LILLEHAMMER AND ITS OLYMPIC LEGACY

The year 1988 was a turning point in the Olympic movement - at the 91^st  IOC session which was held in Lausanne in what one might call a strategic marketing ploy, the suggestions for hosting Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics on different years was put to vote. A landmark decision was taken, the two Olympics were split and spaced two years in even numbered years. The same Lausanne session also saw Barcelona, Spain and Albertville, France being elected as the hosts for the 1992 Summer Olympics and the 1992 Winter Olympics respectively.

Lillehammer, the Norwegian town was one of the bid cities (although theoretically it is a town) that showed interest to host the 1992 Winter Olympics along with Anchorage (United States), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Ostersund (Sweden), there was an opportunity to host the Winter Olympics two years later.

On 15^th September 1988, during the 94^th  IOC session at Seoul, South Korea, after the first round of voting, barring Sofia (which was eliminated), each of the remaining three venues had a chance. At the end of third round of voting, Lillehammer was chosen as the host and the selection marked the dawn of a new era in the Olympic movement.

While working on a sports event in 2010, my senior project manager narrated the experience of his first ever assignment and that happened to be at the 1994 Winter Olympics. His stories inspired me to visit this tiny town and in 2011, I did spend some time in Lillehammer. Looking at the Lysgårdsbakken ski-area and its surroundings, one could not miss the legacy the 1994 Olympics had left behind. Along with those pleasant memories, I also picked up a stuffed toy - a pair of Norwegian children Håkon and Kristin, dressed in Viking clothes.  

A few months later in December 2011, the town won the hosting rights for the second Youth Winter Olympic Games. In 150 days, this northernmost Olympic town will come alive and those unforgettable tales of Norwegian culture will again be in display to all the youth Olympians. 

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. 

MEET CHARLOTTE COOPER - 1ST FEMALE INDIVIDUAL GOLD MEDALLIST AT THE OLYMPICS

Charlotte Cooper

If one looks at the involvement of women in sports, it is heartening to see the growth across the world -participating in formats which previously were considered for men. The Olympic movement has had its own evolution story when it comes to women's participation and that is only half the story. At the first modern Olympics in 1896, there were 241 athletes who took part and all were men. Compare this with the recently concluded Summer Olympics at London 2012; there were women participating from every National Olympic Committee that had sent its team. That to me happens to be the highlight of London 2012 - never mind the broadcast, internet and all the filtered figures which were reported to an all-time high.

Over the years, women's participation was in parallel to the Olympic movement itself. While the world boasted of well-known male athletes, there was little work done to provide opportunity for women to compete at the big stage. Women's growth at the Olympics was positive with each edition - but very gradual. It was zero in 1896 and in 2012, the women participation was 4,675!

Up until the 1970's, the male participation hovered around 4,000 plus athletes and in comparison the women numbers were less than thousand. This trend continued until Munich 1972 where the total number of women participants crossed 1000 for the first time and 6000 for men. From then on, it has been women participants, that are on the rise while the male participation is pretty much a constant.

These were some interesting stats I pondered over in the morning. These facts were hard to escape when I was remembering my 2005 sports quiz discovery. In 2005, while researching for the college's annual fest, I stumbled upon a lady by the name of Charlotte Cooper - who turns 144 today and has the distinction of being the first individual female Olympic champion.

WOMEN TENNIS IN 19th CENTURY

Women participation at the Olympics was possible only because the games were held in Paris - so said the media and very well-known Olympic critics of that era. Interestingly it was the sport tennis which was very popular among women in the late 19th century though it being very elitist. Cooper, a British born was a Victorian woman first and then a tennis player; this was evident with the outfits that were worn by the tennis playing ladies at that time.

There were other problems that women faced. Charlotte grew up at a time when Women Suffrage movement had began and gathered momentum, demanding equal voting rights for women. She took a liking for tennis at an early age and earned her first victory at the age of 14 - something she considered as a very important moment of her illustrious life.

At the age of 23, she would win her first title at the senior's level which propelled her to the Wimbledon championships, where she would leave an ever-lasting impression on those famous green laws.

