Could India have performed even better at the Olympics?

Building champions from the school level is what India should aim to do

August 13, 2021 12:09 am | Updated 12:16 am IST

The Tokyo Olympics is over and the euphoria generated by India’s best haul of seven medals at the Games — a gold, two silver and four bronze — is beginning to fade away. Before the country’s largest-ever contingent of 127 athletes left for Tokyo, there was talk of a double-digit medal tally. That didn’t happen and India’s performance placed it 48th among the 93 medal-winning nations. Could India have performed better? Mervyn Fernandis and Ronjan Sodhi discuss the question in a conversation moderated by Rakesh Rao . Edited excerpts:

What were your expectations of India in terms of medals and what do you think of the outcome?

Mervyn Fernandis: I expected at least eight to nine medals, though many projected double digits. I expected us to get medals in shooting and archery. Seeing the performances of the players in the World Cups and other world tournaments, I thought we would get eight to nine medals. We have fallen short by about two-three medals. We could have got more. Wrestling was also part of the double-digits projection.

 

Ronjan Sodhi: Shooting has probably been the biggest disappointment of the Games. We drew a blank not only this time but even in the 2016 Rio Games. There are lots of reasons why this happened. And I think a lot of introspection has to be done. Why could we not win a single medal? We had players who were World No. 1, World No. 2, but these are what I call fake rankings. There was a World Cup held where only a few nations participated [Most of the leading shooters did not participate in the World Cup]. It was mostly Indians participating. You win a gold medal there and become World No. 1? That’s not how it works.

Let me call a spade a spade. It’s a horrible story. The coaches let us down again. The shooters are young, they have a promising future. But the whole coaching scenario has to be changed. See hockey, look at the support staff they had. They had more foreigners. In shooting, you have a coach, you’re giving him €6,000 and he doesn’t go to the Olympics. Why? You’ve given him a house, a car with a driver. And he watches everything on TV? All this has to be changed. I saw the professionalism in hockey. Neeraj Chopra and some other players also did well, even the wrestlers.

But in shooting, our coaches are not equipped with the mindset that it takes to make a champion. Let’s start with Jaspal Rana, a shooter who participated at the Atlanta Olympics in 10-metre pistol. He didn’t win a medal. All his medals were at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, that level. Then you have Mansher Singh, who is a trap shooter but who went with the skeet team as a coach! Suma Shirur once came eighth at the Olympics. And she’s got one Asian Shooting Championships medal where she scored the maximum of 400 points and set a world record, I understand that. Ved Prakash — you look for him on Google and you won’t find his name easily. They’re not capable because they have not won any gold medals. There’s no psychologist or physiotherapist with the team. There was one girl, very young, from OGQ (Olympics Gold Quest) who didn’t really know what to do and what not to do. There was nobody with the team. I think people should be more mindful of all this. I think it’s time for the National Rifle Association of India President Raninder Singh to take note of this and change what has transpired in the last few years. I read a tweet the other day which mentioned that they (coaches) are dealers, which is true. There are dealers of cartridges and guns. They have their own interest in everything. A total revamp has to happen.

 

There are some initiatives being taken to build Olympic champions. What do you think of them?

Ronjan Sodhi: Let’s talk about OGQ. What are they doing? Are they building champions? You qualify for the Olympics and then they sponsor you. Have they taken anybody from the grass-roots level to make a champion? No. They’re just buying champions, not building them. That’s not what we need.

Look at the state of sports in our universities and look at America. Stanford University has won over 20 medals at the Tokyo Olympics. Show me one (Indian) athlete from some university who has won a medal.

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And we all did what we did because of the financial help we had from our parents. When I saw Aditi Ashok’s mother caddying for her, I was reminded of my dad. He would carry my gun. Nobody helped me then. It was just the support from my family. Now look at the budget, at the amount of money these youngsters are getting. In spite of that they are not winning medals and that is shameful.

What about the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS, a Government of India initiative) which has apparently spent ₹1,100 crores in the last five years supporting our athletes for Tokyo?

Ronjan Sodhi: Those who are running TOPS are naïve. They go on the Internet, collect the data, give it to XYZ and say these people should be supported by SAI [Sports Authority of India] or TOPS. That’s not what is required. We don’t have the acumen in coaching and training. That’s why hockey has done well today. Look at Neeraj Chopra. Look at his coach, his support staff.

 

Do you think the focus should be more on our domestic structures across disciplines?

