The Olympics has concluded and indeed on a very historic note as far Indian sport is concerned. On the 12th August 2012, Sushil Kumar became the first ever Indian athlete (individual athlete) to win back to back Olympic medals. Sushil Kumar bettered his performance from Beijing and won the silver medal.
Now that the games are over it is a good time to sit and reflect back on how India fared in the games. Although the Gold remained elusive till the end, this was India's best ever medal haul. In fact India doubled it's medal count from Beijing. From Atlanta and Sydney where we had just won one Bronze or the years before that when we had a long dry spell, to finish with 6 medals is an astounding achievement and I am thrilled with this performance. At this point, I would like to address a really flawed argument - 'How can a country of 1.2 billion produce only 6 medals?' We need to realize the fact that we not a sporting power house. 76% of the medals lie in Track/Field events and aquatics, where India does not have any history. I would even go on to say that perhaps we are not naturally built, to produce great Track/Field events. The weather conditions that prevail, the diet of the Indians and probably the genetic factors does not make Indians naturally very athletic which is important for these events. To corroborate that, even in our most celebrated sport- cricket, we have produced really few genuine fast bowlers- Fast Bowling being an art which requires genuine athleticism. In India, traditionally the brain takes precedence over the brawn and probably there is very little tradition of taking part in such events. Keeping all this in mind, having won 6 medals is indeed an achievement to be proud of.
Vijay Kumar, the Subedar from Indian Army and Gagan Narang by winning medals have made shooting India's most successful individual sport. In the past 3 years India has won 4 medals in shooting.
Fighting all odds, from a village in the eastern most state of the country Manipur, came the mother of two 5 year olds - Mary Kom. Mary Kom's story is both inspiring and historic. She stood on the podium when the event was introduced for the first time in Olympics. Also, when we keep in mind that she was fighting in a higher weight category than her usual fly-weight category, which was not there in Olympics, the success tastes sweeter.
Saina Nehwal's story has been that of sacrifice and single-minded devotion towards the game. The hours spent in the training translated into a Bronze Medal. This achievement is also a story of another great Indian player - Pullela Gopichand who is living is dream of winning medals through his student. Gopichand's contribution to Indian Badminton as a coach has been fantastic.
Yogeshwar Dutt brought a different success story. He is a seasoned wrestler and was competing in his 3rd Olympics. He was tantalizingly close to a medal in Beijing and almost fell short again in London when he lost his pre-quarter final bout. Fortunately, he entered the repacharge round. In a span of 40 minutes Dutt fought his heart out and won 3 bouts. In the Bronze Medal match he came from behind to win his bout. Dutt's story has been that of an ever lasting hunger and the desire for the Olympic Medal. It is to Dutt's credit that despite the disappointments he was able to his passion and desire alive.
By bettering his Beijing performance Sushil Kumar has etched his name in the pages of India's sporting history. Sushil Kumar became the only Indian to have multiple medals in an individual event. Despite illness Sushil fought his way to a Silver medal.
The Non-Medal winning Heroes
It has not just been the medals that makes me feel happy. There were so many other heartening performance. Joydeep Kamarkar's effort in Men's 50m Rifle Prone was one such performance. There were so many moments in the game, when Joydeep looked good to win a medal and in the end it was just a matter of couple of points between him and the Bronze medal winner.
Krishna Poonia (Women's Discus Throw) and Vikas Gowda (Men's Discus Throw) were other positives. As I have already mentioned India has never been a country which has excelled in track/field events. So, the very fact that they qualified for the finals is something to take pride in and celebrate. Krishna Poonia became only the 6th Indian to qualify in the finals of a track/field event. The 7th Indian to qualify also happening in the same Olympics in the form of Vikas Gowda is a very positive sign. Milkha Singh, Gurbachan Singh Radhwana, PT Usha, Sriram Singh and Anju Bobby George are other Indians to have qualified for the finals.
Irfan Thodi finished an impressive 10th in the 20KM Walk race. Yet again, such a performance is really refreshing.
Cynics may say that by celebrating the mere qualification of our athletes into the finals or celebrating an athlete finishing in the top 10, we are setting our bar too low. I do not share that view. We need to remind ourselves that in athletics, India has almost no history of great achievements. Putting that into perspective, we would realize that 3 of our sportsmen doing well in athletics is indeed something to take pride in. I hope this rather than being an abrupt peak be the beginning of the gradual improvement in India's performance at athletics.
The 20 year old boxer from Manipur, Devendro Singh is one of the biggest non-medal winning heroes for India. In fact the AIBA chairman believed that the verdict of his quarter-final bout should have gone in his favor, which would have meant that he was at least ensured of a bronze medal. But, not getting into the problems we had with our boxing verdicts, Devendro Singh Laishram is a great talent to be watched closely. The amount energy with which he fought his bouts, was indeed great to watch. His pre-quarterfinal bout was against Mongolia's Purevdorjin Sedamba, who was the Silver Medalist in the 2008 Games. Contrary to all expectations Devendro trounced the Mongolian 16-11. I am certain, if groomed properly, Devendro Singh would be a huge medal hope in Rio.
18 year old wrestler, Amit Kumar's was another performance, which has kindled hope for the future. Though beaten in the quarterfinals, and not being able to win his repacharge rounds (one must keep in mind that he had lost the toss both the times in the repacharge), he has shown, with proper coaching he is a wrestler to look forward to.
