On 27th 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 30th 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?
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