CHARLOTTE AND HER TENNIS FAME

It was the year 1893 when Cooper first appeared on the famous grass courts of Wimbledon - a association which would remain till 1919. In those 26 years, a lot of events took place in her life. She had won five-singles titles, eleven finals appearances, two Olympic medals (singles and mixed-doubles), marriage to a solicitor, mother of two kids and the oldest lady singles player to win the coveted Wimbledon trophy - a Wimbledon record which stands to this date (37 years and 296 days). In addition, she was also the runner-up at the inaugural women's doubles event in 1913.

If it was Wimbledon on one side, there was also the Olympics which brought her fame and a legacy which is often recalled when one has to start a chapter on women's evolution in the Olympic movement.

1900 PARIS

The timing of the event could not have been perfect for Charlotte Cooper. One of the top ladies players going into the tournament, she had also been a three-time Wimbledon champion before representing Great Britain at the Olympics.

Six players from four nations (Great Britain, USA, France and Bohemia) participated in the debut programme of women's tennis. Three matches and three straight wins - all it took for Charlotte Cooper to become Olympic's first individual gold medallist defeating France's Hélènè Prévost 6-1, 6-4 . Cooper went on to add another gold medal to her tally and this time it was with Reginald Doherty as the British doubles team won the mixed doubles gold medal as well on the red clay courts of Il Puteaux.

The IOC until 1904 did not start the practice of awarding winning athletes with medals. The winners of the 1896 and 1900 edition were retrospectively awarded and added to the medals tally.  

TENNIS, TENNIS AND MORE TENNIS

Charlotte Cooper's biggest contribution towards life is that she inspired a lot of women to take up sports in the early parts of the 20th century. Not restricted to tennis, she also spent a lot of the winter time training by running and playing hockey - a sport in which she represented Surrey. Her sense of hearing was hampered by the time she was 26 and yet this ailment did not deter her to participate in future tournaments and successfully win at Wimbledon and at the Olympics. Growing up, she had the likes of Lottie Dod (5-time Wimbledon winner) and Blanche Bingley (6-time Wimbledon winner) who won regularly; Cooper joined the duo and inspired the next generation of ladies tennis players.

After becoming the Olympic champion, she married a solicitor Alfred Sterry (six years younger) and raised two children Rex and Gwyneth. Marital life with children did not deter her from giving up tennis. She continued playing tennis with best of the players well into her 50's.

Not only she holds the record for being the oldest Wimbledon champ, she also won her final title after being a mother of two and since 1908 only two have managed to win a Wimbledon title - Dorthea Lambert Chambers and Evonne Goolagong Cawley. Charlotte held the record for most Wimbledon consecutive finals appearances (eight) before that record was broken in 1990 by Martina Navratilova when made her ninth consecutive finals appearance against Zina Garrison.

Upon retirement, she took a lot of interest to help the next generation of tennis players and was seen regularly at the championships right in to her 90's. Her son Rex served as a committee member of the All-England Lawn Tennis club for many years while his sister, Gwyneth represented Great Britain in Wightman Cup and also at the Wimbledon.

Charlotte Cooper - one of the first in women tennis to use overhead serves 

The story of Cooper is not just limited to tennis. She happens to be one of the first 22 women who took part in the 1900 Summer Olympics - a number which now is in thousands and increasing with each edition. (Till date 35,510 female athletes have taken part at the Summer Olympics when compared with 108,982 male athletes)

So how do we remember on her 144th birthday - when even the founders of the modern Olympic movement (IOC) have made no mention of her on website or on twitter.

Maybe she is just a name... or a past time story, or a piece of treasure for sports historians and tennis fans, or an example of a balanced lifestyle, longevity; an athlete in possession of a record or a very good trivia question or I am trying to fit in lines to make her life size legendary......... or in simple words, I would like to remember her to be the first talking point if one has to talk about Women at the Olympics! 

