INDIA has under-performed in Rio carrying forward a dubious tradition at the Olympics. It is a matter of concern that our largest ever contingent (117 members) came home with just two medals. To frame a perspective we ranked 67th among the 87 countries who managed to win medals out of the 207 that competed. We were sadly the lowest ranked country (among ones who got medals) in terms of medals by population (0.001 per million people) and medals by GDP (0.086 for every $100bn). With respect to medals per athletes we came 84th faring only above Austria, Nigeria and Portugal. It sounds cruel when put up like this but this is the reality and we desperately need to recognize it and change it. This show on a global stage is not becoming for such a large and multi-faceted country like ours. It is detrimental for India’s image and our national ego.
What is appalling is that we have gone south from our previous show. The worrisome part is that a majority of our players did not reach their personal best in the games. The results weren’t even close to national records, so that a case can be made that others were better than us.
The silver lining to this dark cloud though has been the inspiring performances by athletes such as Dipa Karmakar (Gymnastics), Kidambi Shrikant (Badminton) and of course medal winners PV Sindhu (Badminton) and Sakshi Malik (Wrestling) who played out of their skins and competed with everything they got. A few athletes did perform well but were genuinely unlucky to miss out on medals. Abhinav Bindra (Shooting), Sania Mirza – Rohan Bopanna (Tennis) and Jitu Rai (Shooting) are notable mentions here. Also Vinesh Phogat (Wrestling) who despairingly missed out due to an injury in the second round, was a major medal contender. While Dattu Bhokanal (Rowing), Atanu Das (Archery), Heena Sindhu (Shooting) and Aditi Ashok (Golf) showed promise for the future, others such as the Men’s Hockey team displayed good improvement. The high number of athletes qualifying for Track and Field events is also a positive step going forward.
However, there have been several major disappointments coming from Leander Paes-Rohan Bopanna (Tennis), Vikas Gowda (Discuss Throw), Manavjit Singh Sandhu (Trap Shooting), Deepika Kumari (Archery), Sandeep Tomar (Wrestling), Babita Kumari (Wrestling) and Sathish Sivalingam (Weightlifting) who performed well below their capacities. Others such as Gagan Narang (Shooting), Jwala Gutta – Ashwini Ponnappa (Badminton) and the entire Table Tennis contingent were purely dismal. It was also disheartening to see a few athletes notably Saina Nehwal and Yogeshwar Dutt participating even when they were clearly carrying an injury. In a way they undermined the flag under which they played as they did not even have an outside chance given their condition and the competition. Also, they ate into the chances of other fledgling players, who (if qualified) may not have gone all the way but the exposure would have surely helped them in future.
The games are over now and now is the most opportune time to introspect. We Indians rarely give a thought about sports other than Cricket and it is only during the Olympics that ideas and emotions reach a high. So, we should cash in on this attention and plan for the future. Only thing we should take care is being genuine and practical in our assessment and not be disrespectful like that despicable attention seeking prick of a columnist who was in news a few days back.
One thing that was very evident that most of the Indians did not perform under pressure. There are two reasons for this, lack of confidence and lack of attitude to soak up the pressure. Confidence comes from preparation and experience while attitude is developed by positivity. So the solution in a nutshell will be to provide facilities to take care of preparation, increase international exposure to enhance experience and instill a sense of pride to generate positivity. In fact one thing that surely needs to be done just before the athletes leave again in 2020 is to have a mental conditioning camp for every athlete so that they are not over-awed with the occasion and the expectations. No Indian athlete was seen smiling while he/she performed; this is never a good sign.
The problem of not performing under pressure arises at the last stage. However, there are other more deep-rooted causes for our under-performance. Some of them are enlisted below followed by the solutions that can be implemented.
PROBLEMS
1. There is limited talent by means of number of people taking up sports as there is no financial assurance or framework for most of the sports.
2. There is genuinely less talent in terms of quality. This is essentially an extension of the previous point.
3. There is not enough infrastructure. Firstly, there are very few stadiums given the size and population of India. Secondly, the ones present do not match up to world standards. Thirdly, they are managed by lousy unprofessionals, and end up being grossly underutilized and sometimes misutilized. Not just stadiums there are not enough equipment, goods or other facilities which are necessary for an athlete to practice. Even the number of coaches and academies is low.
4. The governing bodies and sports organizations are miserable in their attitude and approach. There is a reason why corrupt and unstable nations don’t do well at the world stage.
