India and the Elite Sports Events — Where is the Gap?
We are all in Asian Games mode. India stands 5th overall in the medals tally, and we all hope that we will do better in the coming days as events like athletics start picking up. But whatever our performance, we will be much behind the leaders — China, Korea, and Japan.
This is not new. Every time there is an international sports event like the Olympics Asiad or World Championships on the respective sports, we in India suffer from a sense of indignation and frustration at the performance (or lack of it) of the Indian contingent. To me, it looks mostly like another fad for some people are expressing it, but most feel a genuine sense of anguish. So it will be good to have a perspective here.
1. India has sent a contingent of 655 members. This may look like a large number, but let us not forget that all of them made the grade to the Asian Games based on individual qualification criteria. It is not easy to make the grade.
2. Even if a participant comes last in an event in the Asian Games, we need to appreciate that the person is in the top “X number of people” in Aisa for the event. So if someone comes last in the group of eight, the person is 8th best in Asia (for most of us, being the best in the family itself is a challenge)
3. Almost all the participants (except a few in elite sports like Tennis, Shooting, etc.) are from lower middle or downright poor families, where a large part of their life they have fought a system with nothing except passion.
4. Even when the talent is discovered, many are treated like second-class citizens. The associations are headed for decades by the same politicians, who siphon all the money, leaving little for the sportspersons and their facilities. We have seen photos of national champions waiting for an auto with their national cups. Just see the treatment for the equestrian team.
5. The events that are part of athletics are almost always widely popular globally, so the competition is also global. It is not cricket, where only five countries play it seriously, and only three consider it as their religion.
6. The rich and elite in India are not in sports (except in front of the TV), we push our children to study and have a safe life. At the maximum, they go for cricket coaching (where they will not be hurt) or learn an esoteric sport like yachting or horse riding so that the possibility of scholarships is better.
If we want to see the grit and determination, it will be good to meet some of them. When I was part of the Rotary Club, we once felicitated a young girl who was a winner in the Midnight Marathon. She requested the prize money to be more — so that she could have something left to buy her sports equipment after paying for her college fees.
This is real India — but this is also the India we should invest and hope for.
