Hosting a chance Abhijit Chatterjee

Hosting a chance Abhijit Chatterjee

A nation of a billion plus but India is still looking for the elusive individual gold in the Olympic Games. So far India have won eight gold medals (all in hockey with the last coming in 1980 at Moscow when the field was truncated by the western boycott), four silver medals and five bronze medals in all the 28 Olympics held so far. A lot has been said, grandiose plans have been laid down, union sports ministers have been changed, money has been spent on “foreign exposure” but nothing seems to have worked. But even in this bleak situation, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which always loves to talk big and deliver little, plans to hold the Olympic Games in India in future but Indian sports has refused to take even a step forward, what to talk of a leap.

The script is unlikely to change in the 29th edition of the games at Beijing. In the last edition of the games at Athens, India’s only podium finish came when Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore claimed the silver in the men’s double-trap shooting event. And this time too the story might well be the same although a lot of hope is being pinned on the shooters and boxers.

With the hockey team now out of the competition in Beijing it is quite likely that the Indian contingent, which lands in Beijing will have more officials than sportspersons. And these officials will have no hesitation in hogging the limelight rather than the sportspersons, most of whom come from humble backgrounds. These officials will ostensibly go to Beijing to study how to conduct the Olympic Games since they are hopeful (one wonders why) of Delhi getting a chance to hold the games in 2020.

Strange as it might sound the miserable performance of India in the Olympics has not deterred the IOA from making plans to bid for the 2020 Olympic Games even after the IOC refused to allot the 2014 Asian Games to New Delhi. IOA president Suresh Kalmadi has been quoted as saying that the national capital will have excellent infrastructure in place, thanks to 2010 Commonwealth Games, by the time the IOC bid opens in 2011. The IOC will decide the winner in 2013. But Kalmadi seems to have conveniently forgotten that holding the Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games are altogether different cups of tea. And one major difference which seemed to have slipped off the mind of the powers that be is the fact that the Commonwealth Games do not have any team competition. But the Olympics have so many!

Delhi is already bursting at the seams and in spite of the metro one finds it difficult to move from one place to another giving the teeming traffic. This time too the organisers had great difficulty finding place to build a games village. As it is building of the games village for the Commonwealth Games generated a lot of controversy and the project is now racing against time. With the Olympics needing a much bigger village than what is needed for the Commonwealth Games where will it be built? The IOA should concentrate on building up a sports base in the country. What the country needs at the moment is more specialised coaching, equipment and a bigger base of talent so that the best can come forward to represent the country at least in areas where India can be among the medals.