SPIRIDON LOUIS: THE HERO OLYMPIC MOVEMENT BADLY NEEDED

Panathenaic Stadium where I had the opportunity to run a few meters retracing Spiridon Louis route 

When I ran those 200 metres to the finish line on the Panathenaic stadium in Athens, I had only one motive - I wanted to retrace an historic path by Spiridon Louis whose victory at the Marathon event in 1896 heralded the beginning of modern Olympics.

  

Those humble beginnings to Spiridon Louis began in Marousi where his livelihood was earned through transporting fresh water to the inhabitants of Athens - a task that required endurance at a time when water filled tanks was a dream. It wasn't a surprise when he chose a horse and a cart from the Greek King as a part of a 'promise' which allowed winners to be granted with a wish. He knew 'fame' had an expiry date and he went about his usual business after being hailed as 'Greek's national hero' post the 1896 Olympics.

LEGEND OF MARATHON

Michel Breal, a friend of Pierre de Coubertin used his knowledge of history to good use when the first modern Olympic Games were being planned in 1894. He suggested Coubertin to include long distance running competition (25.8 miles) for the Olympics which would add local interest. Not surprisingly, the organisers were delighted with this proposal. The legend of 'Pheidippides' would now be re-lived. The distance 25.8 miles equivalent to 40 km happens to be the approximate distance from the plains of Marathon to the city of Athens. Pheidippides, in his role as a messenger ran 40 km to bear the surprise news of Greek's victory over invading Persians. He blurted out a message which is translated "Rejoice, we conquer" before he collapsed and died. This legend lived on through centuries from the time of Ancient Greece to the turn of 19th century and now an integral part of the Olympic movement.

AT THE OLYMPICS

Before the start of the Olympics, the locals had a disappointing games with no medals to their tally. All hopes were on the Marathon event. As a means to motivate their countrymen, a lot of rewards were promised for a Greek winner. Wealthy and noblemen in and around Athens threw in their offers before the event began. Odds for a Greek win were high as the 21 participants out of 25 finalists were from Greece. However, if anything to go by the performance of American and Australian athletes at the earlier events, a Greek win would surely be an extraordinary effort.

THE RACE

The initial part of the race belonged to the trio of non-Greeks who were the three medallists from the 1500m event. Frenchmen Albin Lermusiaux led the pack for more than 3/4th the distance. Behind him was the Australian Edwin Flack and the American Arthur Blake. The only other non-Greek participant was from Hungary and he was some distance away. The American was the first to pull out after 23 laps and then it was the Frenchmen nine laps later. Edwin Flack who already had two gold medals to his name from the games had eight more kilometers to claim glory. However, he was in an unknown territory of running this long a distance. He was stretching his physical limits and stopped his race just three kilometers from the finish. The news had spread - it was a Greek who was now in the lead and unlike others, his daily job allowed him to endure and not collapse like the other race favourites. He entered the Panathenaic stadium with crowd cheering every step he ran and finished the race just short of 3 hours. Spiridon Louis victorious and the first success story of Olympic movement was scripted!

Spiridon Louis at the 1896 Olympics 

THE HERO OLYMPIC MOVEMENT BADLY NEEDED

Going by his grandson's words, Spiridon Louis accepted none of the cash rich rewards and instead opted just for a cart and a horse. Along with the unofficial rewards, he was presented with the Breal's Silver Cup for winning the marathon. He quietly went back to his hometown Marousi, married his girlfriend and led a low-profile life farming and later as a local police officer. His final public appearance also happened to be at the Olympics, in Berlin 40 years later where he was received with much fanfare. He recalled that hour which made him a Greek hero for life -  “That hour was something unimaginable and it still appears to me in my memory like a dream… Twigs and flowers were raining down on me. Everybody was calling out my name and throwing their hats in the air…” 

A Greek winning the prestigious and historic event positively pushed the cause of Olympic movement. For those scenes, the joyous crowd running short of praise for their newfound hero was just the final touch Pierre de Coubertin was looking for when he had envisioned the idea of 'Olympics' and its revival. If not for that emotional connection, I am pretty sure, Olympics as a concept would have taken a different course. 

