PARIS:The international media tribune at the Stade de France, the venue for track and field events at Paris Olympics, was a good indicator of which country dominates the most popular sport at the Summer Games. Of the 117 Indian sportspersons who participated at Paris 2024, athletics had the largest squad of 29 members. India returned with just one medal, a silver won by Neeraj Chopra in javelin. Most others did not even cross their personal best.
After athletics, the popular sports at any Olympics are swimming and gymnastics. In Paris, India had representation in aquatics but none in gymnastics. There were 35 swimming finals at Paris 2024 and in gymnastics, there were 14 different events. Winning any medal from these two events is a pipe dream but nothing is impossible. Consider this – the Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo won two gold medals in as many days. This was the first time in 100 years the Philippines national anthem was heard on back-to-back days. India were represented in 16 different sports, exactly half of the total number contested at Paris 2024. There were no surprise winners for India, really.
India also had one of the largest press contingents at Paris 2024. Most of the 70-odd mediapersons who turned up to watch events at Stade de France for example, went as spectators. Except for men’s javelin where an unfit Chopra was beaten to the gold by Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, there was not a single Indian in the remaining 47 finals that took place. When Letsile Tebogo made history for Botswana at the Paris 2024 Games by winning the first Olympic gold medal for his nation in any sport, we were in awe. Why can’t India win something like this?
At the end of every Olympics, India is always confronted by a plethora of questions. This time it is no different. Six medals (one silver and five bronze) won at Paris 2024 equalled the haul at London 2012. One medal less than Tokyo 2020, India had a never-before six fourth finishes. History does not record heart-breaks. So rifle shooter Arjun Babuta and archers Dheeraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat will have to wait another four years to secure an Olympic medal. Shooting and archery are events where medallists are separated by decimals. Hence, disappointments are bigger.
“Yes, we always talk about double digits, but we did come close. Those finishing fourth in their events will have even more fire going into the next Olympics (at Los Angeles in 2028). We need to wrap them up in cotton wool and provide them with the support needed to keep them motivated,” said Chef-de-Mission Gagan Narang, the rifle shooter who won bronze at London 2012.
Former all-England badminton champion Prakash Padukone, who sat at PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen’s corner during the badminton competition, had criticised the performance of India’s shuttlers at Paris 2024. Despite all the financial support and facilities provided to them, they did not deliver, said Padukone. Three-time Olympian and doubles specialist Ashwini Ponappa hit back at Padukone, saying “coaches should also take the blame for failures.”
Padukone has a point. Coaches don’t perform in the middle. Players do. How does one justify the failure of shuttler PV Sindhu and the doubles pair of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty? How does one explain the repeated failure of four-time Olympian archer Deepika Kumari and Tarundeep Rai? Three-time Olympian Mirabai Chanu was a medal hope, too. Her performance at Paris was a few kilos lesser than Tokyo’s. Mirabai blamed it on her “periods”. And global boxing politics gave Nikhat Zareen, the biggest hope in boxing, a horror draw. She lost without making much of an impression against a superior Chinese opponent.
In terms of funding and tax payers’ money spent by the Union sports ministry on India’s top athletes, returns are low. In the Paris Olympics cycle (2021-24), the government spent more than Rs 470 crore to prepare for Paris 2024. This amount is more than Pakistan’s entire sports budget, as per media reports. Interestingly, Nadeem’s javelin gold will enable Pakistan finish higher than India in the Paris Olympics standings. Pakistan sent just seven athletes to Paris!
Trading charges or comparison with Pakistan won’t yield medals. Since 1900, India have won 41 Olympic medals across 25 iterations of the world’s greatest multi-sport quadrennial showpiece. Except for the 13 medals won in men’s hockey, the remainder have come from individual events. Olympics glory is almost cornered by individuals. And if India have to rank among the top 25 nations in the world, at least three gold medals are a must. Considering the total count of medals, a gold at Paris would have taken India to the top 50 and a pair of golds inside the top 30.