KABADDI, KABADDI - WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

Last month saw the culmination of a successful inaugural tournament in Mumbai. It was played at eight cities across India and turned out to be a hit among spectators - who witnessed the events unfold inside the stadium along with millions of viewers on television. Finally, a non-cricket sport, very local to India has been marketed and presented as a successful business model.

Recognition for those hard-working athletes, return on investment for people with deep pockets, a platform with commercial benefits for broadcasters and entertainment for viewers. What more do you want? This is what a non-Olympic sport 'Kabaddi' managed to achieve through Pro Kabaddi League recently; a commercial sports property that has captured the hearts of many Indians locally and globally.

Punjabi immigrants playing Kabaddi in Greece 

WHAT IS KABADDI?

Kabaddi is primarily a sport played mostly by the Asian countries surrounding the Indian sub-continent. The origins of this contact team sport dates back to pre-historic times and has its inspiration from a scene in the Indian epic 'Mahabharata'. Many who have followed the tales of Abhimanyu - the sixteen year old warrior gallantly trying to break the seven-tiered army formation of the opponents 'Kauravas' can loosely connect with the modern sport of Kabaddi. 

Kabaddi (holding of breath in Hindi) involves athleticism, presence of mind, reflexes, guts, breath control and team work. It is simple to comprehend, played both indoors, grass, beach, just about any outdoor place. A game usually finishes within the clock striking 60 minutes. Seven members consist in a team with two teams participating in a game. One member (raider) gets into the opponent and battles with seven of them together (defense or the antis), while moving to either sides continuously exhaling with chants of 'Kabaddi, Kabaddi, Kabaddi' without getting caught by the opponent's formation. All the raider has to do is touch as many opponents as possible without getting caught by the defense (opponents) on a single breath. The raider can inhale only when he/she returns to their home court and deemed out if they are unsuccessful in making contact with the opponents. The raider exhales continuously until he scores a point! Phew  

Wrestling in the raider to the ground by the defense helps them to stop the raider from reaching his home court, inhale again and thereby preventing the raider to score points. It is a test of mind, body and a lot more!  

The Antis (defense) touched by a raider during the attack are ruled 'out' if they are unsuccessful in catching the raider before returning to the home court. And then the other team sends a raider and the battle continues. The team with maximum points wins. Gone are the days, when the teams battled on for hours... now it makes sense to have it time bound and thus a marvellous spectator sport. Simple isn't it?

THROUGH THE AGES

Kabaddi happens to be the national sport of Bangladesh and Nepal though much of its origins and development was in India. Kabaddi dates back to pre-historic times, a time when there was no concept of AD or BC. However, the official recognition of this sport came only in the early 20^th century. Kabaddi achieved the national status only in 1918 and the popularity was spread across the country in the coming years thanks to some of the pioneers hailing from Maharashtra - a populous state of India.

Small overview of Kabaddi

KABADDI AT THE OLYMPICS

In 1912, IOC (International Olympic Committee) had introduced a formal platform through which some of the 'folk' games and other regional games would use Olympics for the promotion of the sport. In the name of 'demonstration sports', several countries put forth their sport and promoted it well- which then resulted in them being part of the Olympic programme. Basketball, canoeing, kayaking, baseball, volleyball, tennis (was part of Olympics from 1896 to 1924), judo, taekwondo in Summer Sports and curling, speed skating, speed skiing, ice dancing, short speed skating were just few demonstration sports to begin with and later becoming a part of the Olympic programme.

Kabaddi too was given an opportunity to be part of this group and a grand promotion was given by the Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal from Maharashtra at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I am not sure what happened after that. Did the Indian hockey team's achievements overshadow this promotional sport? or was it too Indian at that time?

A ROUGH START

India has been at the forefront for the development of Kabaddi to global audience for close to hundred years. With limited international exposure, it was indeed a challenge to promote the sport commercially. It was mere restricted to schools and colleges with few professionals playing at the national level. Since the birth of the national federation in 1950, the administrators have had constant battles and had to give way to either Hockey till the 1980's or Cricket from the 1980's in order to remain popular. Barring few Asian countries, there were no contests that made headlines and it remained a 'recreational' sport for most people in India - a sport played once in a while just for fun. That includes me! As a kid growing up, I played Kabaddi just for fun without ever dreaming a single day of becoming a 'Kabaddi' player.