Mervyn Fernandis: I understand some national-level sports are being held, but in a very haphazard manner. We need to focus at the grass-roots level or else, it will be very difficult to scale up. We have a good number of junior players, but it has to be a continuous process. If you want to build champions, you have to start at the school level. I see it happening in wrestling.

Since you mentioned hockey earlier, what did you both think of India’s hockey performance this time? That’s one sport where many say India exceeded expectations.

Mervyn Fernandis: Everybody knows that we have been going to every Olympics with the hope of winning a medal. But we didn’t qualify for the semi-finals for over four decades. This time, India did extremely well by entering the semi-finals and then clinching the bronze. It is very important for a team to win a medal. We have people who always underrate our teams because they don’t win medals. However good you may be, if you don’t win a medal, nobody remembers you. So, this Olympics the men have won a medal and will be remembered for a long time.

 

Looking back at the barren years, I can recollect that in 1984, we were very close to qualifying for the semi-finals. It was the same case in 2000. It was heartbreaking. Nothing succeeds like success. Not reaching the semi-finals is the biggest problem that we have faced. And this time, too, it was very important. Earlier, only two teams from each pool qualified for the semi-finals. Now, they’ve changed the format — four teams qualify for the quarter-finals, so it gives you a better chance compared to the past. And that’s what India did. They qualified for the quarter-finals. And they won against Great Britain and entered the semi-finals for the first time after 1972. That’s a real long time. But Ronjan will agree with me — once you enter the semi-finals of an Olympic event, there is every chance of you winning one of the three medals. So, this happened at this Olympics.

Ronjan Sodhi: Hockey is something which is very, very dear to me. Coming from Punjab, hockey is something I have grown up seeing. The team this time trained very well in Bengaluru. They trained in isolation, in the bubble. Not only the men’s team, the women’s team, too, played so well. They haven’t won a medal, but I can hold my head high and go on and on for the next three years till the Games in Paris. This was just fantastic. This is going to change the entire scenario. And I can see people talking about the youngsters getting into the sport and so forth. So, I think this is incredible. And [in javelin], what Neeraj Chopra has done is absolutely amazing.

Mervyn, how do you look at ways of building on these gains for hockey from Tokyo?

Mervyn Fernandis: Not many would remember that we did not directly qualify from the Asian Games for the Tokyo Olympics. We lost to Malaysia, which in turn lost to Japan in the final. And now, we have won a bronze. When we go to the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games next year, what should we expect? The country will expect India to return with the gold medal, which we last won in 2014. You’ll be surprised, there will be so many other teams vying for that position. Also, let me tell you that let nobody get fooled by thinking that we are Olympic bronze medalists and the Asian Games will be a cakewalk. No, it’s not going to happen that way. You know, now that people are watching the Games, watching the standards of each team, they have realised it’s difficult even to qualify for the Olympics.

About the areas of improvement, we have to start getting a goalkeeper and a drag flicker. Jugraj Singh was the first guy to start drag flicking in our country. We have to realise that without the short-corner specialist, you cannot perform well at the international level. Besides the goalkeeper and the drag flicker, there are four or five places which you need to be taking care of. [Goalkeeper] Sreejesh cannot be expected to go on. I had mentioned somewhere that Sreejesh is the guy who they [Hockey India] should utilise the services of for all sub-junior camps. I’m not talking about junior, I'm talking about the sub-junior level. Sreejesh should be the guy teaching the youngsters so their basics are strong.

 

There is also a general feeling in hockey circles that many members of the present team do not speak English and therefore they find it difficult to understand instructions. In my view, it doesn’t matter as long as he or she is able to express himself or herself. That is important. Again, if past players can share even five or six things with the present sub-junior campers, some of that [advice] will hold the youngsters in good stead throughout their lives. And that will get passed on from generation to generation and they will feel, ‘Oh, this is going to make a difference to my abilities on the field’.

Drag flickers is what we want to build for 2024 and 2028. A man like Jugraj or Harmanpreet can contribute a lot. I remember Jugraj’s drag flicks and the angle he used to change at the last minute. Some slight changes in the technique go a long way in attempting direct scoring (off penalty corners).

Imagine a Savita Punia or a Rani Rampal going to these coaching camps that are there for the juniors and just spending three days or four days and sharing with them little things. It will make a big difference.

Ronjan Sodhi, a double-trap shooter, is a two-time world champion and recipient of the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award; Mervyn Fernandis was a member of the 1980 Moscow Olympics Indian hockey team which won a gold

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