The Rise Of India As A Sporting Nation

The just-concluded Asian Games in Japan’s Aichi Nagoya have again established India as a sporting nation, though far behind China and Japan, finishing fourth with 21 golds and a total haul of 85 medals. The tally is behind the last Asian Games haul of 106 medals, but there is no reason for dismay. What is important is that most of the teams and athletes performed to expectation. The shooting squad disappointed a bit in a sport where unimaginable precision is the goal, but it can be seen as a momentary glitch. China is a world power in the Olympics too and had 88 gold medals in the Tokyo Olympics, and Japan came in with 27 gold medals. So, the Asian Games can be seen as a mini Olympics, and the competition is tough. The Asian Games is also increasingly becoming an Afro-Asian game, with Gulf states like Qatar and Bahrain bringing in top African runners in their squads, as if national borders did not exist. These African runners took away at least 3 gold medals from India in track and field. It is high time that rules for nationalising athletes especially from Africa are tightened.

Of the 27 silver medals that India won, at least 10 could have been transformed into gold by better strategy and that burning desire to finish at the top. Many Indian athletes who got silver and bronze expressed happiness at their performance instead of ruing the loss of a gold. All of them should be taught the Djokovic approach to winning the No. 1 place: never settle for number two; improve the strategic mind. Brilliant long-distance runner Gulveer Singh, who won two silvers and a bronze, should be taught to strategise better and never to settle for the white metal. Various top coaches from abroad have helped Indian athletes inculcate some of these thoughts, but it is a work in progress.

Our women athletes, most of them from Haryana, have done us proud. Emerging from a patriarchal society, Haryana women have held up the flaming torch for the rest of the women in the country to get inspired. The medals they have won, the giant wrestlers they have thrown on the mat, the big boxers they flattened with a hook, the scorching of the tracks, that pride and determination in their faces are actually symbols of a new India. Haryana is a small state but is at the forefront of the Indian sports revolution.

Will India become an Asian topper in the next decade? Unlikely. There is no larger plan, sports ministers are not interested in their jobs, the Sports Authority of India is a humongous, lethargic bureaucracy, and stadiums are left to rot. So, all the medals we won are a tribute to personal determination and a search for glory.