FORMATION OF A RECOGNISED BODY

Till the beginning of this millennium, Kabaddi was making strides mostly in the Asia continent with it being a regular at the Asian Games since 1990. A mere 31 countries as founding members, the International Kabaddi Federation was formed in 2004. Not surprisingly, India was chosen as its headquarters in Jaipur and with an India holding the reins at the top.

All the continents (five rings, remember?) now have teams that participate in the World cup - a event which has been held since 2004 and held annually since 2010. There is no team yet to defeat India in the finals in both men's and women's division and only time will tell, if other teams are there just to make up the numbers.

SMALL STEPS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Kabaddi is a sport which is very popular in India. Each region knows this sport by different names, unique to their respective regions. Though it is not India's national sport (It is not cricket either... it is hockey) various states have 'Kabaddi' has its state sport.

Where does Kabaddi go from here?

I believe the revival of Kabaddi to suit television audience, spectator friendly and being played in a league format among teams spread across the golden quadrilateral of India is one of the success stories for India this year. Celebrities throwing in their names and money has helped in a great way to stay in the media.

In the last two decades, there is a surge in number of movies released in India with Kabaddi being the theme. Indians to a large extent love to be entertained and most do not mind paying money, spending time and sometimes loads of money to be at the receiving end of the entertainers. Kabaddi as a mass-sport, for the first time has come of age.

India probably is the right country to experiment on non-cricket sports. The consumption of sports is getting better with each year. The next ten years is  a test ground - where sporting revolutions will constantly hit the human evolution across the nation. A little late perhaps to join the bandwagon, but a tremendous business opportunity which would last longer!

Having Kabaddi as a Olympic sport is a long way ahead and I believe that should not be the sole focal point. Everything does not begin and end with being part of the Olympic programme. Taking a cue from the Olympic charter, Kabaddi as a sport exalts and combines in a balanced manner the qualities of body, will and mind. And plus, it is not a complicated sport!

In India, Kabaddi has triggered a  revival movement for so-called 'folk' sports and in turn it into a spectator sport. As long as it is entertaining and athletes keep developing, sport will evolve positively on its own. All it needs is investment and continued nurturing.

   

The first step of achieving something great is possible and is a common occurrence. Kabaddi in its new avatar (Pro Kabaddi League) has achieved the first target. However, very few have managed to remain relevant and re-discovered themselves for the better from time to time. How will it be say after five years? I would surely want to look back and have more to write on it... or even working on Kabaddi! 

Pro Kabaddi League 2014 - Success story in Indian sports 

FROM A SEPOY TO A MAJOR - DHYAN CHAND'S HOCKEY JOURNEY - PART II

The selection to host the tenth Olympic Games was taken at the 23rd IOC session at Rome in 1923, a good nine years before the event. Los Angeles in United States was given the honour as no other cities made a bid to host the Games. From India's perspective, travelling to Los Angeles would involve twice the cost than it did to travel to Amsterdam.

A lot of critics pointed out since a lot of teams were not taking part at the Olympics, was there any point in sending a hockey team all the way to LA, spending a lot of money? The IHF under the new administration of M. Hayman and Pankaj Gupta were firm in sending a team to LA and to defend the Olympic title.

NO SELECTION TRIAL FOR DHYAN CHAND

A selection trail to select the team bound for LA was organised in Kolkata. Unlike the previous time, Dhyan Chand was not given any permission to take part in the selection trial. He was now part of the Punjab Regiment and the Army sports board felt he should be an automatic choice to play for India. Moreover, the army sports board no longer presided over IHF - it was now down to civilians and this matter of Dhyan Chand did not create any fuss. Dhyan Chand felt he was given a royal treatment and had no choice but to accept the orders while his teammates from the winning squad played in the inter-provincial tournaments for a place to play in LA.

WHAT IS HOCKEY?

