'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Amid celebrations and felicitations to the six medal winners of the recently concluded London Olympics, there were no medals from our track and field athletes and we are yet to win a medal in this field at Olympics. For the past two centuries, there were only a few athletes like Milkha singh, P.T.Usha, Sriram Singh who made it to the finals of their respective events but missed the medals by a whisker.
Among the 83 contingents who had represented our nation in the recently concluded London Olympics, we fielded only 14 athletes in track and field events which seems to be completely disgusting for a nation with a population amount of more than 100 crores. Peoples always wonder why India can’t produce great athletes like Milkha singh or P.T.Usha, but frankly speaking, to be an Indian athlete one must always faces hundreds of hurdles and obstacles on one’s path to success.
Here we look at the five major barriers of Indian athletes
1. Recommendations:
Recommendations play a pre-dominant and major spoilsport role in an athlete’s career. There are thousands of athletes suffering from recommendations every year. Even at the selection of SGFI under-14, 17 and 19 age groups, there exist recommendations. While the richer and wealthier people come with the recommendations of higher officials or ministers to make it to the state or district teams, the poorer ones with a loads of talents can’t make it. To produce quality athletes recommendations need to be completely abolished.
2. Financial struggles
Financial struggles is one of the major and ever existing hurdle of an Indian athlete right from the zone level to international level. 95% of Indian athletes are from a poor family which indicates most of them don’t even have money to buy kits for their respective events. More recently, after achieving a new national record in pole-vault with a jump of 5.13 metres, Mr.K.P.Bipim stated that he didn’t have his own poles for practicing and always needed to depend on his friend, which indicates that he is also a victim of financial struggles. Not only Bipim, there were many national and international athletes like sprinter Shanthi, who also closed her own school of academy for athletics after failing to reach the high expenses required to run the academy.
Indian walkers who participated in London Olympics like Irfan.K.T and Basant Bahadur didn’t have proper shoes for their events prior to the Olympics, but thanks to the media, who concentrated highly on this event, they were able to find enough sponsors for the players at the last moment.
3. Drug scandals:
The most shocking doping scandal that rocked the entire nation was the ban on six Indian women athletes of which three of them, namely Ashwini Akkunji, Mandeep Kaur, Sini Jose, had made the country proud by winning gold in 4*400m relay at both Commonwealth and Asian games in the year 2010. The athletes claimed their innocence by saying that they did not take drugs but insisted that it was the Government appointed Coach Mr.Yuri Ogorodnik who provided them a capsule containing banned substances such as stanazolol and methandienone. These controversies were not new to the Indian athletes as there were many cases registered similar to this. Here one can wonder what is the purpose of the National Anti-Doping agency, but we must also understand that taking drugs always depends on the players and coaches. A true athlete and his coach would never believe and depend on the drugs instead of their talents. The Government and NADA need to educate the athletes right from their junior level about the usage of banned susbstances.
4. Ignorance
Most of our athletes suffers mainly due to ignorance, which doesn’t mean they are uneducated, but not properly guided or anchored. The drug scandals occur largely due to ignorance. Ignorance about the Games history also affects our athletes. An athlete also faces ignorance in the form of improper planning. Take a look at the Asian Games gold medalist in 400m hurdles. Mr. Joseph Abraham’s Olympics dream was shattered due to the improper planning about the qualifying tournaments. He had just participated in three to four tournaments in the last six months but he failed to obtain a berth in the recently concluded London Olympics.
5. Language Barriers:
Not every Indian athletes is well versed with English or Hindi in communications. Appointing foreign coaches will always makes our athletes smarter in their preparations and skills but before that they must understand each other, otherwise their confidence levels go down a point due to the difficult level of communicating. It must be great for Indian athletes if a foreign coach is appointed or associated along with a Indian Contingent.
Steps to Overcome the Barriers:
With the current preparation scheme, we can’t be sure of medals in the next Olympics but for the future it is necessary to identify, train and support our athletes right from the ultimate base level to make the future look good for Indian Athletes.
JAI HIND!
