India @ Rio – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

"Just six grams of gold can lift a nation"

Fiji (Rugby), Jordan (Taekwondo), Kosovo (Judo), Puerto Rico (Tennis), Singapore (Swimming) and Tajikistan (Athletics) each won a solitary medal (lower than India’s two) at Rio. Ranging from first medal ever (Fiji) to first ever gold medal (Singapore), these diminutive nations are all quite pleased with their contingent’s performance. The colour of their medal (Gold) explains the contrast with the relatively sombre mood in India. As yet another Olympics draws to a close, India continues the lookout for another individual gold.

"As Indian, it is lonely out there at the top" - Abhinav Bindra (wishing Sindhu prior to her finals)

One hopes that in four years’ time at Tokyo, Bindra will possibly get the desired company and more. While medal count does represent the tangible output, the actual viewership experience of these quadrennial games is about much more. Belief, Discipline, Dreaming big, fighting-till-the-very-end, overcoming obstacles, strategizing, team building … the list can go on and on. The bucket load of characteristics is almost inevitably on display every four years as over 11,000 athletes engage with the very best in the world for personal glory and national pride.

With the biggest ever contingent (117 – boosted by women’s hockey and 4*400m relay teams), India had its share of good, bad and ugly stories through the Rio games. Read on to see the GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE and 4^th Place (in honour of multiple close finishers from India) winners in each category:

THE UGLY

4^th Place: Leander Paes Saga: Similar to London Games, Bopanna showed disinterest in partnering with Paes till the tennis association (AITA) put their foot down. This came at the cost of assuring Bopanna a mixed doubles slot which arguably could have gone to Paes on the basis of form. On his part, Paes arrived only a day before his scheduled opening men’s doubles match to find no room allocated to him.

While the media had a field day, the pair crashed out in straight sets against the Polish duo on the first day. History will not be kind to either of the two players – Bopanna was primarily focused on mixed doubles with Sania (which he inevitably lost despite favourable draw) and Paes on being the first Indian to take part in seven consecutive Olympics (instead of being praised for keeping fitness at 43, he is being seen as the one playing for the record books).

BRONZE: Shobhaa De Tweet: As the team was recovering from few close defeats in the formative days at Rio, bang comes the tweet

“Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity.”

The mental and sporting credentials of Ms De were never in doubt. Nevertheless, the unusual focus in social and print media couldn’t have come at a worse time. At best, media is a double edged sword. Ranging from blatant demeaning to mockery, netizens continued to indirectly highlight Ms De’s golden words. Revenge act serves the purpose of creating the much needed publicity for Ms De.

SILVER: Vijay Goel and Anil Vij Campaign: Under the guise of “supporting” our players, the two politicians made a complete mockery of India’s image. Goel was happy posing for selfies with exhausted players along with his entourage. Vij didn’t feel like bothering the players (from his state – Haryana or otherwise) and focused on the revered beaches / party circuit of Rio. Makes one wonder who was worse – Our carefree politicians or USA’s Ryan Loche (“mobbed at gunpoint” story).

International Olympic Association’s rulebook makes it mandatory for national sports bodies to be completely independent of the Government. Unfortunately in India, this does not translate into being independent of politicians. As such, limited professional experience of playing or managing the sport continues to mar the Indian sport’s bodies (Fun Fact: N Ramachandran – President of Indian Olympic Association is the brother of N Srinivasan of Chennai SuperKings fame). Related repercussions naturally creep into player / support staff selection, fund allocation et al taking the respective sports into negative spiral with the Government limited to being a meek observer at best.

Must Read – Quick primer on management of sports in India: http://www.opindia.com/2016/08/some-facts-you-must-know-about-management-of-sports-in-india-and-govt-involvement/

GOLD: Narsingh Episode: Till the very end, I was eagerly hoping for this mess to somehow melt away. Having followed the saga for over two years now, the bizarre sequence of events are worthy of a standalone write-up (at a later date!!). By indirectly impacting the performance of Yogeshwar (contrary to media reports, he had beaten Amit in trials) and Tomar, this episode sadly cost us probably three medals.

