With Yogeshwar Dutt being knocked out in the first round of 65
kgs freestyle wrestling, team India lost its hope of bringing home third medal
from Rio Olympics. Yes; ironically we had high hopes for third medal for India
from the Olympic 2016 from Yogeshwar Dutt, the other two medals brought in are
silver by PV Sindhu for Badminton and bronze by Sakshi Malik for freestyle
wrestling.

Something that will take you by surprise is the stark difference in
population count of these countries when compared to India. The combined
population of Iran, Thailand and Azarbaijan is still lesser than that of Uttar
Pradesh. The population of Azarbaijan is approx 9.5 million, which is far
lesser than National Capital New Delhi.
So the big question is why world's second most populous country
with 1.25 billion people can produce meager 117 athletes of Olympic standard
and these could only get 2 medals, that too with no gold.
Also, we need to introspect, why
in last 116 years of India's Olympic journey, we have won just 28 medals with
only 9 gold medals that too 8 golds in Hockey and only 1 in the
individual event of shooting by Abhinav Bindra in 2008 Beijing Olympics. What
can be inferred from these glaring statistics?
1.
Sports other than Cricket are not given much weightage as a
career option by people because neither they appear financially lucrative nor
glamorous as cricket.
2.
More than the government, it's the apathy of corporates &
the wealthy individuals towards other sports that has to change. Imagine
badminton coach P Gopichand had to mortgage his house to build his badminton
academy in Hyderabad, which finally gave a silver & a bronze in badminton
in two consecutive Olympics i.e in 2012 & 2016.
3.
At the grass root level schools and colleges lack the basic
infrastructure that can encourage other sports, so even if someone is
god-gifted with a natural talent then it gets crushed at the school level,
itself.
4.
The concept of sports school or college is still not seen as an
option in India's education system.
5.
In the last 116 years of our Olympic exposure, we have not been
able to produce many Olympians of international class, therefore, we also lack
coaches, who can nurture and groom the talent for the international level.
6.
Other than hockey, that too only till 1980, India has not done
well in team events in Olympics and no wonder, this is a poor reflection of our
esprit de corps.
7.
Finally... However, we may criticise Shobha De's comment on
Twitter but as a country we only celebrate individual brilliance, rather than
taking Olympics seriously . Hence, the popular lingo 'kaun sa Olympic mein
medal jeetna hai' needs to vacate our mind.
India has shown the globalised world that from information
technology to beauty peagents, from cricket to yoga, we can be the world
leaders and world beaters, so why not show the same spirit in Olympics?
Olympics is a platform that has inspired generations, it is a sea that carries
the waves of excellence of human spirit and endurance, so why shouldn't we be
touched by it?
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