of them have no interest / time in "participating" in any sport. If you are an IT professional in india for e.g. your kids are probably playing computer games and watching tv more than they actually even play outside? Apart from their School P.E class how much physical sport do they actually indulge in?
I had been supportive of the system for most part of my post. But I read one of the most disturbing articles about the Indian Beuracratic Officials administering testosterone injections for athletes and how its affecting their life. If this is true, I wouldn't want my kids to go through some thing like that for whatever be the rewards.
If anything needs to be changed, that is what needs to be changed first. This is again in the hands of the media. If NDTV has the courage to publish this article, why don't they fight for stopping it. Does the 4th estate not have the moral responsibility to challenge something more fiercely than it does currently?
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