10 reasons why India performs poorly in Olympics.
Olympics 2016 at Rio began with lots of hopes and anticipations. Our athletes pushing really hard to make it to the top and fans praying and cheering everywhere, this year was expected to be a different story. Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian female gymnast at the Olympics and finished fourth at the women’s vault gymnastic events. A bronze and a silver by Sakshi Malik and P. V. Sindhu and we were done already.
Russia and China walked out every time with multiple gold medals while India got only one since 1980 when Abhinav Bindra swayed them all in the 10 meter air rifle event in 2008. All our earlier medals were won in hockey. India produces so many worthy athletes every year and yet our medal count never soars high.
Reasons why India performs poorly in the Olympics1. Lack of sports culture : In the words of Boria Majumdar, “unless there is synergized sports culture, you will never win a string of medals. A fundamental overhaul is needed and urgently so.” Without sports culture, athletes are left out of the supportive environment that is positively needed in the shaping of a better performing bunch of athletes.
2. Poverty and lack of education : There is a lack of strong foundation for sportsperson in India. While pursuing their interest in sports, they also have to take care of their economic factors and pay a part of their attention towards earning livelihood or education for some. You do not get spared from exams and tests at school for pursuing for sports.
3. Infrastructure: We do lack proper infrastructure for training and practice sessions of athletes that could make them more competent and well equipped to deal with world class competitors. It would have been far better if our athletes could get access to better infrastructure and get to play all across the country to stay practiced.
4. Lack of encouragement: Right from the very beginning, youth in India are discouraged from pursuing a career in sports. Our parents are obsessed with the likes of medical and engineering. And for girls, the scenario is even worse with obnoxious list of drawbacks and hindrances they have to face before they could persuade their parents to allow them to play. Most of them are forced to quit sports in order to do something that would give them better job security.
5. Less contribution to sports : Our economy has been prospering and allotment of funds to different fields of development has been improvising with each year’s budget. However, there is still relatively very less allotment of funds for sports given the sheer number of youth who are willing to take up sports seriously.
6. Cricket takes all the fans : We, as a country, are obsessed with a singular sport and that is cricket. It is only during major events like Olympics when other sports are given a part of the limelight and fan cheering. For the rest of the year, we stay ignorant of who’s who of other sports. They are promoted less, there are fewer sponsors for the other sports, there are even less fans hooting and cheering them to do better and then we go about complaining and trolling athletes when we do not get enough medals.
7. Corruption and less care : One of the best athletes of all times gets a positive in drug test and even after fingers are pointed at defaming strategies, nothing is done about it. Narsingh Yadav pointed out clearly how SAI ignored the previous attempt to taint his food with unknown substance but no serious action was taken resulting in end of his Olympics dream.
8. The odds are against us : We lack world class facilities that are available to athletes of first world nations. They have always been robbing the third world nations of their wealth and increasing their stash. There are also some reports that suggest that since most of the judges are from these nations, there is a possibility that some amount of partiality prevails.
9. Favouritism in choosing heads : Heads of the sports organizations are simply people favoured by the ruling party. They have no idea of the sport or its necessities and are yet chosen to lead the people who are serious about the sport. What could we expect in a system like this?
10. Genetic and nutrition : Some researches prove that the athletes of these nations are genetically and physically fitter than our people. They get proper nutrition that is required for a sportsperson with all the necessary elements while our athletes rely on their own little efforts to stay strong and fit.
Our athletes might not have bagged many medals but they sure are trying harder and doing better. In years to come with more attention towards sports infrastructure and world class facilities for their training, these athletes will go ahead to make India proud. Most importantly, our encouragement and media focus on sports other than cricket could do wonders.
