Blitz Bureau
THE performance of the Indian athletes at the recently concluded Paris Olympics will go down as a lackluster show. It’s being dubbed a ‘Bronze Age’ since we got five bronze medals and a silver. This pales in comparison to the previous edition in Tokyo when we won 7 medals which included a gold and silver. The biggest disappointment will remain the ‘overweight’ controversy surrounding wrestler Vinesh Phogat who was on the cusp of winning a medal. The matter went to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) which upheld her disqualification.
India had six fourth place finishes which makes us feel are our top flight athletes fragile in mind? Some former greats have suggested that the Indian sportspersons who compete in an event of the magnitude of Olympics should be accompanied by sports psychologists, since winning is more of a mental aspect at the highest level.
On the positive side, Neeraj Chopra became the only Indian to win gold and silver in javelin in successive Olympics. Even though Neeraj fouled a record five times (something which he has never done before) his second throw of 89. 45 metres was good enough to clinch the silver.
Manu Bhaker was the Queen of the Indian sportspersons by becoming the only Indian to win two medals in the same Olympics by winning the bronze in the 10 m air pistol and mixed team event of 10 m air pistol.
Aman Sehrawat, the only Indian male wrestler to qualify for the Paris 2024, was the lone wrestler from the country to win a medal – a bronze. Another big take away was the consecutive bronze medal for the men’s hockey team.
It’s safe to say that in events like badminton, boxing and wrestling, the Indian show has been a huge disappointment. In badminton we have been winning medals ever since London 2012.
The shocker was the early exit of the crack doubles combine of Satwik and Chirag, the World No.1, in the quarter finals. Lakshya Sen played his heart out but seemed to ‘choke’ in the crunch moments in the bronze medal play off match.
Badminton great Prakash Padukone opened a Pandora’s box when he said that it was up to our athletes to take responsibility of their show. The comments sparked a huge controversy with Sunil Gavaskar backing Padukone.
Another disturbing aspect of this Olympics has been the composition of the Indian contingent. Out of the 257 members, the athletes accounted for 117, while the officials and support staff accounted for 140 members. It is pertinent to ask whether was there a need to take such a large support staff.