One must remember, India was a good decade and a half away from independence. Funds exclusively for sports and for teams touring abroad was uncommon. Back then in 1932, a lot of influential Indians were busy involving themselves in the freedom movement. While IHF was looking for funds, backing from one of these Indians and namely Mahatma Gandhi would spark up the interest and pave the way for receiving funds from banks or donors.

Charles Newham in his capacity as a journalist was asked by IHF to contact Mahatma Gandhi and tell him about the hockey team and their desire to compete at the upcoming Olympics. Mahatma was busy with his political activities and Newham, with great difficulty managed to reach him and explain him the situation from IHF's perspective. All he heard back from Mahatma was - 'What is hockey'?

Mission unsuccessful. a crest-fallen Newham returned back with no success. It was left to Hayman and Pankaj Gupta to convince banks for a loan and they finally managed to get a loan from Punjab National Bank in Kolkata.

AROUND THE WORLD

With IHF left to themselves in arranging for the money, they came with a lot of ideas to generate funds. One such idea was to play a lot of games at selected centres till they reached LA via Pacific Ocean. For their return, Pankaj Gupta came up with an idea and suggested players that few matches will be arranged post the Olympics in the Europe continent which would generate money to pay back the loan.

All players agreed with the idea of playing in Europe and were prepared to forgo their daily non-playing allowances of £2 per week while on tour in Europe. Instead of a simple return fare ticket, all players had round-the-world tickets. Onward via Pacific and return via Atlantic.

WHEN IN TROUBLE, TURN TO BENGAL   

In a repeat of 1928, Bengal was again trusted with the task of creating a financial success out of the 1932 inter-provincial tournament. Ten teams (Bengal, Sindh, Delhi, Gwalior, Mumbai, Rajputana, United Provinces, Bihar & Orissa, Punjab and Railways) as against five in 1928 took part and an exhibition match was held to satisfy the provinces of Bundelkhand and Manavadar which Manavadar won 3-1. Punjab beat Bengal 2-0 in the finals. A further two matches were held and a final decision was made based on these performances. Bengal Hockey Association contributed an amount close to 21,000 INR for the Olympic journey and expenses.

SELECTION WOES

With more teams participating and with Olympic win at stake, each association tried to squeeze in their player. Punjab was represented heavily with seven players while Bengal had just two players with rest coming from either Mumbai, Railways or UP. Along with Dhyan Chand; Richard Allen, Leslie Hammond and Eric Pinniger were the only members who had earlier participated in the 1928 Olympics.

This 15 member squad was headed by Lal Shah Bokhari, a player from Punjab who after partition held an important position in the External Affairs Ministry of Pakistan government and was posted in diplomatic roles in foreign countries. Eric Pinniger who had captained the team at the latter stages in the previous edition was unimpressed with this decision. If not for timely intervention from Charles Newham, Eric Pinniger would not have travelled with the squad.

G.D Sondhi, the then honorary secretary of Indian Olympic Association was chosen as the manager. He alongside his wife travelled separately, stayed separately and left players on their own post Olympics in Europe. Though, Sondhi represented well in social functions, his role as a manager is something I would question, if I were to be present then! Luckily, the team had Pankaj Gupta as their assistant manager. 

       Indian team for the 1932 Olympics, Image Courtesy - Bharatiya Hockey

THE JOURNEY

May 14, 1932 - most of the Olympic bound players assembled in Bhopal. In the next few days, a series of matches were held as a part of fund-raising through gate receipts. Hockey matches were played with the local teams at Bhopal, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Colombo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kobe, Tokyo where the Indian team registered wins in all their matches.

From Yokohama (June 24th 1932) the players left for the Olympics. A lot of Olympic passengers took the same boat (Tatsuta Maru) and the ship resembled a miniature stadium with practice matches on the top deck had Indians playing hockey. 100m running course, swimming pool gave enough athletes some much needed practice during this journey.

In total, India's Olympic contingent had N.C Malik (swimming); Sutton, Venieux and Mehr Chand (Athletics) and the hockey team represented India out of 400 million population! The contingent disembarked in San Pedro, California and then further 10 miles ride to Los Angeles was arranged by the organising committee.

