Its day 9 of the Rio olympics and co-incidentally independence day and I cant help but be disappointed at our showing so far. Its not that our showing at the Olympics has been stellar but London 2012 surprised me pleasantly and I was hoping that his year would build on that success. So, if we do a quick flashback into our olympic history, our progression initially had been stagnant (Atlanta 1996 - 1 bronze medal, Sydney 2000 - 1 bronze medal, Athens 2004 - 1 sliver medal, then things picked up pace Beijing 2008 - 1 gold, 2 bronze). then came london where we got 6 medals - 2 silver and 4 bronze.
Olympic gold quest was talking about Indian gold medallists by 2020, if this was the plan then 2016 should have been a seminal year in that target. Sadly, it looks like we are going back a few decades.
Its easy to blame our athletes like a certain De-Diva did, but i think they have reached Rio despite any support from the state or the establishment.
For a sports optimist like me, I indulge in surrogate happiness when a jamaican wins the gold in the 100m or when an american becomes a legend in the pool. I gulp when a hungarian has tears streaming down her cheek when the national anthem of hungary is played. I watch replays of various athletes make that olympic dream a reality, i cant fathom the emotion i will feel when an indian does the same. (I did see Bindra win the gold, but the whole experience for some reason was muted).
When i was looking at the medal tally, I couldnt help but see the correlation between the economic prowess of countries and their tally of medals. So i did some googling and found that there is a definite correlation and the only notable exception is India. For the 7th largest economy in the world we are not even in the medals table. The US, China, Great Britain, France, Germany etc making their economic might count in the sporting arena. Every one of the top 10 economies have medal rankings which are within +/- ten spots of their GDP rankings. The countries which are over performing (ie their medal tally is higher than their GDP ranking ) are UK (+ 3 places), Australia (+5 places), Russia (+10 place). The under-performing countries are Japan (-5 places), Brazil (-19 places). The rest are underperforming by early single digits.
While brazil being hosts and not performing in line with their economic potential is no solace for India, our performance cant even be mathematically analysed. If we do win an medal for eg a bronze then our under-performance will be -70.
So what is the solution apart from ranting and doing some couch analysis. For my part, I am going to use a part of my income to support a sport or an athlete in India. I will work in sports company and use my energies to drive sporting culture (oh wait, i already do that - score). I will get my kids to take up a sport and give it their best.
I can only urge all of my friends to do the same and maybe see India in the top 10 of the medals tally at the olympics before i die.
Olympic gold quest was talking about Indian gold medallists by 2020, if this was the plan then 2016 should have been a seminal year in that target. Sadly, it looks like we are going back a few decades.
Its easy to blame our athletes like a certain De-Diva did, but i think they have reached Rio despite any support from the state or the establishment.
For a sports optimist like me, I indulge in surrogate happiness when a jamaican wins the gold in the 100m or when an american becomes a legend in the pool. I gulp when a hungarian has tears streaming down her cheek when the national anthem of hungary is played. I watch replays of various athletes make that olympic dream a reality, i cant fathom the emotion i will feel when an indian does the same. (I did see Bindra win the gold, but the whole experience for some reason was muted).
When i was looking at the medal tally, I couldnt help but see the correlation between the economic prowess of countries and their tally of medals. So i did some googling and found that there is a definite correlation and the only notable exception is India. For the 7th largest economy in the world we are not even in the medals table. The US, China, Great Britain, France, Germany etc making their economic might count in the sporting arena. Every one of the top 10 economies have medal rankings which are within +/- ten spots of their GDP rankings. The countries which are over performing (ie their medal tally is higher than their GDP ranking ) are UK (+ 3 places), Australia (+5 places), Russia (+10 place). The under-performing countries are Japan (-5 places), Brazil (-19 places). The rest are underperforming by early single digits.
While brazil being hosts and not performing in line with their economic potential is no solace for India, our performance cant even be mathematically analysed. If we do win an medal for eg a bronze then our under-performance will be -70.
So what is the solution apart from ranting and doing some couch analysis. For my part, I am going to use a part of my income to support a sport or an athlete in India. I will work in sports company and use my energies to drive sporting culture (oh wait, i already do that - score). I will get my kids to take up a sport and give it their best.
I can only urge all of my friends to do the same and maybe see India in the top 10 of the medals tally at the olympics before i die.
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