The impact on Narsingh’s career cannot be summed up in words. From the onset, it has been clear that Narsingh would have got absolutely no benefit from the said drug. After 15 years of International experience, it is juvenile to expect a wrestler to consume this drug. If the appropriate investigation does see the light of the day, this episode might just go down as the epitome of mala fide intention in Indian sports.

THE BAD

4^th Place: Deepika Kumari (Archery): A former world number one, Deepika has been ranked in the top 5 consistently over last 5-6 years. In April 2016, she had matched the world record at World cup in Shanghai. With that background, she was expected to deliver a strong performance at Rio. While she did perform much better than the 1^st round loss at London Games, her overall performance continued to blow hot and cold. With Bombayla Devi shooting well, her support could have easily taken India to the semi-finals of women’s team event (against Russia in quarters) with double shot at medal. Unfortunately, Deepika’s nerves got the better of her in the two critical shots. With age still on her side, she will have yet another chance to do justice to her tremendous potential at Tokyo.  

BRONZE: Athletics Performance: With strength of 36, Rio had one of the largest Indian Athletics contingents in many editions. Leading up to the event, there was an almost exponential increase in players meeting the qualifying criteria over the last few weeks. Indian players had qualified in 19 disciplines against 11 in London. Some of these timings ranked amongst the very best in the world for 2016 and were well highlighted by the media.

However, it was not surprising that these timings / performances were not replicated at Rio. Key in any competitive sport is to “time the peaking” period to coincide with the games, a strategy followed by most medalists. Unaware of international practice, media had a gala time setting up unrealistic expectations on the basis of our 2016 performances. Inderjeet (Shotput) and Dharambir (200m) failing drug test in the last days only support the “elephant-in-the-room” hypothesis about rampant use of performance enhancing drugs.

SILVER: Hockey Inconsistency: Gold Medalist Argentina lost only to India in the entire tournament despite facing double gold medallist Germany twice and WR 2 Netherlands once. Despite being the lowest ranked (barring Brazil), Canada held India to a 2-2 draw. Ranging between these extremes, India did blow a more than fair chance of getting a podium finish at Rio.

In the days leading to Rio, Hockey Team and the association (unlike most of their counterparts) did most things right inclusive of stable coach and team composition, ample practice against hockey’s powerhouses and appropriate acclimatization. Unfortunately, inconsistency let us down. However, increased endurance / stamina and ability to match the playing styles of hockey powerhouse will augur well for our national sport.

GOLD: Jitu Rai and Shooting: National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has been one of the only few associations which has their house in order. Unlike other sports, our shooters have been regular at world events right through the four year period since London. Due to their consistent show, Heena Sidhu and Jitu Rai have being the world number one position in their respective pistol disciplines.

However at Rio, only Bindra and Jitu went beyond qualification rounds despite participating in 11 disciplines. In his swansong, Bindra finished a close 4^th in his pet 10m Air Rifle event. Ranked 2^nd in 50m Air Pistol and 3^rd in 10m Air Pistol, soft spoken Jitu was touted to be India’s first ever double medalist at Rio. Marred by unfortunate wind in 50m Air Pistol qualifications and lacklustre performance in 10m Air Pistol finals, he drew a blank. While Jitu will surely have enough chances to make amends in the future games, Indian contingent never really recovered from his setback at Rio.

THE GOOD

4^th Place: Increased Competitiveness: Long term Olympics followers would confirm that India’s medal chances have been historically limited to shooting (one-off events) and lawn tennis (doubles). Sushil and Vijender initiated the Wrestling and Boxing story with their bronze in 2008 while Saina started the Badminton chapter in 2012. Rio was the first ever games where India had genuine medal (or top 10-20 ranked) contenders in a whole host of events – Archery, Badminton (M&W), Boxing, Hockey, Shooting (M&W – multiple events), Tennis, Weight-Lifting and Wrestling (M&W).

Spectrum (and to a lesser extent count) of athletes reaching finals / knockouts at Rio has further reinforced this belief. Dipa’s feat has added Gymnastics to the list for Tokyo. Higher sport count would go a long way in increasing medal prospects over future editions. However, the planning needs to accept that each sport might be at different maturity level in the country. Structuring sports into appropriate buckets should hence be a key element of our forward strategy.