5. There is a lot of infighting and corruption within the sports authorities. This sometimes spills over on to the players too. Our Tennis hopes have been marred due to this for two Olympics in a row now.
6. Most of our athletes do not have the attitude and the mental strength to perform at big events.
7. Even though we have lots of people and a diverse gene pool, still the effect of our geography and food habits cannot be ignored when we try and analyze the root cause for our inefficiency. Although in this modern connected age, this problem is fast rectifying itself.
SOLUTIONS
1. The basic solution to all the problems is getting more money into the sports system. The money can be used to build world class facilities. Look at how many champion shuttlers have come out from one first-rate academy at Hyderabad. Just think how many more such gems can be unearthed if there are similar academies all over the country. There is a lot of untapped talent in India which needs guidance and a proper channel.
2. More serious participation from the government. It should not wake up once in 4 years to oversee the state of affairs. There should be a considerable increase in the budget for sports. The spending per capita on sports in India is very low as compared to other countries. Government should invest themselves and also encourage other entrepreneurs to invest in sports. Not just financially, but the government should also streamline the sports bodies and oversee their proper functioning. Political influence should be minimized.
3. Efficiently managed boards run by professionals. A constant appraisal of their efforts and performance is required.
4. Just like Cuba, Hungary or Fiji we should ideally focus on a few sports and try and excel in them. But, the issue is that India is a purely democratic country and not a banana republic where any sport can be hand-picked and fed to the people to follow. So, the way-out can be that each state should own up a game based on their cultural and historical preferences to try and produce world beating champions. Haryana has shown the way in Wrestling. It is for others to follow suit.
5. Building a strong sporting ecosystem, a culture starting right from schools. This requires a serious change in the academic and social set-up.
6. Athletes should not be content with mediocrity and constrict their targets. They should go beyond the rhetoric that participation is the key and strive for excellence and perfection. The high performing athletes should make good role models to inspire youth, and they should be handsomely rewarded to inspire their peers.
7. Athletes should give back to sports. The retired players should be imbibed into the system to spot and develop more talent in their area of expertise. People who have already been doing it such as Pullela Gopichand (Badminton) should be acknowledged and their efforts enhanced.
All of the above has to be done in a top-down approach. The sports ministry has to own up and get the ball rolling. Maybe it can start with a change at the very top by getting a more dynamic person (like Smriti Irani) in-charge of the ministry.
We as citizens also need to change our psyche towards sports. We should encourage kids to take sports seriously in their schools. Besides making them fit it will enrich their attitude. However the results might have been all of us should not cease our unflinching support for the athletes. We should respect them for having reached this far despite the rotten administration, some battling against all possible odds. Many Indians derive sadistic pleasure in ridiculing the poor performances of our people at such events. This comes from ignorance and a petty mindset. They must understand that it is very easy to sit on the fence and smirk but very hard to excel.
It must be added here that the role of media has for once been very positive. They have been doing their bit by focusing on all kinds of sports. One thing that they can change though is being more selective while declaring medal prospects. Their over-enthusiasm and over-optimism invites undue pressure for the player and unwarranted hopes for the viewers.
It can be debated that the medal tally at Olympics is not the most accurate representation of the state of sports in a country which in fact is true at some level. Most of the sports such as Chess, Billiards and Kabaddi where Indians have dominated are not included. Also, historically India has had no credible participation in the most Medal-intensive events such as Gymnastics, Swimming, etc. Also cricket which is the most dominant sport in India is not included in the Olympic scheme of things.
Cricket is undoubtedly another factor as to why other sports lag behind in India as it takes away most of the bandwidth of the Indian sportsmen. However, it also serves as a very good case study as to how a nation can be made to internalize a sport. Other sportsmen and their associations have been envying about its popularity, but they should rather understand that it has reached this stage due to consistent performances, efficient management (yes!), brilliant marketing and because of some great players who have been brilliant role models. Something they should try and replicate.
It may be harsh to say that India is bad at sports as a country, but the truth is we are very far from being a sporting nation. Yes, we are not the best in most of the sports and we have a long way to go. We need to stop comparing our performances with SAARC nations and look beyond at China, Korea and UK to try and copy their success story. For a country as big as India which harbors dreams of becoming a global leader, we will have to solve the Olympic riddle fast. If we focus on the solutions from now on, we will surely have many more happy and successful faces returning home from Tokyo in four years time.
The Window Seat 