Olympic village made its appearance for the first time - temporary cottages with each having two rooms with a small toilet. Community dining hall and common bathrooms with a separate provision for women as they were not allowed to enter this Olympic village.

HOCKEY IS NOT JUST ICE HOCKEY

A lot of Americans had never seen field hockey before. Ice-hockey remained the only knowledge of hockey to most Americans. Wherever little hockey was played, it was due to the presence of Englishmen and women; mostly women players from Philadelphia. A local Los Angeles daily wrote:

"All the colour, glamour and pageantry of Rudyard Kipling's India might well have found its incarnation in the personnel of the Indian hockey team, which is to represent the land of Mahatma Gandhi.

So agile are the members of the team that they can run the full length of the hockey field, juggling a small wooden ball with the flat of a hockey stick. One who knows nothing of the rigours of hockey should take a warning here. Don't get in the line of fire on a hockey field, for the hockey ball, driven by a forehand or a backhand, is almost as deadly and as accurate as a cannon ball.

Should one doubt this, just let them watch the Indian players in their daily practice on the turf of the University."

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

In absence of US President Herbert Hoover, the Games were officially declared open by vice-president Charles Curtis. Indian clothing comprised of brown shoes, white flannel trousers, a light blue blazer coat with Star of India monogram as the crest and Punjabi turban as the headgear got a loud applause from the crowd during the parade of the nations. Lal Shah Bokhari, captain of the hockey team carried the flag for India - a Union Jack flag with the Star of India embossed on it. 

                  At the parade of the nations, Indian contingent at LA 1932 Olympics    Image Courtesy - The Hindu 

THE MATCHES

On August 4 1932, India played their first match against Japan and won it easily 11-1. Yet, they were disappointed with the fact that, they had conceded a goal - a first for India in the Olympics. Dhyan Chand scored 4 goals.

Next up against USA, a week later and it was a goal feast. Indians won the match 24-1 with Dhyan Chand scoring 8 goals and his brother Roop Singh netting 10 goals. The lone goal by America was from Bodlington.

Three teams took part at the Olympics and India by a huge margin won the gold medal and thereby defended their 1928 title. All fifteen players who were selected took part in these two games and a happy contingent was prepared to leave USA on a high note.

A lot of Indians watched the match and some were generous enough to organise funds to the extent of $200 to meet the deficit of the Olympic fund.

RETURN JOURNEY AND MORE HOCKEY

The Indian contingent visited few of the touristic sites in California before they left for New York. During this journey, they relaxed by bathing at some of the famous salt lakes of Salt Lake City, played hockey at Omaha under floodlights and in Philadelphia before stopping at New York. Some more sightseeing before they took the boat 'Mauritania' which carried them to Southampton.

Like I had mentioned before, no interest was taken from the English hockey authorities to field in their team to play India. Instead, German Hockey Association offered generously to meet all the expenses on the Continent. The Indian team had a hectic schedule and played their matches against Holland, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The quality of hockey was much better than the ones played at the Olympics.

While in Prague, the hockey team played a match against a women's team. With Hayman being the umpire, a lot of restrictions were imposed on the Indian team and most notably the Indian team ended up playing left-handed. Dhyan Chand was to excel here as well and a smitten young Czech girl, a hockey enthusiast told him - 'he was an angel' and made many attempts were made by her to kiss him post match. A shy guy that he was refused each time! This incident was also part of the tour report written by Hayman.

From Budapest, the team left for Naples and en route they halted at Vienna, Florence, Rome and finally the team boarded the ship from Naples to Colombo on September 18, 1932.

They played few matches in Colombo before they left for Chennai, then to Mumbai, Delhi and finally to Lahore where they went separate ways on October 16. All these matches were played to repay the expenses of the trip and they still ended up with a deficit of more than 3,000 INR - which was taken care by Hayman.