Vijay Kumar, the Subedar from Indian Army and Gagan Narang by winning medals have made shooting India's most successful individual sport. In the past 3 years India has won 4 medals in shooting.
Fighting all odds, from a village in the eastern most state of the country Manipur, came the mother of two 5 year olds - Mary Kom. Mary Kom's story is both inspiring and historic. She stood on the podium when the event was introduced for the first time in Olympics. Also, when we keep in mind that she was fighting in a higher weight category than her usual fly-weight category, which was not there in Olympics, the success tastes sweeter.
Saina Nehwal's story has been that of sacrifice and single-minded devotion towards the game. The hours spent in the training translated into a Bronze Medal. This achievement is also a story of another great Indian player - Pullela Gopichand who is living is dream of winning medals through his student. Gopichand's contribution to Indian Badminton as a coach has been fantastic.
Yogeshwar Dutt brought a different success story. He is a seasoned wrestler and was competing in his 3rd Olympics. He was tantalizingly close to a medal in Beijing and almost fell short again in London when he lost his pre-quarter final bout. Fortunately, he entered the repacharge round. In a span of 40 minutes Dutt fought his heart out and won 3 bouts. In the Bronze Medal match he came from behind to win his bout. Dutt's story has been that of an ever lasting hunger and the desire for the Olympic Medal. It is to Dutt's credit that despite the disappointments he was able to his passion and desire alive.
By bettering his Beijing performance Sushil Kumar has etched his name in the pages of India's sporting history. Sushil Kumar became the only Indian to have multiple medals in an individual event. Despite illness Sushil fought his way to a Silver medal.
The Non-Medal winning Heroes
It has not just been the medals that makes me feel happy. There were so many other heartening performance. Joydeep Kamarkar's effort in Men's 50m Rifle Prone was one such performance. There were so many moments in the game, when Joydeep looked good to win a medal and in the end it was just a matter of couple of points between him and the Bronze medal winner.
Krishna Poonia (Women's Discus Throw) and Vikas Gowda (Men's Discus Throw) were other positives. As I have already mentioned India has never been a country which has excelled in track/field events. So, the very fact that they qualified for the finals is something to take pride in and celebrate. Krishna Poonia became only the 6th Indian to qualify in the finals of a track/field event. The 7th Indian to qualify also happening in the same Olympics in the form of Vikas Gowda is a very positive sign. Milkha Singh, Gurbachan Singh Radhwana, PT Usha, Sriram Singh and Anju Bobby George are other Indians to have qualified for the finals.
Irfan Thodi finished an impressive 10th in the 20KM Walk race. Yet again, such a performance is really refreshing.
Cynics may say that by celebrating the mere qualification of our athletes into the finals or celebrating an athlete finishing in the top 10, we are setting our bar too low. I do not share that view. We need to remind ourselves that in athletics, India has almost no history of great achievements. Putting that into perspective, we would realize that 3 of our sportsmen doing well in athletics is indeed something to take pride in. I hope this rather than being an abrupt peak be the beginning of the gradual improvement in India's performance at athletics.
The 20 year old boxer from Manipur, Devendro Singh is one of the biggest non-medal winning heroes for India. In fact the AIBA chairman believed that the verdict of his quarter-final bout should have gone in his favor, which would have meant that he was at least ensured of a bronze medal. But, not getting into the problems we had with our boxing verdicts, Devendro Singh Laishram is a great talent to be watched closely. The amount energy with which he fought his bouts, was indeed great to watch. His pre-quarterfinal bout was against Mongolia's Purevdorjin Sedamba, who was the Silver Medalist in the 2008 Games. Contrary to all expectations Devendro trounced the Mongolian 16-11. I am certain, if groomed properly, Devendro Singh would be a huge medal hope in Rio.
18 year old wrestler, Amit Kumar's was another performance, which has kindled hope for the future. Though beaten in the quarterfinals, and not being able to win his repacharge rounds (one must keep in mind that he had lost the toss both the times in the repacharge), he has shown, with proper coaching he is a wrestler to look forward to.
The performance of Parupali Kashyap, in the Men's Badminton and Jwala Guttha and Ashwini Popanna (in Women's doubles) were other such highlights. In this Olympics along with the medal winners, there were many such inspired performances which showed, India does have a very decent pool of sportsmen.
The Downers
There have been a few disappointing moments - Deepika Kumari in Archery and Ronjan Sodhi in Double Trap Shooting were big downers. Perhaps, we could have had a few more medals in boxing if the rub of the green would have favored India. In Tennis I feel India definitely had the potential. The events that happened prior to the games were really disappointing. I believe those events extinguished any chances of winning. It is a pity, that two India's greatest doubles Tennis players - Leander Paes and Mashesh Bhuapati will have finish their careers without a single Olympics doubles medal.
The biggest disappointment was Indian hockey. India failed to qualify for the Beijing Games and when it qualified for the London games they finished last (12th) loosing all the games. Expecting India to win a medal was too far-fetched. I had believed that a top 6 finish would be equivalent to a medal winning performance. But, coming 12th is indeed disheartening. The answer to the question whether we can get back the lost legacy in hockey seems more and more in the negative which is really sad.
This Olympics has shown that Shooting, Boxing and Wrestling could be India's forte with a lot of talent emerging from these areas. Now, we look forward to 2016. Let's hope that in Rio we touch the double digits as far as the medals are concerned!
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