I had a few thoughts on this topic. But before i jot them down, I would like to take a moment and applaud the efforts of all the athletes who represented India in Beijing. I would also like to congratulate the medal winners - Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar, Vijender Kumar and all those people who might get added to this list by the end of Olympics.
This Olympics saw a lot of firsts for India. First Individual Gold, First time more than 2 medals, First time more than 1 medal in a day. So the natural questions that can be asked is - Is this enough (i.e are we going in the right path in the right speed) and has anything changed from the last time?
According to me, or for that matter any lay man, nothing has changed wrt to the infrastructure or the monetary benefits to the budding athletes. But there is some change in the confidence shown by our athletes. They now have a feeling that they belong to that stage, and compete with the rest of the world. It might also have something to do with the growth and recognition of India and Indians in areas other than sports. What ever might be the reason, its nice to see Indians competing with self confidence.
As for the other question - is this the right path and pace. Yes it is the right path, but I still can't come to terms with the pace of the growth. If you see the growth of China in the last 24 years (after its re-entry into modern Olympics), I feel disappointed. There is a lot to be done. Hopefully the CWG in 2010 to be held in Delhi will inspire the Indian athletes as Beijing 2008 has done to the Chinese.
I also have some thoughts on the sports we should concentrate more on. I would like to see Indians build specialization in certain sports like the US in swimming, Cuba in boxing, Jamaica in Track&Field etc.. As we have won a lot of medals in Shooting, that should take the top priority. Not only because we have a Olympic champion there, but the fact that the number of medals to be won in Shooting is too huge to take it for granted. Many of them can compete in more than 2 events, and with rifles, pistols, shotguns , and the difference in distances, and also the team events, there are many medals to bag. This also goes for Archery. This sport does not require great infrastructure (which Shooting needs), but what is necessary is a excellent coach and well paid and content athletes.
Next comes events like Weightlifting, Boxing and Wrestling. The important thing to notice in these events (apart from the fact that we have individual medalists), is the fact that there are lot of categories. Which boils down to lot of medals. The weight classification is one of the key areas that we need to concentrate and get the medals. Finally a gold in Hockey is same value on paper as a Gold in Flyweight Boxing. And I feel that our country is looking more for Individual heroes rather than Teams.
Some other events that can bag us a lot of medals are Badminton, Table Tennis(have to figure out a way to beat the Chinese).
One event which we should minimize our investment in is the Track & Field. We have to accept the fact that, we are genetically disabled compared to the people from Africa and the Americas. We might get a surprise winner in that sport, but it is definitely one sport which we can't dominate.
PS: I do not intend any disrespect for any of the athletes who have represented India. Nor do I intend any disrespect for their sport.
Friday, August 22, 2008
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2 comments:
I wish they add the shorter version of cricket into olympics. I am sure we will have a better chance there than most other games.
But encouragement to other games is more important than the addition of cricket. Long term planning is more important. There should be some target set to each state for each olympics and the state that fulfills it should be awarded.We need to spot the talent when the athletes are young. If that can be done we can eye to end up in top 10 by 2020 olympics.
the only problem in eying a top 10 spot is that, what ever we grow, we must realize that other nations too grow. I saw a interesting piece of information in today's newspaper : In this Olympics 86 nations have won medals... which is the maximum in its 100 yr history. So we should not only grow but out grow others. It's a tough climb, but one which will be rewarding.
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