Fallen Warrior???

"LANCESLIDE!!" says the headline on the last page of the Times of India yesterday... After the US Anti Doping Agency brought doping charges against the greatest champion in cycling (something that [arguably] they don't have the jurisdiction to do), and emphasized their intention of stripping him of all the titles he won post-1998, Lance Armstrong simply hangs up his (cycling) gloves and walks away... 

Lance Edward Armstrong, born 18th September, 1971, son of a secretary and a newspaperman, showed talent in the field of endurance sports from a young age.... Originally a triathlete (he was the number one ranked triathlete in the Under-19 age group when he was only 16), it became apparent that his true talent lay in the field of cycling. 

Hit with testicular cancer in 1996, it looked like his cycling career (and possibly his life) was over. The cancer has metastasized to his brain and lungs. Will power, chemotherapy and surgery meant that Armstrong was back to training as early as January 1998. The rest, as they say, is history... 7 consecutive Tour de France titles, and Lance Armstrong became synonymous with the Yellow Jersey at the Tour (The Yellow Jersey is awarded to the over-all Leader of the race at the start of every stage).

But as they say.. "Greatness inspires Envy", Armstrong was always marred with doping allegations, since it was considered that winning the Tour is difficult enough.. For a cancer-survivor to do it (and that too 7 times) just "smells fishy".... Armstrong submitted to approximately 24 unannounced drug tests (Unannounced in the sense, excluding the ones that were conducted routinely at the start, mid and end of every major competition) and was never tested positive in any of them. However, the charges of doping were brought about due to testimonies of former team-mates, trainers, masseurs.. All claiming that Armstrong was a doper.. It all culminated on August 23rd, 2012, when the USADA brought charges attempting to ban Armstrong from Cycling for life.. Armstrong has simply grown fed-up of these base-less accusations, and has decided not to protest against them anymore (which is being considered as an admission of guilt) 
An excerpt from Armstrong's official statement on the matter "USADA cannot assert control of a professional international sport and attempt to strip my seven Tour de France titles. I know who won those seven Tours. Today I turn the page..."

On a personal note, it saddens me greatly that a man who has been a source of inspiration to me for a number of years, has been tarnished this way, over allegations brought about by pure hearsay... Just the fact that he has never tested positive to drugs should be enough to convince all the fence-sitters as to who is the bully, and who is being bullied.
He inspires awe in me.. Not only because he is a cancer survivor and a great proponent of cycling, but because he (almost) single-handedly brought cycling into the limelight. Lance Armstrong is to Cycling what Sachin Tendulkar is to Cricket or Michael Schumacher is to Motor Racing.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation, which he founded in 1997, has raised over $500 million for Cancer Research through the sale of yellow wristbands with "LiveStrong" emblazoned on them. The foundation has become one of the top 10 groups funding cancer research. He has also helped found Athletes for Hope, a charity which helps professional athletes get involved in charitable causes and inspires non-athletes to volunteer and support the community in the U.S. 

Ignore the nay-sayers, Lance.. "LiveStrong"er!!

India's O'limp'ics

So.... Its been a full week since the culmination of the 2012 Summer Olympics.. And finally the felicitations of our 6 medal-winners seem to be drawing to a close (The latest of which was BMW presenting Saina Nehwal with a brand new 5-series)

Not detracting from the achievement of the 6 medal winners and of 3 other Indian athletes who made the Finals of their respective events (Vikas Gowda - Men's Discus Throw ; Krishna Poonia - Women's Discus Throw and Irfan Kolothum Thodi - 10th place in the Men's 20km Walk) , 2 questions in the mind of every Indian interested in sports is undoubtedly "Is this the best India can do at the Olympics??" and "Why are Indians at large under-achievers at the Olympics"??

India has the world's second largest population (second only to China, who by the way, topped the medals table) and yet it placed 55th out of 79 countries that won medals at the London Olympics (down from 50th rank at the Beijing Olympics in 2008). So why does a country of so many people do so badly in International Competition??

One of the favorite reasons people cite is that physical factors conspire against us - India's tropical climate and our genes. The only problem with this logic is that there are several countries above us in the Olympic standings that have tropical climate (read Iran, Jamaica, Ethiopia) and that have people who are as skinny and spindly as Indians (read Kenya, Uganda, Tunisia, Algeria)

Another reason is more sociological and relates to the attitude of the sports associations in particular and Indians in general to the kind of sports included in the Olympics. This is the "cricket argument". For some reason, we only value cricket. Our youngsters, teachers, media, sports sponsors and governments are mad only about cricket, and nothing else seemingly matters (Not even Field Hockey, which has brought India 8 Gold Medals in the past.. crying shame). An example that exhibit this behaviour...

India sent 3 athletes (only) to the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada (Jamyang Namgial - Men's Alpine Skiing, Tashi Lundup - 15 km Cross Country Skiing and Shiva Keshavan - Men's Luge). None of these athletes got a single paisa from the Indian Olympic Association for Training and Preparation.
Shiva Keshavan had to cobble together 4.5 Lakh rupees from private donors to finance a new Luge to be able to compete.

Having said this, stating that 1 in maybe 5 middle-class households encourage their child to follow their sporting dreams (even cricket) would be a stretch. Parents feel that spending time, money and  effort in something that could possibly hamper their child's education and future capacity to support himself / herself is a very bad investment indeed. I know of a case where a seriously gifted footballer from Pune had an offer from a top-flight English club to come and train with their junior team. His father didn't allow him to go. He is working in an I.T company today. Universities which offer athletic scholarships in India are few and far between. Unlike universities in countries like U.S and Australia, who have athletic excellence as one of their key goals along with academic excellence.

Finally, there is the view that, as in so many things, it is our wretched politics and administration that has let us down. Our sports authorities don't select the best sportspeople because they are obsessed with the proper caste, ethnic, religious and regional balance in our teams. They are also corrupt, and so the money that should be spent on the proper infrastructure lines their pockets instead. Most educated Indians today would probably agree that this the core of the problem and that in every sphere of life our political and administrative class botches it all.. This is of course close to the truth and does explain a lot, though you wonder if sports governance in Kazakhstan, North Korea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Azerbaijan, all of whom are placed above India, can be much better.