Meltdown at Olympics

The performance of Indian athletes in London Olympics 2012 is no better than that in Beijing or any preceding that. If we use medal count as a yardstick, the performance is not on an upward stride. As they say that comparisons are done among equals (with effect to size and economy), dragging China and drawing parallels between the two becomes unavoidable. We Indians boast of becoming a superpower by 2020, which inflates my expectations in the sports domains too. China’s haul of medals between 1984 and 2012 has almost tripled. The conventional reason may be because of the huge population and good economy. But if that’s the case why is India lagging behind in spite of basking in similar glorious numbers.

I would try shedding some light to that effect.

1. In India, government spending on Sports is a bare minimum. Training the athletes and coaching them properly is by far elusive. A certain number of “Olympic Gold Quest” or a certain number of Tata Athletics Trust is not much to fund the spending that a country of the size of India should be spending on sports .On the other hand China sends its potential swimmers to get trained in Australia, a country that has produced world class swimmers. The state run athlete agencies of China are huge in number in addition to the 15000 government funded sporting schools in the country. Even countries of the size of North Korea spend a larger chunk on Sports.
2.  The mindset of Indian society is not very conducive for sports other than Cricket. One most probable reason which I can conclude is the hype and glamour that is attached to Cricket here. Cricket followed as a cult to the extent that the other sports overly undermined. Other sports should be promoted too.
   
3.  There is a lack of a proper system to tap potential in sports in India. In china children with athletic talent and potential are identified at an early age and then are trained at Chinese athletic training programme. Indian education system does not attach relevance to sports. To make a plant bear fruits, it has to be nurtured since it is in the seed stage. Larger returns demand prolonged investment. Tapping potential at an early age and providing proper guidance and training is the key to produce good athletes.
4. Then there has to be a strategy behind picking up the target sports too. The physical build of Asians is different from The Africans and Europeans so there is little wisdom in wasting resources on field and track sports. Like China doesn’t waste its resources on fields and track where it has little hope of muscling out the Europeans and Americans. Instead focussing on obscure spots which requires training seems prudent.

India has a long road to tread if it wants to come in the league of Sporting Superpowers like China and U.S. Let India borrow the strategy of winning credits in sports from its neighbour country where winning is everything. If the meltdown In Olympics continues we will have to part ourselves with the notion that we are going great guns and that ours is an engine that  is about to reach the station of a Super Powerdom.