Category	Potential Sports (e.g.)	Activities	Olympic Objective
Class A	Badminton, Hockey,  Shooting, Wrestling	Focus on smoothening rough ages around scientific support, nutrition etc.	Have target medal count
Class B	Archery, Boxing, Lawn Tennis, Table Tennis, Rowing	Establish high level of internal qualification	Consistent multiple representation
Class C	Athletics, Cycling, Judo, Taekwondo, Weight Lifting	Popularise the sport with appropriate infrastructure and grass-root funding	Qualifying for next games

BRONZE: Passing over Baton: Level of internal competition in a country is a key indicator of the overall performance at the global level. It is not surprising that selection rounds of US swimming or South Korean Archery team is as highly rated (if not more) than the event at actual Olympic games.

As such, it is heartening to see more and more sports develop multiple medal contenders in India. Healthy internal competition (earnestly hoping that Narsingh case remains an exception!!) shall only raise the level of sport. This natural passing of baton would go a long way in sustaining the momentum created in specific sports. To name a few: Archery (Atanu – Champia), Badminton (Saina – Sindhu / Srikanth – Prannoy – Sourabh – Kashyap – Dutt), Hockey (Quality bench strength with hugely improved junior n “A” team performance), Shooting (Binda – Narang – Jitu) and Wrestling (Dhankar – Dutt / Phogat Sister – Everyone else).

SILVER: Women Performance: For India, Rio has been about the celebration of women spirit in a great way. Dipa, Lalita, Sania, Sakshi, Sindhu and Vinesh (to a lesser extent: Aditi, Bombayla, Deepika) have all delivered credible performances. Sakshi (after trailing in almost every match) and Sindhu (despite being handed a scary draw) held their nerves to ensure that the contingent didn’t return empty handed. Any amount of accolades bestowed on them would be less. With age on their side, both these players should hopefully look at improving the colour of their medal at Tokyo.

On a fundamental note, I have always believed that encouraging women has a more likelihood of having a podium position. At the risk of inviting ridicule, I would state that the gap between India and global standards on basic physical aspects (agility, strength, vo2 max etc.) is lower in the fairer sex. It is a question of encouraging and having belief which hopefully the Rio medals would instill. 

GOLD: Pullela Gopichand: Nothing succeeds like success and that is why Gopichand deserves to be right up there. While the continuous assembly line of match winners coming from his academy speaks highly of his standards, the back to back medals have established him amongst the legends. Having observed (the otherwise inconsistent) Srikanth / Sindhu match shot after shot against much higher ranked players without showing any signs of tiring, few would doubt his ability to land India a Gold medal at Tokyo.

More importantly, he has put forth a successful model for consistently churning out world beaters in our country. Heavy quantum of money pouring on his academy (from corporate, individual and public players) reinforces the belief that attracting money might not be the single major hurdle facing a non-cricket sport in this country.

In a developing democracy like ours, sports would continue to lie low on Government’s priority. Expecting public investment to fuel our grass-root programs might not be practical. The situation is worsened by the complete absence of a sporting ethos and culture. The need is to have a person / group of persons (OGQ, JSW Foundation) with a dream, with a belief, with a vision to work tirelessly (even at the cost of their own personal life) to grow specific sport centres of excellence in India. Depending on the sport and gene pool, the results might take few years to few decades. (Detailed write-up at a later date!!)

Mahavir Phogat is doing it for Women Wrestling in Haryana, Duleep Singh did it for Gymanstics in Tripura and Gopichand is doing it for Badminton in Hyderabad. Latter’s quote from an early 2015 interview gives a good insight into the kind of patriotic mindset required for this job.

“…I am grateful to the country for giving me more than I deserve. I feel I should push as much as I can every single day. For India to have its national anthem played twice in China at a badminton event and the Tricolor being hoisted two times because of my students [at the China Super Series in 2014] is superb. There can’t be a bigger driving force than that. Each time I feel low, I think of memories like these and I feel motivated. It raises my motivation levels like nothing else does...”