An attempt to reach out to fellow passionate Indian sports fans!
A curated list of to-do’s to transform the Sports fanatic in you to the betterment of sports and support of our athletes.
An attempt to reach out to fellow passionate Indian sports fans!
A curated list of to-do’s to transform the Sports fanatic in you to the betterment of sports and support of our athletes.
This is what Piers Morgans, a British journalist and television personality tweeted.
1,200,000,000 people and not a single Gold medal at the Olympics?
Come on India, this is shameful.
Put the bunting away & get training.— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) August 24, 2016
What followed next was a barrage of trolls and tweets trending him to numero one across India. Although, he is no one to troll us and, people are equally right to give him back. But, there is no denying the fact that we failed altogether as a sporting nation. 2 medals does no justice to our potential. However, it is perhaps apt for the sporting conditions we have in our country. It is high time we accept this and take constructive steps in this direction.
The blame game!
Another question that arises is – who is to be held responsible, the players or their federations? The recent OP Jaisha controversy, with players getting entangled with the federation is not an unfamiliar sight in Indian sports in the recent past. It shows how difficult it is to compete at the international level. Firstly to be skilled and secondly to have the mental perseverance to fight against your association, dearth of facilities, preferential treatment and politics to finally make it to the top level.
What has happened to #OPJaisha cannot be repeated if we want to encourage,nurture & inspire our people to take to sports & #GoForGold Pls
— Randeep Hooda (@RandeepHooda) August 23, 2016
It is equally alarming that only 1 out of the 27 Indian sports bodies has an athlete at its helm (President). Neither is their working transparent nor is their funding, members and other facts made open to public. Read the whole article.
For any future hopes, these numbers have to change and quickly. Athletes like Abhinav Bindra, Yogeshwar Dutt and many others who have played the game should contest elections to foster any hopes of a transformation.
Talking about accountability, will the sports minister or the hordes accompanying him in the junket at Rio ever accept their follies? Never. They were busy in the carnival that they forgot there is a sporting event to attend as well! Worst still, they were the first ones to click selfies, and later reward the winning athletes so as to take some credit of their glory. And in doing so, they even forget the names of the athletes! Unfortunately, it shows how callous and insensitive they are when it comes to handling sports affairs.
Sports until now is only a hobby, a pastime in school. Nowhere is sport urged to be taken up as a profession. There are some dedicated sports schools like the one by former cricketer Virender Sehwag which focuses on cricket. But too aim a medal, we need more of such schools and sporting facilities at the very ground level.
The USA or other countries that top the Olympic medal tally have a proper gymnastics setup to consider as an example, unlike India. You cannot get top notch athletes out of sheer grit and hard work a la Dipa Karmakar sans any sporting facilities. Not everyone can and will battle it out against all odds and compete against the worlds best in a sport that is not even heard off by many!
A holistic programme involving experts at every level should be immediately drafted. The athletes should not travel overseas to avail world class facilities. It should be made available closer, at home. The quality of training also needs to improve and so too the synergy between government, coaches, sporting centers and sportsperson. There should be sustained amount of investment in the form of sports development schemes through public-private partnership.
Taking stock of the current situation, the PM of India, Narendra Modi made an announcement that has been received well from all quarters of people. Here are the series of tweets.
PM announced at the meeting of the Council of Minister’s today that Task Force will be set up to prepare a comprehensive action plan (1/2)
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 26, 2016
for effective participation of Indian sports persons in the next three Olympic games 2020, 2024 and 2028. (2/2)
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 26, 2016
The Task Force will prepare overall strategy for sports facility, training, selection procedure and other related matters.
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 26, 2016
The Task Force will comprise of members who are in house experts as well as those from outside.
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 26, 2016
The sports federations are doing a review to dissect the performances in Rio. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has already constituted a four-member committee to examine the reasons behind India’s poor show with Abhinav Bindra as its chairman. Also, Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has hinted to go young at Tokyo 2020 and the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has also started reviewing the performances in the track and field events.
Although it is heartening to hear about the Task force, who will be in the committee is equally important as we don’t want a committee that again constitutes of incompetent ministers.
It is during such times that sports fans like you and me should take up responsibility. Although Tokyo 2020 is far, but we need to support our athletes right from the word go. Till the time we get the above things in place, we need to start thinking for our athletes. Because for the ministry and the federation, it doesn’t even matter! They will be the first ones to take credit for laurels our players have won but not owe any moral responsibility.
After all it affects us the most, doesn’t it? We are getting upset that we could only manage 2 medals in Rio Olympics 2016 when many expected a double digit tally or worse still to at least match up to that of the London Olympics. What can we do on our part apart from cheering our athletes at the games. Well, we all can contribute a little bit, monetarily and also by spreading this message. Lets get involved in filling these gaps till the time the whole system is revamped.
Here is a curated list of organizations that sports aficionados can help to start off with.
1. Contact someone who is working with sports at the ground level. For example, In Hockey one can contact K Arumugam Sir from One Thousand Hockey Legs (OTHL) NGO regarding the same.
