India’s Tryst, And Triumph At The Olympics!

India’s Olympics sojourn ended the way it had begun, under a cloud of controversy. Might their narrow margin of defeats have contributed to the Indian athletes’ own peril? Despite returning home worthy champions in their own right, the Indian contingent will not be able to escape the rather harsh criticism of once too often of finishing in that dreaded “fourth place”.

As India waits with bated breath, holding out hope against hope as a silver medal petition for Vinesh Phogat in the 50 kg wrestling is legally weighed by the Court for Arbitration in Sports, many other athletes will find themselves having returned home as household names but also, with having to answer why they do not have a medal around their neck, or if they do, why not a different colour? Why not the colour of gold?

There have been many heartwarming stories coming out of the Paris Olympics 2024. While Manu Bhaker has become the sweetheart of the nation and hockey goalie PR Sreejesh the toast of the nation, what cannot be denied are also the less heralded competitors like Avinash Sable who also led well to begin with in the 3000 mts men’s steeplechase final and also, Lakshya Sen who kept the badminton hopefuls on their feet.

Yes, Sen lost a match he could have won and perhaps had a medal. But he earned the respect of the superior Danish opponent in the previous round in the quest for a medal. Yes, Sable fell behind in the end, to not make a name for himself on the board. But he was India’s representative at the final of such an event on track and field!

And perhaps if he had a fleet of support and fellow runners like Kenya, Tunisia and Morocco did with an elbows out approach as if in a team sport to create paths for only their own on the track, might it be that he would have still led the field to the finish line. Something to think about!

There have also been the other quiet medal winners in Bhaker’s partner in the mixed rifle shooting in Sarabjot Singh, who has been given a lesser profile despite winning the bronze medal with her given that Bhaker was two medals in and in sight of a third – a rare feat either way one looked at it.

Equally unassuming at the shooting range and away from it, and therefore enigmatic was the medal winner in the men’s 50m rifle three position shooting, Swapnil Kusale. It does not seem to matter that there is much less attention being given, because they seem more purpose driven and goal oriented.

In contrast, while the highly favoured P. V. Sindhu expectedly came up against stiff opposition and saw her and the nation’s ambition for her to become the first Indian, man or woman, to win three Olympics medals wither away, 22-year-old Lakshya Sen showed remarkable composure and rhythm, sneaking his way round after round to suddenly become the crowd favourite as it were to pinch a medal.

Thereafter, there has been criticism and disappointment, echoed in the words of mentor Prakash Padukone, and it has been taken as a cue to join the bandwagon to then ask questions of “What’s with the fourth place finishes?”

Really? Does India have an input on this, when practically no flag has been flying, no crowd cheering – many did not even know their names, admit it – while they trained hard? Today to be sitting in a position to see how far India has come to even get this close says something.

Wanting more than 100 medals at Commonwealth Games and double digit medals at the Olympics cannot just be a jingoistic hurrah, sung days before the event? It has been to be a nourishing echo from the starting line which begins way before the selection is even complete.

“117 athletes. 6 medals”: The headlines have screamed as hopes increasingly disappeared and the wrestling saga took on a new twist. Even Aman Sehrawat adding another bronze medal to the metal tally all at the record breaking age of 21 in wrestling seemed little comfort as attention was divided between Phogat’s weight loss journey and India’s dearth of metal on the way home.

Overlooked was the fact that India were even in this position where they could dream of silver and gold in more than one discipline at the same time, and this not based on empty enunciation from rooftops, but on how well the athletes performed!

When has that last happened, not just in the sentiment when seeing athletes off at the airport, riding high on jingoism more than fact? This time, the athletes showed their capabilities and came so close.

So instead of being riddled with that jibe, which every athlete who was in medal contention must replay that over and over again in their minds which only adds salt to the wounds, perhaps the better questions to be asked are: if, did India lack the killer instinct and if so, what can be done to sharpen the axe? Or, even more purposefully, now that we know what they are capable of, what can be done to keep them driven, to get to that gold?

Manu Bhaker touched upon the fact of having systems where athletes, despite not having won a medal between Olympics, are kept on training for years on end, citing her own Chinese counterparts who then went on to achieve success.

So, what is being done when the cameras and flashbulbs leave the offices of politicians and now crowding the homes of their beleaguered, quiet, simple families, who are simply too modest to talk about the sacrifices they have made and instead try to counter this sudden fifteen minutes of fame which is likely to disappear when the nation moves on to the next story? Then it is all back to the grind, literally and metaphorically.