TWO OLYMPICS, TWO MEDALS.. SAME YEAR - CHRISTA ROTHENBURGER LUDING

CHRISTA ROTHENBURGER LUDING  - AS A SPEED SKATER AND AS A CYCLIST  

It took me some time to learn the tricks of cycling only to realise I could just ride and not perform tricks. Skating, as far as it goes I have managed once to wear the skating shoes and tried them on the roads, before my friend asked me to give it back. My time was over and 18 years hence, I still haven’t managed to buy myself a pair of skates. And now I do not have my cycle either. That’s another story.

Anyways, the above mentioned thoughts came when I got reminded of Christa Rothenburger Luding who holds a strange distinction in the world of sports. Six months younger than my mother, she holds the distinction of winning medals in both summer and Winter Olympics. I first read about her when I was researching few facts for my Sports Quiz few years ago and happen to discover the fact - that she remains as the first and the last athlete to have won both winter and Summer Olympics medals in the same year.

Born in the year 1959 in the city of Weisswasser (previously East Germany before unification in 1990) she competed in five Olympics editions in two different events. Her first participation was at the 1980 games at Lake Placid where she took part in the 500m and 1000m speed skating events. Although she didn’t manage to win any medals in the first edition, she did strike gold in her second attempt at Sarajevo Games (city previously in Yugoslavia and now in Bosnia-Herzegovina) in the 500m speed-skating event. Continuing her good form she went on to be the world champion in speed skating at the 1985 World Sprint Championship.

It was during the early 1980’s while she was being coached by Ernst Luding (whom she married 8 years later at the culmination of the 1988 Winter Olympics) she was convinced to take up track cycling during the off-season as speed skating and track cycling, both disciplines require speed and strength in addition to balance. Both events strike a resemblance - they take place in oval shaped tracks and hence the physical requisites required in both sports bear some similarities.

She received considerable amount of support from East Germany sports federation after the initial reluctance to allow her to compete in the cycling events. Having secured the permission from the President of the national Sports Federation, Christa took part in cycling championships and in the year 1986 she won a gold medal at the World Cycling Championships and thus became only the second woman after Sheila Young to become a world champion in both speed skating and track cycling.

TWIN STRIKES

The year 1988 turned out to be the best year of her life. She won the silver medal in the 500m speed skating and a gold medal in the 1000m at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Few months later, she was at the other end of the globe to the Far East in Seoul to participate in sprint cycling. Having earlier won medals at the Winter Olympics, she managed to win a silver medal in the 1000m track cycling event and thereby joining an elite league of athletes winning both summer and Winter Olympics medal.

Gillis Grafstrom from Sweden, Eddie Eagen from United States, Jacob Tullin Thams from Norway and very recently the Canadian Clara Hughes have achieved a similar feat - but none managed to achieve in the same year.

Before the German reunification in 1990, Christa competed for East Germany and afterwards for Germany. She remained a dominating figure for more than 10 years and was considered to be one of the world's best sprinters in speed skating. At the World Sprint Championships in speed skating, she became World Champion twice (in 1985 and 1988), won silver medal twice (in 1986 and 1989), and won 4 bronze medals (in 1979, 1983, 1987, and 1992). She has also won the 500 m World Cup 3 times (in 1986, 1988, and 1989) and the 1,000 m World Cup once (in 1988).

After winning a bronze medal at the 1992 World Sprint Championships (in which she was unable to win any of the 4 distances), Christa Rothenburger Luding ended her speed skating career.

At the turn of early 1990’s, International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided - that winter and Summer Olympics would bifurcate  and there would be a gap of two years between the events. Starting with Lillehammer in 1994, Winter Olympics was held and is being held alternatively with the main Summer Olympics event.

This decision ensured Christa Rothenburger Luding to remain the only athlete to have won medals in both editions of Olympics held in the same year. A feat, which is unlikely to be emulated. 

