Indian Olympians - Need for more HEROES

We one of the largest populations in the world with 1.22 billion people and counting, have won merely 24 medals till date at the Olympics.  India had the lowest ratio of medals-won to population of any competing country: one medal per 383 million Indians.

Michael Phelps has won nearly same number of medals as India's total medal tally till date.

A serious topic to think about. Isn’t it? Some call it the lack of infrastructure and some call it lack of proper guidance, while some call it mere bad luck!!

But according to me above all these “so called issues” I would call it lack of interest or lack of people courageous enough to make sport their way of life.

Why is that India has no presence in games like Football, Baseball, Basketball, Volleyball, Swimming? The list is bigger than the games played and performed in. Why is that countries like US, China etc are the powerhouse of medalists? Somewhere we are lacking.

The major sponsorships are awarded to a single sport “Cricket”. But it’s not the only sport. We watch every sport like worship but yet are not interested in playing it. India has the highest views of any sport. Where is the sporting culture in India? We all are self absorbed in creating Engineers and Doctors and don’t allow our youth to take a rather risky path of going in a not so prevalent sport in India.

Indian Marathon runners were on the verge of getting disqualified because of lack of proper shoes!!! They didn’t have any sponsors. We are progressing in some sports like badminton, tennis slowly. But this growth rate is way to sluggish.

India is in more need of Olympians, who would proudly represent India. The path to the Olympics is risky, not all can become Olympians, but a child who is capable should not be stopped from playing just for the reason of meeting failure. There are failures in Engineering and all but you don’t stop them from studying.

The mindset of the people is to be changed and there is a special need from media to promote new sports like Synchronized Swimming and the likes.

Why we criticize other countries for showing only their athletes on TV. The truth is that the TV networks in India also show all the Indian athletes' events. But because there are so few of them who qualify for the later rounds, ESPN, Star Sports, and DD Sports run out of South Asian athletes very quickly. The rest of the time is devoted to watching other things. Whereas in the case of America, they never run out of athletes to root for and so we watch endless contests where there's an American medal contender. What people like me have essentially been complaining about, then, is the sheer number of excellent athletes America sends to the Olympics. How inconvenient!

Why India fares so miserably at the Olympics when poorer countries in Africa have managed to carve long distance running niches for themselves, when much smaller nations like Kazhakstan and Jamaica have made some events their very own.

So please if your relatives or some known people have a dream to do good in sports, then inspire them to be an Olympian rather than lighting off the spirit in them!!!!

Lastly I would like to give an example:

When Saina Nehwal managed to wrest the bronze in badminton from an injured opponent who was leading by a game when she fell, her father made one of the most shocking remarks I've ever heard from someone belonging to a professional athletes' camp. He said, "Upar wale ki meherbani se woh gir gayee! (Due to God's grace, her opponent fell down)." Mr Nehwal clearly needs some help in the PR department. But this is a country where we are so starved for sporting glory that we take what we can and are grateful for it.