Nurture past Olympic medalists to deliver again
By Indian sporting standards, these past few days at Rio have been a super-bonanza. For several days we waited with baited breath as our contingent struggled to open our medals account. Shooter Abhinav Bindra performed beautifully but missed the medal by a whisker. Gymnast Dipa Karmakar has possibly inspired an entire generation of young Indians with her stunning performance with she too couldn't make the medal's mark. And then suddenly on Wednesday wrestler Sakshi Malik stunned the nation with her bronze. That wasn't all — even before all the ‘Rohtak-to-Rio' articles on Malik had been published, detailing her humble roots and meteoric rise, shuttler PV Sindhu slammed her way to the badminton finals. Expectedly, these past few days have also seen a large volume of commentary being generated on India's Olympic performances — many have pointed out that while the country celebrates a Malik and a Sindhu, it must also keep in mind how these athletes have struggled to make a mark and how poor sports management across the country means that many others have been denied the opportunity to explore their full potential. Much has been said about the politicisation of sports, about the lack of a so-called sporting culture in this country (whatever that means) and, of course, how cricket overshadows just about every other sporting endeavour in India.
Each of these is a valid point but perhaps the one point that hasn't been discussed much is that of past Indian medalists who struggle to remain at the top while those from other countries deliver repeatedly at multiple Olympic games. Take, for example, India's top performers at the london Olympics in 2012 — Vijay Kumar and Sushil Kumar who won silver medals and Saina Nehwal, Gagan Narang, Yogeshwar Dutt and Mary Kom who bought back bronze medals. Where and how are these athletes placed at RioIJ Vijay Kumar has been in such bad physical shape that he didn't even make the cut while Sushil Kumar, who won more than one medal at london, has been busy fighting the Wrestling Federation of India as well as fellow wrestler Narsingh Yadav who himself has been caught up in a doping scandal. Nehwal is suffering from a knee injury and has failed to deliver at Rio, while Kom, who became an icon after london, didn't even qualify for Rio. Narang at least made it to the Olympics this year but not to the finals. Yogeshwar Dutt will come to the arena on Sunday, and is among India's last few hopefuls. Why is this the caseIJ It is one thing to argue that India's performance at the Olympics is below par because of deep-root structural problems that cannot be changed overnight, but that still doesn't explain why those who have overcome these initial difficulties and challenges, and delivered medal-winning performances, cannot then be nurtured to deliver again. This is a low hanging fruit that India must grab.