Glittery gains & lost chances

The celebrations continue. Exactly a week after India won a record seven medals at the Tokyo Olympics, the mood is one of joy and how a nation that has zero sporting culture has managed to finish 48th in the overall medal tally.

There are many ways of looking at this achievement. The pessimists will look at it as not a big deal, given the size of the population. For the optimists, India winning seven medals is a sign they can get better, by the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Today (August 15) is Independence Day. In New Delhi, the Red Fort will wear a more festive look as the Indian athletes who competed in Tokyo will be part of the celebrations. In the past, the Independence Day celebrations have never seen anything like this.

Cash awards apart, which are being doled out by the Central and State Governments as well as certain corporate houses, the celebration of India's heroes at Red Fort will be path-breaking. Everyone knows, there is a huge emotional connection when Indian athletes compete on the big stage. If they can hear the national anthem, as was the case when Neeraj Chopra threw the javelin 87.58 metres to strike gold on August 7, everybody's heart swelled with pride.

Maybe, by Paris 2024, India can win more gold medals. To be sure, the wait for individual Olympic medals has been agonising. When Abhinav Bindra won the air rifle gold in Beijing in 2008, it was seen as a revolution. In 2012, the next Olympics in London, India did not win an Olympic gold medal but there were six medals overall, of which two were from shooting.

Sadly, shooting, despite the hype and hoopla, has come a cropper in the last two Olympics in Rio 2016 and Tokyo. This was one event billed as a sure-shot where India could hit the bulls-eye. That it did not happen was due to exuberance plus fundamental flaws in training. Add to it the inability of shooters to soak in the mental pressure, the results were disastrous.

Viewed dispassionately, India winning seven medals during the pandemic is an achievement. Of the 127 athletes who represented India in Tokyo in 18 disciplines, more than one-third of them had been hit by Covid-19 during the two waves. It gave rise to suspicion if the athletes could perform at optimum.

If one glosses through the results, the way the athletes preserved themselves in the heat and high humidity was a revelation. Hockey and athletics, two outdoor sporting events which tested speed, stamina and endurance were proof the Indians were in good shape.

Once in Tokyo, to be tested daily for the Coronavirus was itself a pain. Athletes were worried and Neeraj Chopra and many other spoke about it in detail. At the same time, minus audiences, which are needed to get the adrenaline flowing, it was a tough ask for every athlete from across the world to perform at his or her best minus the clapping and loud cheering.

Hopefully, by the 2024 Paris Olympics, normalcy will return to our lives.

The talking point about India's performance this time in Tokyo has been how the women performed very well. Mirabai Chanu, Lovlina Borgohain and PV Sindhu showed they were there to put heart and soul into their performances. And this total of seven medals could have gone up by at least another four had the shooters won medals and wrestler Vinesh Phogat lived up to the billing.

The same goes for archery, where the performances were below part, thanks to the average showing from Atanu Das and his wife Deepika Kumari.

In the past, India had this habit of flogging the same set of athletes over and over again. That has to change. One has to learn from countries like China, which believe in catching them young and groom them as champions. Going by the results this time, it is clear, India's champions in all disciplines, women's hockey included, come not from the major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru, but the smaller towns and villages.

There is an abundance of talent in the rural areas and from the North-East to Jharkhand and Odisha. The girls from Punjab and Haryana are hard-working and willing to rough it out. So, the focus from all the national sports federations has to be on hunting fresh talent which can be polished. Maybe, the first step in that direction would be how India ensures maximum qualification and getting the best results from the Asian Games in 2002, to be held in China.

The three-year gap from now to Paris 2024 is short. Once the celebrations die down, athletes will have to return to training. But that does not mean proven athletes who are in the age group of around 30 need to be dropped. Someone like Savita Punia, the brilliant women's hockey goalkeeper is still fit and agile. Her reflexes are sharp. "I will give it my best shot for the next three years. I come from Sirsa (Haryana) and my family backs me fully. I will not give up that easily. I am enjoying the hard work," she told Millennium Post.

Neeraj Chopra has promised another Olympic medal, PV Sindhu says she will go for gold and Bajrang Punia feels he can work all over again in the next three years. The think-tank involved in preparing Indian athletes needs to get the right mix of youth and experience. In shooting, fielding fresh talent backfired.

So, then, what about smaller countries that won more gold medals than India? This is a point of debate for many. Perhaps, those who plan education in our country need to ensure sport is given top priority. It would not be an exaggeration to state in the Indian education system, at the school level, the games period has become a low priority.

Quite often, school teachers have used the games period as an excuse to make up for finishing the syllabus. That mindset has to change. Each school in India has to push its youth to play sport and not think it is a waste of time.

Sadly, even if one wants to push this theme, the pandemic has made things worse. Two academic sessions in schools and universities have been wiped out, where champions in sport could have been spotted. It is easy to hold classes on Zoom and Google for all subjects but sport can be played only outdoors.

Two years of junior nationals in every sporting discipline have been wiped out. Inter-university tournaments have been wiped out. In India, conducting sport has become next to impossible due to fear. But then, there are still many young children who do play sport outdoor, not worrying too much about the virus.

If India could hold elite coaching camps at the SAI Centres in Bengaluru, Patiala, New Delhi, Sonepat and a few more cities, there is no reason why sport at the grass-root level cannot be encouraged. Sport kills fear and that is how our star athletes like Avinash Sable (steeplechase) and hockey captain Rani Rampal overcame that barrier. They should be cited as prime examples of being Corona warriors at altogether another level. If elite athletes can push themselves to the limit, after having been hit by Covid-19, nothing should stop youngsters from taking up a sport.

States must promote and encourage their youth to play sport and not attend just Zoom classes. There is more time available today than before as there is no wastage of school travel time. All this needs a vision. Redundant sports ministers in each state need to be told to do this on priority.

If states like Punjab and Haryana and Kerala can produce champions, then many more must follow. There are champions like PT Usha and Anju Bobby George who are promoting talent in Kerala and Bengaluru. "We needed the spark in athletics and it has been provided by Neeraj Chopra. A jinx has been broken and I can promise you in future Olympics we will win medals in track and field," Anju told Millennium Post.

Sahdev Yadav, secretary of the Indian Weightlifting Federation feels by 2024 India will have at least five lifters who will qualify.

Does it sound too positive?

No, this is reality.

India won two medals in Rio 2016 with great difficulty. To increase it to seven has been a huge jump for which states and the Central Government need to be complimented. As regards awards pouring in for athletes, let them enjoy it.

They are the icons for next-generation which does not believe in competing at the Olympics but winning at the Olympics.

Views expressed are personal