The team in total played a total of 37 matches in this five-month trip scored 338 goals and conceded just 34 goals. Dhyan Chand alone accounted for 133 goals! It was time for him to go back to this home town, Jhansi where he had series of receptions hosted by his friends and well-wishers.

END NOTE

Hockey was represented poorly at the 1932 Olympics with just three nations taking part. If India would have not done this long journey, would the status of hockey still remained as an Olympic sport or would it have been scrapped by the IOC following a poor turnout?

From Indian point of view, it costed them a lot - but the hockey fraternity internationally benefitted by this tour of India, where they not only saw Indian winning the Olympic gold medal, they also witnessed the demonstration of this skilful sport.

Dhyan Chand was now ranked Naik in the  Indian army and was offered a lucrative civilian job with the railways as Hayman, president of IHF was also a senior member in the railway board. Dhyan Chand was caught in two minds and decided to stick with the army after being assured by the Army General personally that he would be looked after well.

In the next part of the series chronicles the events that Dhyan Chand and the Indian hockey fraternity had to endure in their quest to defend their Olympic title amidst the hoopla of Nazi regime in Berlin. 

Back from Isolation - Indian Olympic Story

It was in 2012 when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to take that drastic step - a decision which was necessary from administration point of view specifically at the conduct of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) post Commonwealth Games 2010.

There were huge cries, issues of false pride and other theatrics from Indian officials. The news of Indian Olympic Association being banned dominated the sports news segment for a day, or a two or if persisted a week and nothing more apart from the periodic cameos. It was usual business from then on. The corruption charges of the CWG 2010 went back to being a political matter than a sporting matter.

If CWG 2010 and various accusations are one hand; it is the manner in which the postmortem was conducted that irked many followers of Indian Olympics. Clearly, this was an administrative issue(s) and the so-called 'God fathers' of Indian Olympic movement ignored the media scrutiny and the threat from the IOC. They took that one extra step and elected candidates who were either charge sheeted or being prosecuted by Indian judiciary or on bail. Which era are they living in?

I believe the ban was justified. It tempered down the egos and the softened the temerarious officials - the tainted ones who put in their names without shame or consideration. Something had to happen and IOC made a bold move and banned the entire association till the time the internal crisis were resolved. A cut-off from the Olympic tree.

It took some time for the news to sink in, analyse, react and then formulate a game plan to get back into the Olympic fold. There were several mails exchanged and the pressure was less considering 2013 was a non-Olympic year. When the decision was finally taken, it was little late. The IOA as a organisation missed the Olympic train. 

Indian contingent classified as Independent Athletes marched into the Opening Ceremony under Olympic flag. These three athletes - a five time Olympian Shiv Keshavan, Himanshu Thakur and Nadeem Iqbal were the only ones to be 'independent' and without a national flag at the Sochi Winter Olympics. 

Indian Athletes under Olympic Flag at Sochi 2014 - Getty Images

One can script a drama surrounding these episodes and echoing various sentiments of many people involved in this. A new scene was shot two days ago when the new IOA officials were elected, ably observed by an IOC delegation headed by IOC member Robin Mitchell.

Narayna Ramachandran, President of the World Squash Federation and the brother of BCCI supremo N. Srinivasan, was elected as the new President; Rajeev Mehta and Anil Khanna chosen as the new Secretary General and Treasurer respectively.

"The IOC observers told the EB members of the IOC about the IOA elections being held in full respect of the recently passed NOC constitution, and this new constitution complies with all IOC requirements, including the main clause that no person convicted or charge-framed can run for a position within the organisation."

History was made at Sochi today - for the first time in Olympic chronicles that a suspension of an NOC has been lifted during the Olympic Games and with immediate effect.

What does this mean? The three independent athletes at the Sochi Games can now compete under Indian flag, can walk behind their national flag at the Closing ceremony and as a symbolic way of depicting the recognition of three Indian athletes - Indian flag will be raised at the Games village.

IOC officials have authored a perfect ending to this year old saga which will bring cheers to millions of sports fans in India and more so for the three athletes who are relieved to have seen this positive development.

