The Indian Olympic Story - You don't owe us anything

         The dust has finally settled on what was an enthraling and relatively successful Olympics for Team India. They managed to better their all-time tally of 6 medals (2 silvers and 4 bronze) in 2012 to 7 medals (1 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze). Beyond the numbers, it brought together a country of more than 1.3 billion to sit and watch games that most of them had never watched. Every Olympics has unique nature to it where stars are born, and history is created. 

          I am especially thrilled about the new sports that have been introduced to me during the Olympics i.e. Golf and Fencing. I am sure I'm in the majority among the people who had to Google what was a Birdie and Bogey, and we have Aditi Ashok to thank for it. To be able to stay the course till the last day was incredible. I didn't particularly like Fencing, but the fact Bhavani Devi won her first match was quite pleasing and I hope more youngsters will take a liking to the sport. We've heard about the Hockey teams and their performance which was monumental for the sport and it has given Hockey a new lease of life in India. Besides all the medalists, the Indian athletic contingent did a fabulous job breaking the relay and the Steeplechase National record. PV Sindhu is a legend and will go down as India's greatest badminton player. Our male wrestlers were terrific with 2 out the 3 getting medals, I have a special soft spot for Bajrang Punia, the guy wrestled with an injury till the semifinals, took the brace off against the doctors' wishes for the Bronze medal match and wiped the floor with his opponent, a true flag bearer. Mira Bai Chanu was special, I was following her competition while walking with my friends, and I was almost giving minute by minute commentary, it was our first medal. Finally, to Neeraj Chopra, the value of that gold medal is the number of children that pick up javelin in the near future, besides him smashing the competition in the final. Honourable mention goes out to Manika Batra, who had a great run in the women table tennis singles tournament winning 2 games against players who were seeded higher. 

          Some of the factors that I found fascinating were in regards to how the public pretty much has a feeling of ownership over the players and they are accountable to them for their performances. This is absolutely ridiculous, they don't owe us anything because we have not played any part in their journey. It is a privilege and honour to represent the country, but they have earned that right through performance. You either cheer for them or you keep quiet, the only people that can criticise them are people who have invested their effort, time and resources into making them the player they are i.e. coaches and other close people. Manu Bhaker and Deepika Kumari went into their respective tournaments as hot favourites for podium finishes, unfortunately, they lost and as usual people complaining about how they've let the country down and should have better and all the other nonsensical opinions that they seem to perceive. Everyone wants to win and the Olympics is a tough competition and they are representing the country on merit, not charity. 

        Mourning about cricket getting all the laurels and attention is the reason we don't win medals or do well in the Olympics is another monumentally stupid opinion that seems to have surfaced during the Olympics. The reason Cricket in India is where it is based on merit, culture and the global brand of our teams over the years. No one has handed out the cricket team with these bumper contracts, they have earned it over years. Hockey was relevant for a time when we were world-beaters, we won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 and we became world-beaters in Cricket. We produced world-class cricketers who dominated cricket while being under immense pressure. You remember the 2007 World Cup where we got knocked out in the group stage, people pelting stones at the houses of players, that is the pressure that cricket exerts and we still produce the goods at the global level. The day any of these other sports are able to do the same, they will become the talk of the town and their sport will be popular. By the Way, Football and Basketball are to the UK and US, what cricket is to India, they came home with 65 and 113 medals respectively.

         This was the largest contingent we had ever sent to the Olympics in terms of the number of athletes and in the number of games we participated in. The government has invested well in the sporting infrastructure in the last 5 years or so but they need to do more, more importantly, we need to do more. As far as I am concerned all the athletes were great to watch and their performances may have not reflected their effort in some cases, but I really do wish that all of us keep supporting them in the near future. It was a thoroughly enjoyable 2 weeks and I can't wait for Paris 2024.