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.
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.
Nice post. It's a vicious double whammy.. We give up easy on our passions [not just sports.. arts and classic sciences are in the same situation] and our policies and social values do not encourage us enough to hang on.
ReplyDeleteA good read. 1 its on a recent topic, 2 its full of facts and 3 its not only interesting for people who are into sports. People like me with little knowledge can also
ReplyDeleterelate to this post. As a matter of fact, this miser situation is true for most of the creative fields. From journalists, writers to even designers, you need to be among the top 50 to be paid well. Else you have to lower your expectations and fulfill the society's demands.