Redemption is one thing, it is the next set of steps that are crucial. How different will the current set of administrators be from the previous incumbents?

Coming back from isolation is a small victory for Indian Olympic movement and there are many miles to cover before we can actually rejoice. For now, we are back and I only wish - it is to move forward.

A Man with Four Hands and Four Hockey Sticks - Dhyanchand's tryst with Mythology

Major Dhyanchand would have celebrated his 108th birthday today if he were to physically present. Like his son Ashok Kumar once mentioned – “My father became more popular after his death”.

Field Hockey, being India’s national sport was consumed intensively among people until the 1980’s. Gold as a metal is not deficient in India and is a national treasure linked with traditions and rituals; the same is for Olympic gold in hockey. After 1980 Moscow Games, India has tried hard and each occasion we have failed. Not just gold medal, even silver or bronze is a destination too far in field hockey at the moment. We have eight gold medals including a six-game streak since the time India made its Olympic debut in hockey way back in 1928 at Amsterdam. If not for the World War II, there could have been two more added to the list. ‘If’

There are lots of stories linked to Dhyanchand, who by the time retired from the army had contributed enough both in his field of work and more so for hockey. He was a ‘Major’ at the time of his retirement and the name has stuck since the time it was conferred upon him.

August 29^th is officially India’s National Sports Day. A lot of events take place commemorating the occasion and many of the national sports awards are given away by the President of India. Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award (the highest honour for an Indian athlete), Arjuna Award (excellence shown by an athlete), Dronacharya Award (excellence in sports coaching), Dhyanchand Award (lifetime achievement award) and Sports Development Award titled ‘Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar’ with categories such as: Nurturing the young talent, providing financial assistance, establishment and management of sports facilities and academies and employment and welfare measures for Sports persons.

The National stadium in New Delhi, which hosted the inaugural 1951 Asian Games, is an exclusive hockey stadium at present. It is more popularly known as ‘Major Dhyanchand Stadium’ since 2002.

Along with these above mentioned highlights, there are many stories that involve Dhyanchand. He is known to be Pele of hockey or for that matter Sir Don Bradman himself had admitted and compared to Dhyanchand goal scoring abilities to his run scoring ability in cricket.

Legend has it, Hitler after seeing ‘The Wizard’ humiliate the German hockey team at 1936 Berlin Olympics offered him a higher rank in his army and a German citizenship. Dhyanchand declined this offer and went on with his life, the way he knew after having picked up his third gold medal.

Sometime in the late 90’s, at a quiz forum there was a question on an athlete whose statue with four hands and four hockey sticks being erected by the residents of Vienna. Who else but Dhyanchand? Yes, that was the most popular guess and it has been a popular trivia for a long time. When I was researching for sports questions, I always wanted to find a picture of this statue and put it as a question. 

After good number of years, my patience finally ran out and I began to wonder if this story has any basis. If it were to be true, why isn’t a single photograph of this on Google or atleast the location of this statue? Indians travel a lot and out of these tourists, I would expect a small percentage to have knowledge on Dhyanchand. They would have surely found this. And isn’t this matter a curious one for the field hockey fraternity?

While the search for this picture or the location was on, I realised and asked the Austrian Hockey Federation directly on this. In one sentence they wrote back to me “Nein, die Geschichte stimmt nicht. Es gibt keine Statue in Österreich”; which translates to - “No, the story is not true. There is no such statue in Austria”. This is in response to me asking if they had ever come across a statue of Dhyanchand with four hands and four hockey sticks.

Honestly, I would have loved to see it being true. However, the sheen on Dhyanchand exploits does not diminish an iota by the mere absence of a statue, a symbol if not anything else. The legend of this story continues even today that such a statue exists. It might be an exaggeration or a poetic license or whatever you call it in literary terms. I could relate to it being true and I do not need any physical presence of a statue to tell me this. Such was his domination and I say no more.

As I conclude writing this, the kid in me wishes some resident of Vienna would one day discover and exhibit this statue, which was found while he/she was cleaning or looking for some antique or precious stuff of their ancestors at the cellar or roof of their house. 

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?