LONDON OLYMPICS 2012: AN INDIAN HOPE

On 27^th July 20:00 Greenwich time – the biggest multi-sport spectacle shall begin not just across London, but possibly in every country in the world. I am sure most of the earth’s human population would be glued to televisions, or on the internet to watch the Opening Ceremony.

2012 is London’s time to host the quadrennial event and preparations were on since the time they won the bid way back in 2005. It seems a long time ago, I was still an engineering student then and now all those years of work put by the London Organising Committee will be witnessed by a lot of people. They get their praise, will have share of criticisms but that’s modern life – you can never be in the limelight without accompanied by share of praises and controversies.

Well, controversies shall be aimed at the Organising Committee – be it over budget, security mess and few humanitarian and labour issues. I was in London back in 2009; I drove on the way where most of the work for Olympics was being done. It is a great feeling to be an Olympic city, isn’t it? Not many outside the sporting fraternity agreed to this. “London isn’t a developing economy so they don’t need Olympic Games to showcase the city or the country in general to the world” – echoed few concerned voices. Let’s get world economics into perspective - there was absolutely no mention of ‘recession’ when the Games were awarded to London. In fact, this could have been any city across Europe and America who were bidding for the Games. With Beijing having already hosted the Games, we can eliminate Asia as one of the candidate cities.

Amidst many issues and triumphs, here we are hours before the start of the 30^th edition of Modern Olympics. This is the time to look at the success stories of individuals and teams who have been preparing for the Games for that one moment of glory. During the Olympics – it isn’t about the Organising Committee; the talk of the town will be the athletes, so it should be. The mere mention of athletes will be termed ‘success’ – as Olympics is about them and rest of them just play a supporting role.

Being an Indian, I am pumped up for these games than ever before. Main reason being, this is the best chance we have to improve our record and evolve as a sporting nation.  

For a moment, let’s forget there are better countries in the world who have been consistently winning from years. No other country measure to the size and ambiguity as India do. Sports, let’s face it isn’t a top priority in our country. There are larger issues at stake, but doesn’t mean sports must be ignored. Every sector has a department and because of the failure of other sectors, it doesn’t mean we have to not give importance to Sports. I have heard people saying – Sports doesn’t fill a poor man. The issue isn’t with Sports; it is the other departments that are supposed to be looking into that. Honestly, it is sad that Sports have been overlooked for so many reasons in the name of reasons given aplenty.

Even while sanctions have been made from the Government, there weren’t and aren’t enough skilled and visionary people working for the federations to make the best use of facilities given. You don’t need to have the best facilities, but we have been poor in optimising the resources. Be it the way money spent sporadically in the name of Sports or lack of enthusiasm, and looking Sports as one of the ways to get to power. This isn’t abnormal by any standards – The whole world operates this way and sporting world isn’t different, but not at the cost of overlooking the basics. Developed countries (Sports or Politics) play power games at a higher level where as it starts from the low level here – Reality check.

So next time, before we compare India to any other sporting nation – let us take a moment to reflect if that actually makes sense. Mere comparing to other countries exposes our shortcomings in the lack of understanding as to how our country operates.

India, the sporting country passed the baton from hockey to cricket after the success of Indian cricket (World Cup 1983) which coincided with downfall of hockey. From 1984, it has been a downward slide for Indian hockey at the Olympics. History speaks about us being the 8-time Olympic champions – Well the last time was a good 32 years ago. Now history is anything but forgotten – as we live in those moments and try to pacify ourselves than trying to correct the present mess, hockey is in.

Post independence, there has been only handful of people to have won medals for India. Barring Hockey, we have had seven athletes who have won the medals for India. K.D. Jadhav won the bronze medal for Wrestling at Helsinki (1952 Games) and it took a 44 years and a gap of 10 Olympics before we had another individual winning the medal. Leander Paes did it and all the countrymen were over the moon. I was 12 years then and it was my second Olympics after having watched the 1992 Barcelona Games for the first time on TV telecast. It took me time to understand the meaning of it, but I was thrilled because he won. Putting some historic perspective - Sports was either winning or losing back then, and not much emphasis was given to the process of either. Personally it is different now – and I don’t have that innocence anymore. Leander Paes winning was also the first Indian medal since the Hockey Gold at the Moscow Olympics. In a way, the bronze tennis medal was a turning point and made Olympics as a focal point in Indian sports.

