The show is over at Rio and the Olympics provided some sombre thoughts for Indian sports in general. It took two spunky athletes to redeem the honour for India in Rio. The shuttle star, P.V.Sindhu and wrestler, Sakshi Malik, put India on medals table with a silver and a bronze respectively.
The two were showered with awards and rewards and a welcome that befitted a royalty. The 21-year old Sindhu, and her coach Pullela Gopi Chand, came home to a tumultuous welcome when they landed in Hyderabad. Ministers, sports fans and officials gathered to welcome their new icon, who seems have to pushed fellow Hyderabadis Saina Nehwal and Sania Mirza to sidelines. While the euphoria swept the nation, there is no hiding from the fact that it was not an impressive show from rest of the Indian contingent. India with a population of more than a billion, deserved more than two medals, which pales in comparison with with the medal haul of smaller nations such as Cuba, Jamaica and Kenya. India ranked 67 in medals tally, 12 spots below their 2012 London Olympics performance.
It certainly could have better, but for a few so-near–yet so-far finishes by sportspersons such as Beijing Gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindira and gymnast Dipa Karmakar, who missed their medals by a whisker.
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Tennis mixed doubles duo, Sania Mriza and Rohan Bopanna blew their chances in the play-off for bronze medal. Men’s hockey team, another medal contender, failed to make the cut . The irony was Argentina, which India beat in the league phase, won the Gold.
One did not expect any medal in athletics, yet Lalita Babbar, by making it to the 3000 metre steeplechase final gave a heartwarming performance. The shooters and archers, who were tipped as big medal hopes, fell flat. Jaisha collapsed midway due to for lack of water and dehydration in women’s marathon and Narsingh, was kept out of wrestling as WADA The World Anti-Doping Agency was not convinced about clearance given to him at home on drug charges.
As the dust settles down, there will be post-mortems, even inquiries and calls for accountability to ascertain the causes for the debacle. The need of the hour is to find ways to improve the quality of our athletes and translate their potential into medals. We also need to develop a strong base in sports disciplines.
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M. Krishna Kumar, the noted sports and management mentor aptly observed, “We seem to be doing everything in reverse. The riches that were showered on Sindhu and Sakshi came after they become champions. It should have come when they were trying to become one.”