people this ones from the archives. i wrote this way back in 2008 when India had one a gold medal at the beijing olympics. little has changed since then, so hope its a good read.
' India has finally won a gold at the olympics' said the pathetically underpaid and extremely disoriented bunch of DD sports commentators. Finally!!!! the country heaved a sigh. We had grabbed a gold at the games and the country was a buzz with pride. Even non sport connesiuers turned into shooting experts and lauded Abhinav Bindra's shooting techniques. For once no one joined the mudslinging or for that matter even cared that Dhoni and his millionare bunch of glamour boys were getting thrashed in Sri Lanka.
Every news channel repeatedly played Abhinav Bindra standing in pride with the JANA-GANA-MANA playing in the background and for once no one complained about this monotonous repetition. Abhinav a.k.a gold bindra must have never in his life met so many people or had so much media glare ever . News channels ran hours and hours of shows about his life and ran exclusive interviews. corporates and sports authorities had announced crores in cash rewards. His first words after this magnificient achievement were a bit of a dampener. He, in a very calm tone said that a country like ours should win many more medals and should achieve many more feats than just a one off gold. He also added that he has achieved this on his own efforts with little help from the authorities in INDIA. By saying this he had putforth the gruesome reality of the management of non chirkut sports in our country.
Thanks to the media the country was now shifting focus from cricket and turning to other sports. The authorities were being questioned for its management or rather the lack of it. Cynics still thought that this medal mania in the country would last for a week at its best and then fizzle out. Nothing would change. This was turning into reality as the indian challenge didn't hold fort in other sports.
But suddenly somewhere in the boxing rings of beijing, three men were on the brink of creating history. akhil, jitender and vijender kumar were landing strong punches and slowly getting themselves into the limelight. All three of them had reached the quarter finals of their competitions. The country now stood up and took notice of these young boys with very very humble backgrounds. Suddenly a small village in Haryana now became the place to be. Bhiwani was on the world map. Everyone now followed every move of these young boxers quite literally. people slowly began to think that we were no more just one medal wonders.vijender won us a bronze and akhil and jitender lost out in tough bouts. India had three medals including one from sushil kumar in wrestling and this was a first for us.
news channels ran shows after shows discussing these achievements and analysing the possible future of olympic sports in our country. As we celebrated, our competitor to be the next big developed nation CHINA was sending shockwaves through the sporting fraternity. every other medal was being bagged by them. some here wondered what was going right with a country that one its first medal in 1984. the answer was hidden in the austere authorities in china whose only goal is to succeed.
being a die hard optimist, i optimistically hope that these medals are a step in the right direction. we may not need the sports passion like an australia or the strict laws of china but facilities and federations who give respect to the spirit of sports. may be tomorrow we may have a small boy in a small town in our country saying that he wants to win an olympic medal for his country and his parents wont stop him from pursuing this dream. so is beijing the beginning? it may just be.
Every news channel repeatedly played Abhinav Bindra standing in pride with the JANA-GANA-MANA playing in the background and for once no one complained about this monotonous repetition. Abhinav a.k.a gold bindra must have never in his life met so many people or had so much media glare ever . News channels ran hours and hours of shows about his life and ran exclusive interviews. corporates and sports authorities had announced crores in cash rewards. His first words after this magnificient achievement were a bit of a dampener. He, in a very calm tone said that a country like ours should win many more medals and should achieve many more feats than just a one off gold. He also added that he has achieved this on his own efforts with little help from the authorities in INDIA. By saying this he had putforth the gruesome reality of the management of non chirkut sports in our country.
Thanks to the media the country was now shifting focus from cricket and turning to other sports. The authorities were being questioned for its management or rather the lack of it. Cynics still thought that this medal mania in the country would last for a week at its best and then fizzle out. Nothing would change. This was turning into reality as the indian challenge didn't hold fort in other sports.
But suddenly somewhere in the boxing rings of beijing, three men were on the brink of creating history. akhil, jitender and vijender kumar were landing strong punches and slowly getting themselves into the limelight. All three of them had reached the quarter finals of their competitions. The country now stood up and took notice of these young boys with very very humble backgrounds. Suddenly a small village in Haryana now became the place to be. Bhiwani was on the world map. Everyone now followed every move of these young boxers quite literally. people slowly began to think that we were no more just one medal wonders.vijender won us a bronze and akhil and jitender lost out in tough bouts. India had three medals including one from sushil kumar in wrestling and this was a first for us.
news channels ran shows after shows discussing these achievements and analysing the possible future of olympic sports in our country. As we celebrated, our competitor to be the next big developed nation CHINA was sending shockwaves through the sporting fraternity. every other medal was being bagged by them. some here wondered what was going right with a country that one its first medal in 1984. the answer was hidden in the austere authorities in china whose only goal is to succeed.
being a die hard optimist, i optimistically hope that these medals are a step in the right direction. we may not need the sports passion like an australia or the strict laws of china but facilities and federations who give respect to the spirit of sports. may be tomorrow we may have a small boy in a small town in our country saying that he wants to win an olympic medal for his country and his parents wont stop him from pursuing this dream. so is beijing the beginning? it may just be.
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