India at Tokyo 2020: A Roadmap
thebeautifulgame
Durgapur,India30601 Points
With the curtains coming down on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, it’s time to look back at the performance of India over the past two weeks or so. To put it baldly, India finished 67th in the medal tally wining one silver and one bronze medal. Quite a huge disappointment for a country with a population of around 1.3 billion people! After all the initial hype and hoopla about sending the largest ever delegation and the anticipatory fizz about the nation bettering its last Olympic record (its best ever) of six medals had died down, it was soon evident that our performance would be pretty underwhelming to say the least. Only a handful of individuals fought to the very end for a podium finish and if it were not for the talented and lion-hearted Sakshi Malik and P.V. Sindhu who put up a bravura performance to finish with a bronze and a silver medal respectively, we would be returning home empty-handed. Other stellar performances for India include Dipa Karmakar (especially her Produnova vault that so adored her to all Indians) who missed the bronze medal by a whisker in the Artistic Gymnastics category, Abhinav Bindra who finished fourth in his individual 10 meter air rifle event, Kidambi Srikanth who went down fighting to Li Dan in the quarter finals of the men’s badminton, Lalita Babar who finished 10th in the finals of the Women’s 3000 metre steeplechase and the eighteen year-old youngster, Aditi Ashok, who came up with a tremendous show in the women’s individual golf event.
So, what went wrong? Already, the knives have begun to be sharpened, the blame is being passed and mud-slinging is at an all-time low. Pundits have been commenting enthusiastically in the media about what should have been done to avoid the debacle. But it is more a time for introspection and action. Do we, as a nation which spends $0.005 per head on sports each day against $0.30 for the U.S.A., deserve better? Indians religiously follow cricket throughout the year but apart from that, they hardly seem interested in other sports and more importantly, are quite content in letting their children settle for cushy jobs rather than allowing them to go through the grind and rigour that is needed to achieve success in sports at the international level. Should sports be introduced in the school curriculum? Should there be more private investment of sports in the country? Should the government play a more pro-active role in spreading awareness regarding sports in the country? Watch this space to find out more as IFN experts seek a solution to this malaise and chalk out a roadmap for the next Olympics to be held in Totyo, 2020.
and 1 other.
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we are waiting for a results
1) 21 athletes supported by OGQ participated at the Rio 2016 olympics across 6 sports
2) PV Sindhu won the silver medal in Badminton to make the entire nation proud
3) Jitu Rai came to the final of the 10 m air pistol, gurpreet singh came 7th in 25 m rpf
4) Women's archery team lost in quarters of the team event
5) Overall, as OGQ we feel that our efforts to help the athletes were not good enough and we need to introspect deeply
6) We will analyse performances at rio, learn and improve. Hope to come back stonger
7) We congratulate Sakshi for her bronze medal, Abhinav, Rohan-Sania, Dipa, Lalita, The Indian Hockey Team, Srikanth and Mairaj for their excellent performances
8) We are proud of all our athletes who competed at the Rio Olympics.
9) We are very open to feedback, suggestions and constructive criticism.
10) Thank you to all the wonderful fans of Indian sport. Keep supporting all indian athletes
https://www.facebook.com/olympicgoldquest
No Powerlifter can claim to be adequate enough to compete in weightlifting. We are looking for Olympic sports here.
I agree with your point on building base but then it is a wrong thread. If someone wants to be a successful weightlifter, go for the real deal-weightlifting.
http://breakingmuscle.com/olympic-weightlifting/the-scientific-differences-between-weightlifting-and-powerlifting
https://www.t-nation.com/training/weightlifting-versus-powerlifting
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-India-so-underrepresented-at-the-Olympics
On a slightly humorous note, this
There are simple and well known reasons for the debacle of India in the Olympics. Well, you know that Indian society is obsessed with turning their children into doctors and engineers. Every year, around 2.5 million young children go for preparation of medical and engineering exams. And this perpetual cycle continues…
Here, it is cool to prepare for engineering & medical exams and fail. Whereas it is uncool to excel in sports and dreaming to have a career in sports. Why? Because most people want only three things: money, money and money.
The day ‘being a sportsperson’ will become as equally acceptable as ‘being a doctor or engineer’ for Indian society, India will win podium finishes in Olympics. And I bet if that day comes, we will be in the top five in the medal tally.
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Let me give you an example.
Had Michael Phelps been an Indian, this is the conversation that is most likely to happen between a 16 year old Phelps and a typical Indian uncle-
Sharma uncle: Phelps! What do you do?
Phelps: Uncle, I am a professional swimmer.
Uncle: Well, that’s a good hobby. But what do you do?
Phelps: I am a competitive swimmer.
Uncle: Yes, I know. Swimming is good for health also. But what do you do? Like medical or engineering?
Phelps: (speechless).....