More importantly, while some athletes, not just Bhaker, might need some regular infusion of gasoline to keep their reignited fire for the next edition, also to consider is where the rest of the inspired talent and what is being done so the contingent of athletes in a billion strong nation far outweighs the mixed breed of delegation that travels with them to this prestigious event?

“Better than Tokyo Olympics’ 7” was biting the dust. Even if Phogat won a conciliatory medal, it would do little to change that medal total, other than perhaps equal it.

The way Neeraj Chopra performed in his javelin event final, seemed like perhaps there had been a tad misguidance about his health if indeed he has postponed a hernia surgery that might have left him with less time for preparation but would have kept him injury free, he did throw at nearly 90 in the earlier round.

The fact that he had one good throw on board and the rest were simply amiss, says a lot not only about India’s ambitions thinking of javelin as a surefire medal – which should say something about how far India has come – and also, of the way the Olympics panned out for India in the end.

Even if Neeraj had performed even better than he had, it seemed, judging by his own counterpart and closest rival, Arshad Nadeem’s reaction, that even the Pakistani athlete was not expecting to perform as well as he did. He nearly touched the 93 mark in a one good throw in the final.

It soon became apparent that it would take a monster effort to now dislodge the proverbial gold around his neck. This, when questions and expectations about Neeraj’s ability to touch 90 had been doing the rounds, and he came enticingly close.

That Neeraj even walked away with a silver medal despite injury and that kind of underwhelming performance on the night tells of his calibre and also, the nature of the beast that is sport in India.

Contentment is a rare thing, but also, rarer is the belief. While it was good to sing songs about breaking medal barriers, the harsh reality of the rigours of the sport were brought to bear not only by some of the misshapen conditions the athletes had to deal with the Olympics village which is a chapter of its own, much like the controversial opening ceremony where it seemed that designed couture should have been a less subject matter and more about the athletes were led to train up to the event.

And also, of the manner in which sports management perhaps needs a greater focus if athletes are not to find themselves in the position Vinesh Phogat found herself after beating the current world champion and sighting a gold medal bout no less.

Stories were being written about redemption, of a “take that” result, of “can’t-keep-a-good-one-down” even as Phogat was racing against time, literally. All the retaliation against the wrestling federation had to wait as the dream was going up in smoke, all while the headlines were reaching the rafters like bushfire, now taking on conspiratorial notes, the flames of which the Indian delegation was then trying to extinguish all the way from Paris. A straightforward rule and call would have sufficed where there were now cities raging wild! How deep was the wound that it would hurt so?

From saunas to cycling to drastic measures like hair cuts weren’t going to cut the fact that between her last bout and her medal match, she had gained no less than 2.7 kg, a hard task to bring down overnight. Harder still would be what she would not have to answer, with her own team in tow at the event, when she returned home a hero, but with questions lingering.

While some of the measures being described of the way athletes in general prepare when it comes to weigh in is not appealing and neither is it an incentive to join the sport, either praise can be heaped on the sacrifices, and measures it takes to get to the gold or a focus could then be shifted on what is a better way to do this so it is not a last minute cram off the mat or off the floor to get the athlete to be competing fair and square in the middle, rightfully winning the medal than having to plead for it in a court of law.

What should have finished before the Olympics closing ceremony now remains like a tense unfinished business. P. T. Usha, the IOC chief, came out a day after the Olympics, clearing perhaps the stance of her role and that of the team she leads, aware of what awaits when the delegation returned home, to say that weight management was the job of the athlete and her team.

It has been the nature of the final week at the Olympics, where India weighed in (forgive the pun) on whether Phogat was forced to compete in a bout that required a drastic weight reduction on her part. The insinuation was that this was the wrestling federation’s own payback for Phogat’s participation in the street protests.

Others have wondered whether it was the reaching for a medal (plausibly one last time) that pushed her to take on a challenge far above her physical capability, knowing competing in her true weight range would mean stronger competitors and therefore, diminished chances of a medal.

Ultimately while Indians, driven by sentiment over what had happened at the Olympics – the close brush with the medals – and what happened on the streets, threw their anguish behind Phogat. They were little aware that ultimately that the rules of the game, which follow a strict weight guideline over the two day event, irrespective of the champion or her journey, care little for what has transpired before, and only count the mark on the day, treating worthy champions and street protestors alike.

This has been India’s journey at the Paris Olympics: an unfinished tale of what could have been but promising there could be more if things can be different.