Former Olympian P. T. Usha on Saturday said it was more important for India to lay the focus on winning more Olympic medals rather than on organising the prestigious event.
Speaking to mediapersons, after addressing the students of Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV)-I here, she said our country should win medals then plan for conducting the Olympics at a later stage. “For a big country like India, the number of Olympic medals won thus far is less,” she said.
She asserted her whole-hearted support to the Andhra Pradesh State government in its efforts to encourage sports.
Stating that there were a lot of changes in the sports arena when compared to her times, she said every city had a synthetic track now. “I saw a synthetic track for the first time, when I participated in Moscow Olympics. The budding athletes should make use of facilities and work hard to achieve their goal,” she said.
Stating that the Centre had come up with Khelo India, she said it was necessary to impart training to under 14-kids. She said it would be a big step towards winning the under-16 contests.
Exposure
Earlier, interacting with students, Ms. Usha recalled that she missed podium finish by 1/100th of a second in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics owing to poor exposure. “Even after finishing the race, I was not tired. The athlete in me didn’t come out properly on that day and I blame it on exposure. If I had got a better exposure, I would have won.”
