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Sabi Hussain
The Rio Olympics have come as a major eye-opener for India. That it took the country 12 days to open its medal account shows how far we are from reality when it comes to evaluating the performance of Indian athletes at the Olympics. Medal success at the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games or the Asian Championships was, it seems, no telltale of the Summer Games.
Medal haul at these quadrennial multi-sport events doesn’t necessarily translate into success at the Olympics, which is the ultimate sporting glory and, for which, the athletes world over prepare for years.
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The tall claim about the 118-member strong Indian contingent winning anywhere between 10 and 15 medals at the Rio Games, have fallen flat. The current scenario is so gloomy that the Indian athletes are struggling to match the previous Olympic mark of six medals at the 2012 London Games. The only saving grace, till the filing of this story, has been wrestler Sakshi Malik, who won a bronze in an early-morning bout on Thursday. There had been a glimmer of hope after shooter Abhinav Bindra, gymnast Dipa Karmakar and shuttler Kidambi Srikanth put up a strong show, but then, sadly, they missed out on medals by the narrowest of margins.
A stupendous show by the athletes at the various qualification events leading up to Rio had raised hopes for a double-digit medal tally. While the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) predicted 15 medals, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) went a step further and raised the estimate to 20-25 medals. The sporting officials were upbeat about the strong performance by the Indian athletes. However, it has been a dismal show with none of the much-celebrated and hyped contingents such as shooting, tennis, hockey and archery managing to break the country’s medal jinx.
It’s very easy to blame the sports administrators for the below-par show, but then, this time, the Indian athletes couldn’t pass on the buck for their poor show. The government had launched the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) in April 2015 with a view to help the Indian athletes in their training and equipment needs. Some 76 athletes were shortlisted for the TOPS. For those not part of the TOPS, financial help was extended from the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF). According to sports minister Vijay Goel, the government spent between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 1 crore on the training of each of the 118 athletes representing India at Rio. A total of Rs 122 crore was spent on sportspersons, foreign coaches’ salaries, national coaching camps and contribution to the NSDF in 2015-16. Of this, Rs 10 crore was given to sportspersons in the TOPS and Rs 56 crore for camps and foreign coaches’ salaries. Among the many beneficiaries were shooters Manavjit Singh Sandhu (Rs 3 crore between 2012 and 2015), Bindra (Rs 1.12 crore) and Heena Sidhu (Rs 62 lakh), discus-throwers Seema Punia (Rs 1.12 crore) and Vikas Gowda (Rs 57 lakh), shuttler Saina Nehwal (Rs 90 lakh), tennis players Leander Paes (Rs 90 lakh) and Sania Mirza (Rs 75 lakh), sprinters Jauna Murmu (Rs 56 lakh) and Tintu Luka (Rs 50 lakh).
The three Rio-bound boxers — Shiva Thapa, Vikas Krishan and Manoj Kumar — had been complaining about the lack of a national federation and exposure trips for training-and-competition programme. The SAI not only included them in the TOPS, but also provided them money whenever they sent in a proposal. Thapa and Manoj trained for more than a month at the English Institute of Sports in Sheffield, the UK. Similarly, Vikas trained in the US for a month and then in Venezuela before deciding to establish his training base at the NIS centre in Patiala.
Similarly, our tennis players played round the year at various ATP and WTA events, but what did them in was lack of practice together, not lack of government support. The archers were provided with world-class training, physios and mental trainers. They even landed in the Brazilian city 25 days before the beginning of the Olympics. But, sadly for them, the story remained the same as that at the London Games.
Hopes vaulted high with Dipa becoming the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics final. Never mind she finished fourth, she left her mark. She had been included in the TOPS in April this year after her Rio qualification and had little time to spend the Rs 30 lakh earmarked for her training. But she isn’t complaining.
Trivia: India
118-Indian athletes at Rio
24 India’s total medals - (9 gold, 4 silver and 11 bronze) since Paris 1900 till London 2012
Hockey: Golden past
The men’s hockey teams brought shine to India’s Olympic campaigns, with eight gold medals won between Amsterdam 1928 and Moscow 1980
Youngest player
Jisna Mathew | 17
Athletics
4 x 400m Relay
Oldest player
Leander Paes | 43 Tennis
Men’s Doubles
Olympic spirit
Selfless selfie
The gymnasts from North and South Korea at Rio showed what the Olympics are all about. Lee Eun-ju of South Korea and Hong Un-jong of the North took smiling selfies during their training period before the start of the Games. The pictures of the two women have been widely praised as capturing the Olympic spirit. The relations between the countries have been at the lowest ebb for decades now.
Mardini and the sea
The most inspiring tale has to be of Syrian refugee swimmer Yusra Mardini. A year after battling the sea to survive when the dingy she and fellow asylum seekers were in overturned, Mardini won the opening heat of 100m butterfly.
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