Gold dream at Rio 2016 un-accomplished Why?

First published in the year 2016, during the Rio Olympics. (for Reader’s context)

The journey to Rio Olympics 2016 which started in Brazil on August 6, 2016, with the first Gold by USA’s, Ms Virginia in shooting is now about to end tomorrow August 22, 2016. India’s campaign though could not get hold of the Gold Medal but consolidated the position by striking Bronze in Wrestling by Haryana’s Ms Shaksi Malik and Silver in Badminton by Andra Pradesh’s Ms PV Sindhu.

Sindhu went on to set a record for the first-ever silver medal by any women Olympian in the history of India. Also not to forget Artistic Gymnastics where for the first time Dipa Karmakar stood 4th in finals but showed the world the classic death vault skills. Kudos to them. They made India proud. They made the nation proud.

Not out of surprise, the Indian contingent was criticized by various public figures and tweets were made in a cynical way about the possible failure of our campaign. Overcoming all these, the daughters of India have proved that there are no shortcuts to success.

The pertinent question remains on our front. Is the gold dream unaccomplished? But why so. In a country of 1.3 billion people aren’t have any sportsmen who can strive us Gold.

I myself am a sportsman and thus understand what it takes to create miracles in the sports arena. Thus, an attempt of this blog is not to criticize anybody but find out the areas of focus that can help India in achieving more medals.

Where do we lack? The possible areas of focus are as below:

1. The requisite infrastructure for games that are included and played is not available in India in the manner it is required and demanded.
2. The mindset change towards Parents for creating sportsmen in the family needs to be inculcated. The old saying “padhega likhega tho banega nawab, khelega kudega tho banega kharab”, needs to be totally done away with.
3. Lack of sponsors for other games. As we all know cricket attracts the highest number of sponsors.
4. Support from BCCI is a much-needed ask. Funds can be utilized for other games.
5. A strong leader with set objectives for the Olympics needs to be appointed by the Ministry of Sports to see through the campaign for all help and guidance.

There can be many more, these are what I can think through.

We have to thank sports academies that are run by former sportsmen such as the one run by P Gopichand for badminton, which provides ground for our youth to make a name in sports.

To conclude, this Olympics has again proved that Dedication, Determination, and a bit of luck with God’s grace can bring miracles. So self-effort is a must and necessary support for the game also can’t be left out.

Abhishek R Sharma

(Views are personal)