Olympics: How to take it forward

In the very mediocre performance of Indian Olympians, there lies a tale that needs to be unraveled and some robust actions that need to be taken for future success

The recent outing for India at the Paris Olympics had raised many flutters of expectations but at the end some of us felt aggrieved, some of us were despondent and all of us felt that so much more should have been done to succeed. Behind the many excuses, there lies a tale that needs to be unraveled and some robust actions that need to be taken for future success.

First the litany of woes and near misses—the biggest letdown was in archery where our archers just didn’t seem to have the concentration to hit a sequence of arrows in the bull’s eye. Manu Bhaker after winning two bronzes that delighted the country, finished fourth in the 25 m pistol and Arjun Babuta did the same in the 10 m air rifle event. Lakshya Sen lost the bronze medal match in badminton despite winning the first game and Nishant Dev in boxing, Mirabai Chanu in weightlifting, Aditi Ashok in golf and Nisha Dahiya in freestyle wrestling came close to the podium but faltered. And, while the badminton hopefuls, PV Sindhu and the doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy bowed out early, it was an inspired throw by Pakistan’s unfunded Nadeem that caused questions to be raised on “whither Indian Olympians?”.

The story of course is not a new one for India. Anju Bobby George and Gagan Narang in 2004, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh in 2008, Gagan Narang, Joydeep Karmakar and Saina Nehwal in 2012, Dipa Karmakar in 2016, have all flattered only to deceive, and of course many of us from an earlier era will find it hard to forget PT Usha missing out on the bronze by not lunging for the tape. Lest this piece sound very dismal, we have been surprised by unexpected gold medals in the past and the performance by Vinesh Phogat this Olympics till the ill fated hundred grams on the last day denied her a medal, gave many Indian hearts reason to swell with pride.

Our ability to hype our way out of any situation will continue but we must not obfuscate the stark reality that we are falling short of the expectations that the world and indeed we ourselves must have from a nation of nearly a billion and half people with the best youth demographics in the world. We hope to host the Olympic games in the next decade (Gandhinagar in 2036...?) and have seen many noble initiatives like the Olympic Gold Quest and some worthy sporting bodies come forward to make the necessary investments in talent and training to compete with the best in the world. But the fact remains that except for team sports which require artistry and not excessive strength or stamina (hockey some decades ago and cricket in recent times). We have been found wanting in sports that require high levels of the latter.

"Identify three key sports where we can and must succeed and send talent scouts early to identify the future Vinesh Phogats, Mary Koms and PV Sindhus and put them through intensive training for gold medals in 2036"

Neeraj Chopra

Some introspection on the “why” could throw some light on the “what” and “how’ of future success. The reasons for the decline in all sport has often attributed to the cricket craze in this country but this has been compounded by the fact that most youth in India’s towns and villages are obsessed with academic prowess and social media heroism, not necessarily in that order. If the only exercise we need is one or two fingers posting pics on Instagram and Facebook and adding opinions to X—where is the time or the inclination to commit to serious physical activity? And, in small towns and villages where the will to be a national player still exists, we have not invested deeply in spotting young talent and choosing sport where they can be trained over a decade and more to excel nationally. Wrestling has been successful mainly in Haryana, but the Maliks and Phogats of the country have to be encouraged to persist and develop the killer instinct. The recent political imbroglios could not have done much for their physical or mental focus.

So, what can we do? Identify three key sports where we can and must succeed and send talent scouts early to identify the future Vinesh Phogats, Mary Koms and PV Sindhus and put them through intensive training for gold medals in 2036. I would not choose huge strength sports because a javelin champion like Neeraj Chopra comes rarely in under nourished India, unless you snatch talent from the cradle. Ensure that the progress of these talented youth is regularly benchmarked against the best in the world and give them more coaches and mentors and less officials on their journey.

The question that is uppermost on the minds of all India lovers is how we build a mindset where the loss of a gold is seen as a failure and the winner instinct is embedded in each of our sportspersons. This also needs sensitising the rest of the country to appreciate the successes of the few. It is not fair to watch and applaud and comment on social media for a couple of weeks and then go back to cricket and movies. Can we make these changes in the next decade? We certainly must try.