Every four years, India decides to embarrass itself on the international stage. No, I am not talking about our football team’s attempts to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. It’s the Olympics. The greatest sporting event in the world, despite being marred in recent decades with charges of corruption and debauchery, is still a big deal. It shapes conversations, captures the popular imagination and makes stars out of extraordinary human beings.
It is not merely a sporting event, but a cultural one too. How many times have you seen the photo of that Turkish shooting guy on your feed in recent weeks? On any other day, he would have been mistaken for some middle-aged accountant strolling to buy some eggs. At the Olympics, he became the most famous sportsperson in the world for a month! The Olympics are also extremely political. Russia wasn’t allowed to participate this year, because of their devastating invasion of a foreign country – a right reserved only with a select few. Israel saw its contingent attacked in the 1974 Olympics because of some issue I can’t recollect. I think it must have been solved by now.
Meanwhile, India’s medal tally looks like we sent some pot-bellied IT professionals to Paris. I know I am being harsh and in no way mean to disrespect our athletes who have dedicated their lives to this tournament. But as a nation of 1.4 billion people with the fifth largest economy in the world, this medal haul is a disgrace. No gold medal too! How did we achieve that despite increasing investment in athletic training from both public and private players? Some countries didn’t even provide ACs in the Olympic Village for their gold medal-winning stars while ours were sharing reels posing with their new cooling machines.
India hasn’t respected its sportspersons for decades. We consider sports as a career option for the rich, poor or the deluded. Forget sports as a vocation, do we even have a sporting culture? Our country’s cricket captain is famously overweight. I know diabetic septuagenarians who take care of their body shape more than him. Are we a nation that believes in exercise? The most common sight in our gardens is old men and obese aunties walk with flailing arms while sharing intelligence dossiers on the latest colony scandals.
How many of you have parents who have at least one sporting hobby? Yelling and gesticulating animatedly at ‘CNBC Awaaz’ during a market crash does not count. India has lost an entire generation to khakra and fafda whose only physical activity was going to work and coming back home. These people are now retired with Neeraj Chopra in their WhatsApp DP. I don’t blame them. They spent their entire lives trying to escape poverty or become rich in a country that was determined to ensure it didn’t happen. They focused on accumulating enough money to retire peacefully and many didn’t even succeed at that. We are thankful for their efforts.
However, decades of neglect have transformed sports into a pariah, ostracized by India’s masses. “Leave it to the truly crazy ones. You prepare for JEE/UPSC.” Better to waste your youth in the slums of Kota than training for sporting glory. Despite our hyper jingoism, things won’t change anytime soon. Until we become a $10-15,000 per capita country, we won’t have the facilities or the ability to nurture truly world-class athletes. The same way China did. Alas, they are a quasi-autocracy. Americans? Oh, they are the hegemon. British? They ruled the world for centuries. French? They too were a colonial superpower. Koreans? They got BTS motivating them. Australia? Uh, gravity doesn’t work the same down under. Let’s change the topic.
If excuses were an Olympic sport, we would have had our own Michale Phelps or Simone Biles. Anyway, we can keep ranting until the cows come home (sans medals) but the Indian sports scene won’t improve until most of us adopt one sport for ourselves that we will play throughout our life. See, sports is not just an activity. It’s a state of mind too. It’s about pushing yourself to get better and stop doing and thinking whatever you are used to. Break the routine with something that’s not the usual bullshit of life. Try to be a better you. The best you.
Until we take pride in being good at some sport, we won’t birth and nurture athletes who can defeat the Americans and the Chinese. Also, a deep cleansing of sports bodies with politicians was needed yesterday. But I won’t hold my hopes high. There are issues with regionalism too in selecting those who will represent the nation. Don’t believe me? Ask Mary Kom. We need a decades-long effort on all fronts to change our fortunes. Otherwise, stay happy forwarding fake WhatsApp messages where UNESCO has once again declared India’s national anthem as the world’s best.
Pol Ke Bol! 