Serious introspection will be required. Is it worth spending crores on someone like PV Sindhu, whose global performances ahead of the Paris Games had been poor. To count on emotions and then hope for a medal is bad judgement. Mirabai is a case in point. But the Manipuri, in spite of a serious injury sustained at the Asian Games in Hangzhou that kept her out for five months, gave a strong performance that wasn’t enough.
The world is moving at a frenetic pace. The level of competition is increasing every time the Olympics arrive. Metal strength and physical stamina count a lot when there are numerous distractions in the digital age. Manu Bhaker demonstrated her talent with her pistol. She created history by becoming the first Indian, post-Independence, to win more than one medal at a single Olympics.
But an educated 22-year-old girl like Bhaker will know deep inside her what it takes to shoot a gold medal. There are several young Indian shooters like Ramita Jindal who are capable and made an impressive debut at Paris. The Korean and Chinese shooters showed why they are the best in the world. To hit perfect scores with clinical precision and consistency needs a lot of focus and mental strength. That’s why China is the leading nation in the Olympics and Korea is in the top 10.
Age is definitely on India’s side. Most fourth-place finishers are in their early 20s. So there is scope for improvement and better results. Success gives momentum and if Aman Sehrawat, the only Indian man in the wrestling competition is any yardstick, the bronze medal in the 57kg freestyle category, has already motivated him to carry Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium legacy forward and even break it. Sehrawat, an orphan, is already thinking of “equalling Sushil Kumar’s two Olympic medals and even clinching a hattrick in Brisbane (2032 Olympics).”
Hockey’s back-to-back bronze medals was an affirmation of India’s status as a global hockey power. Hard-fought wins, especially against Great Britain in the quarterfinals, was a significant victory. Playing with just 10 men for about 43 minutes of a pacy international hockey match and then winning a shootout lifted India’s morale a thousand times. India beat Spain 2-1 for the bronze with skipper Harmanpreet Singh scoring twice to emerge the top scorer of the Paris Olympics with 10 goals in eight matches.
While celebrating India’s podium finish, two veterans in the Indian hockey team, former skipper Manpreet Singh and the retiring PR Sreejesh, said India needed to find and groom the next generation of hockey players. At Paris 2024, there were five debutants and 11 members from the Tokyo squad. Indian hockey will have to reboot quickly to find a big bench that will be ready by LA 2028.
Sreejesh himself has left a massive hole in the squad by retiring. India’s scorelines at Paris 2024 are not a true reflection of the quality of hockey played. If India won the bronze, Sreejesh stood like a rock at goal. Every time the defence was beaten, the 36-year-old came up with splendid saves. His invaluable contribution for Indian hockey in four Olympics will always be remembered.
Paris Olympics will always be cherished for the six who finished on the podium but also Vinesh Phogat. This was Phogat’s redemption Games. The wrestler miserably failed at Rio 2016 and then was hauled up for indiscipline at Tokyo 2020. In the centre of a storm for making allegations of sexual molestation against former Wrestling Federation of India president and BJP heavyweight Brij Bhusan Sharan Singh, Phogat bounced back in the trials and cut her weight to win a Paris 2024 quota in the 50kg class. Ironically, it was a weighty issue that jinxed her a sure shot silver, if not a gold.
On the day of the final, Phogat was found to be a “few grams over 50 kgs” and was disqualified. It was the worst piece of news that the Indian camp received in the entire Paris Games. Phogat was gutted and ended up in hospital for dehydration. A worried government of India, the WFI and the Indian Olympic Association jointly decided to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sports. A final decision whether to award Phogat the silver is expected on August 13. Till then, fingers crossed.
Most athletes will take a well-deserved break. They will undoubtedly be back to the drawing board and start analysing their performance at Paris 2024. Sports is all about process, progress and proficiency. The LA cycle will start sooner than later.