Karnam Malleshwari became the first woman to win an Olympic medal for India (weightlifting 69 kg category) at Sydney and so there were some celebrations in few sections of our society. It also coincided with a transition phase in India where you had a lot of women taking up jobs. Malleshwari’s medal gave a boost to the future of Indian women sports. In the last decade we have seen some good improved performances by Indian women athletes, but none went on to win the Olympic medal. But we are getting there.

Though we had tasted Gold medals, it was only at the team sport level. Silver medals individually were previously won by Norman Pritchard (1900 Games - two silver medals, a Brit representing British India), none came post independence. It was the double-trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who went a step ahead and took the silver medal. Indian sports seemed to have evolved, slowly and steadily. Three Olympics, three individual medals – it was high time wasn’t it, especially when looked from an Indian context?

India is compared to China in terms of economy and population. But the ideologies remain different and more often the foundation plays an important role in sustaining and giving any projects some effectiveness. To demonstrate as the next super power, China took the opportunity as hosts to showcase that they are to be seen as world leaders in sports as well. The greatest example one can give is demonstration.

China did just that, as they ended up winning 51 Gold Medals at the 2008 Games whereas India celebrated similarly for winning the first individual gold. I can safely say, more money was spent in India for that one gold medal than what China would have spent celebrating 51 Gold medals. That’s difference in culture isn’t it? Irrespective of our situations, I was happy to note that, progress was happening and 2008 Games ended up being the most successful games for India – winning three medals (one Gold medal and two bronze medals).

Abhinav Bindra became the toast of the country whereas Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh weren’t left too behind.  I was delighted to see more than one medal in the medals tally. That was a first for me and those eyes still retained that innocence in 2008. In a way 2008 was the year when I took a serious decision to study Sports and make that as a career option. And here I am four years later, working in the sports industry having different perspectives about Sports than what I had and for the first time hoping, expecting medals from India. Losing my innocence? Or is this a process of discovering Indian Sports?

Yes, earlier I watched the games with an open mind. Not anymore - as much as I am open to how things pan out; I am never shy to offer my opinion. It isn’t just being patriotic and being blindly supportive, but it is now looking from a broader perspective. While I am not expecting miracles (that’s better left when not expecting), I am looking at some serious performances in the coming two weeks at London. Shooting, Boxing, Wrestling, Badminton, Archery and Tennis are the sports I and the entire nation will be looking at. As an Indian, I am expecting 5 medals from this edition. After having seen a lot of work going through in the last four years, five medals is not an unfair expectation. Five or more medals would do for me keeping the reality of our sporting situation in the country.

On an end note I just wanted to highlight - Sporting triumphs doesn’t fill our stomachs, but ask any fan or a follower/watcher of Sports – It provides a moment of joy to celebrate success as if it was our own. That is the power of Sports and in Olympics the joy gets bigger as it will be done on a world stage. It isn’t just about the medals overall but it is the way you play and as an addition, for going the distance he/she will be remembered for that particular moment,  the moment where words fail to explain the feeling. Joy, tears, pain, agony and disappointment becomes the five symbolic human expressions through we understand the reason why Olympics exist.

Like I said, I am looking at the Olympics only from a sporting perspective as the other issues should remain backstage for the next two weeks and when Paralympics begin at the conclusion of Olympics. There is a time for every discussion and the time currently is just about the Olympics –  It is about  10,500 athletes coming from 204 countries (few playing under Olympic Flag), taking part in 26 Sports over 302 events. For a first in the history of Olympics - female athletes from all those 204 countries will be participating. Now isn’t this world coming to one place?