2. Donate to the Viren Rasquinha led Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ).
3. Contribute to the JSW Sports Excellence Program (SEP).
4. Petition to increase the funding and number of athletes picked in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) using the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) programme by the government.
5. Start a crowd funding program for an athlete.
6. Lets make sports an integral part of our lives. Don’t take up an Olympic sport, but do sports for fitness. The whole experience will be enriching and will help the sporting culture to rub in for generations to come.
Sakshi Malik, India’s first medallist with freestyle wrestling bronze.
Alas, India gets a medal courtesy Sakshi Malik – the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal.
India opens its account at the Rio Olympics 2016 with a bronze medal from Sakshi Malik
What a journey this has been for Sakshi Malik, the 23 year old from Rohtak in Haryana, India. A fighter who believed in the sport and as a beginner Sakshi practiced with the boys team to shoo off all voices making fun of a woman being in the sport. And now there she was competing with the who’s who of women’s wrestling including 4 time consecutive gold winner Icho Kaori from Japan.
Sakshi brought India its first bronze at the Rio Olympics 2016 and in this process grabbed India’s fifth medal in wrestling. Wrestling has now become India’s most medal winning individual sport eclipsing 4 medals that we have won in Shooting so far. She defeated Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan 8-5 after trailing the match 0-5 at the end of the first round.
In every match, she made a comeback. She began the proceedings by beating World No. 3, Johanna Mattsson of Sweden in the Round of 16 by a score of 5-4. A match where she trailed 0-2 initially and 0-4 at the first round break only to bounce back in the second round. She got her first points on the board, courtesy a one pointer due to passivity from her opponent. And with 22 seconds left on the clock, she lifted her opponent and brought her down a la “Dhobhi Pachad!” style to earn 2 points and lead the match for the first time with 3-2. And finally with another lift and knockdown she earned another 2 points and a winning lead with 5 seconds left in the match! Phew!
With the horrific injury to Vinesh Phogat in the 48 kg freestyle wrestling quarterfinals earlier in the day, it was all looking gloomy yet again. But what was to unfold, not even the best scriptwriters would have imagined. This story of the day however, had many a twists culminating into a sweet victory for India’s new blue eyed girl or rather princess!
Perhaps now knowing that she was the only medal hopeful left in the day, Sakshi faced Cherdivara Esanu Mariana from the Republic of Moldova. Again a slow start as she trailed 0-3 at the end of the first round. However, she held her nerve to produce firstly a one point passivity point from her opponent. She soon made the decisive move of the match, a 4 pointer that was the reason why she progressed despite of the scores being tied 5 apiece.
However, next up she was pitted against the world no. 2 Koblova Zholobova Valeriia from Russia. She was outclassed 2-9 by the ruthless Russian but got another shot at the medal as Koblova progressed into the finals.
She started the Repechages positively, by convincingly defeating Pürevdorjiin Orkhon of Mongolia 12-3 to enter one step closer to the Bronze medal.
The winning moment – in pictures, videos and more importantly in emotions!
In a pulsating and riveting match that ensured a nail biting finish till the very last second, Sakshi was yet again trailing, this time though with a heavier margin of 0-5. She conceded 2 two pointers and also a point for passivity till the end of the first half. This would have made even the die-hards a bit dejected and hoping for a miracle that could have brought her back in the match.
But against the run of play she held her own, scoring 2 successive two pointers with just over a minute left in the match.With around 10 seconds left in the match she equalized and then capitalized on the desperation shown by her opponent in the dying seconds to seal the victory by pinning her down.
The opponent Kyrgyzstan girl appealed for a hopeful referral but that was turned down to make the score read 8-5 in Sakshi’s favour. Sakshi grabbed the final points and with it the match and the bronze medal and with it inscribing her name into the annals of Indian Olympic history!
This is how and what transpired:
SHE DID IT!! OUR FIRST MEDAL #SakshiMalik #Rio2016 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/6F8KhKd0Fj
— Mrs. Tony Stark 😀 (@BrushUrTeeth_03) August 17, 2016
In pictures, Sakshi’s win from her perspective!
That winning moment!
The feeling had now sunk in!
She quickly grabbed the tricolor from the onrushing Kuldeep – her coach. She was lifted and paraded on his shoulders to the arena!
The joy, ecstasy and elation on her mother’s face and her family and friends who stayed up all night to jump with unbridled emotions at the middle of the night! Every pain, every sacrifice it was all worth it! Watch it all here:
WATCH: Moment when #SakshiMalik ‘s family saw their daughter end India’s medal drought at the Rio Olympics pic.twitter.com/mkGcx6LwQg
— ANI (@ANI_news) August 17, 2016
With this India maintain a 100% record in repechage with Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt being the other two winners grabbing bronze at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic games after Sakshi’s exploits yesterday.
The medal winners posing on the podium! Excellent sportsmanship displayed by all 4 fighter girls, as they were aggressive on each other on the mat but had good and healthy camaraderie off it!
Olympics, the place where new heroes are born, their moments of victory cherished and the ensuing quest to excellence celebrated thereby becoming role models and inspiration for generations to come!