The Olympic games are what the world is talking about as the best athletes in the world are competing to be titled ‘best among best’ at Paris. India, however, has sent a 112 athletes to compete in various sports and the performance so far has been as good as any during the last years. At the time of writing India has three bronze medals in pistol and rifle shooting. Some athletes have been progressing into next rounds and there is a lot of speculation over whether the medal count will look better or worse than last Tokyo Olympics.
Last Olympics, India had four medals and the at the one before that, there were only two medals – neither of them gold. Smaller countries bag medals like its child’s play and Indian athletes struggle to make a mark at the world event where pure merit is at play and where their performance actually counts. Why has India underperformed in the Olympics and continues to do so? No matter how many medals our athletes win this year, the performance is still undermining in comparison to smaller countries and table toppers. I compiled a list of reasons that have contributed to the not-so-proud performances of Indian athletes at the Olympics over the years.
* A lack of orientation regarding the future in sports
Its no secret that India is a country that values academic excellence and students are pressured to perform academically more than anything else. As much as I am an academician myself and I do not condemn students’ academic obligation, ignorance about sports and the vast opportunities in the sports arena is the root cause of deprivation of eligible candidates in the sports sector. A very small percentage of students opt sports as a career option every year while millions graduate into the career market. The awareness levels are steadily improving and we might see some significant progress over the next few decades though.
* A system that does not favor merit over other socio-political factors
The reservation system that de-credits merit and favors various other socio-political factors has caused a number of administrative issues in this country that has affected us in the long run. Having incapable candidates in the political and administrative spheres, and worse still in teaching, has led to capable candidates being deprived off good opportunities simply because they don’t belong to a particular community. This results in inefficiency in policy making, training, selection, etc on grassroot levels, leading to embarrassment on large platforms like the Olympics which is purely merit based.
* A lack of far sightedness in policy making
It is an open secret that Chinese athletes are trained to shine on international platforms ever since childhood. Indian athletes not only lack such orientation, there is also no scope for them to be trained with such intensity as the Indian administration has never given any real consideration towards sports education in the country. Its not a matter of one government or another; this has been the issue ever since independence. Sports education is way too low on the priority list for any standard training to begin early. There is some notable change happening in this direction especially since Neeraj Chopra brought home a Gold in athletics in the last Olympics, but there is a long way to go.
* Other administerial priorities
We’re in no position to blame policy makers when their plates are full of other priorities. I don’t mean to say that everything is smoothly managed in this country but the fact that sports education is low on the priority list is based on the sheer amount of other administrative responsibilities. Investing in sports infrastructure and expertise seems rather frugal when healthcare and education still have a long way to go. The government faces a lot of opposition when it attempts to invest in the area as well.
As much as we expect our athletes to compete strongly with the world’s best and bring home medals, we must also understand that they’ve made it to such a platform despite a number of odds. Their performance is a cumulative of a lot of things back home. That’s why we’re a country that wildly celebrates every single medal that our athletes bring home, despite being mocked by it internationally. There is a steady growth in every sector including sports lately; so hopefully we’ll see more medals coming home from Olympic meets from this year.
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