Must Read for All Sports Lovers. Review on Athens 2004 Olympic Games

India?s Performance at the Olympics.

It?s been about a fortnight now, since the Olympic Games in Athens came to an end. I am surprised despite a pathetic and way below par performance at these games, we as a country have put it behind us? no discussion - no improvement inducing actions either.

The Sports Minister? Honorable Shri Sunil Dutt feels that it is wrong to blame the Sports Ministry for the horrible performance. The athletes feel they are not getting the support from the government as well as their respective federations for failure to get the desired results.

I for one believe that it?s time that we introspected hard enough, and took necessary actions which would help us achieve our rightful place in the sporting world. Right now the statistics are too depressing, for a country of 100 Crores, we don?t have even 15 medals in the 100 years of Olympics. If you take away the 8 Gold medals, we won for Hockey(Long before the European nations became the masters & do remember some of these were before pakistan was formed) we would have not much left to show.

A medal by an Englishmen, one by a long forgotten wrestler, one by Paes for Tennis, one for weightlifting by Malleshwari at Sydney and one my Maj Rathore at the Athens game? and India's sad and tragic Olympic story comes to an end. Did I miss any? I don?t think so, but this is hardly a sporting heritage we can be proud off, however patriotic we might be. So what are we doing wrong?

To begin with, its quite apparent that we don?t have a culture which promotes sports at any level. Not only us but in fact all our neighbors also suffer from the same problems. Our schools don?t encourage excellence in sports; unfortunately our education system believes that for making good citizens they only need to emphasize the importance of academics.

However for overall development on an individual it is very important that sports is incorporated into lifestyle at an early stage in life. If not for Olympic glory at least to help the future generations of this country physically fit? and not to mention the joy that sports bring into life. Only people actively pursuing a sport can understand the joy of competing with a fellow sportsman, and more importantly how most sports teach you to deal with real life.

Our sports federations employ foreign coaches when nothing else is working for a particular sport? whether it is Boxing, Hockey or field athletics. I feel since we don?t have a sporting culture, and since we hardly have any decent sportsperson or coaches to inspire our future generations? why not employ foreign coaches for schools or probably at a district level? Sounds ambitious I know, but I am sure it can work out, though there is a cost associated with any such plan, it would be less then what we are wasting by sending large contingents to sporting events? which more or less come back with nothing to show.

Next we need to tackle the federations, most of which are being run like princely states by autocratic heads. A case in point is the hockey federation? what does Mr. K.P.S Gill has to show for the years he has put in as the president? India is probably the only hockey team in the world, where the coach gets sacked with a month to go for the Olympics.

We cannot let these retired bureaucrats and officials run these federations in such autocratic manner? without being accountable. To control terrorism and to run a sports federation are two entirely different ball games(pun not intended) Mr. Gill. Players who don?t perform get dropped from the teams, why aren't the administrators treated in a similar manner? Why don?t people like Mr.Gill, Mr. Kalmadi & Mr. Randhir Singh take up personal responsibility and leave the posts they are holding? Because probably the government does not have money to spend on development of sports, but they do have money to bear all costs of these administrators.

The players are not above board either, most Indian players disappointed at the Olympics? I know its important to compete, but a win here and there won?t harm the Olympic spirit. If we will again take an example of the hockey team, people who did watch the games on Doordarshan( with insipid and foolish commentary) must have noticed how most Indian players barring a few played for personal glory. For the life of me I could never understand why did our players kept on dribbling and trying to score the goal themselves instead of passing to other players? It is easy for most sports person to blame the popularity of cricket as the bane of all sports in India, but they have to realize that performances like these will not help to make their sports popular.

It is true that you can arrange a large crowd to see a cricket match between two teams of a locality, but it is impossible to bring even 100 people into a stadium to watch even national track & field event. However an all out effort which includes the sports persons, the federations, the government as well as big corporates can help this attitude change in a matter of years. A positive start has to be made.

Most Asian countries have made tremendous leaps in their sporting performances, as their economic strength and might have grown. This probably offer a hope to India also, perhaps we can also improve as our economic conditions change for the better.

The road ahead is very difficult, even if we do everything possible, we will only start getting results 10 years from now. However a start has to be made for the future generations of this country - they should not hang their heads in shame every four years as we do. Every individual has to put in his or her end of effort, we need to get charismatic leaders who can inspire, we need to make the administrators realize that their posts are performance dependent, if they won?t make the necessary changes they will be booted out.

Reading this review some people might feel that I am a cynic, on the contrary I want to assure you that I am an optimist. Maybe everything about Indian sports feel so depressed to me because I feel so passionate about our sports. I would be glad if people put forward their comments and suggestions regarding this matter, even if you feel my ideas won?t work? tell me your ideas, maybe they will work. But let?s not just give up and wait for the next Olympics, please believe in your ideas they can change the situation and your ideas will change the situation.