India's Olympic Dream

Over the next fortnight or so, 81 Indian athletes will compete in London. A few thousand Indians will root for them at the stadiums, and about a billion in India will have overwhelming hopes pinned on them. There are reasons to believe why these 2 weeks could be the game changer for sports in India; not only do we have a the largest contingent in our history, we also have athletes with realistic medal-winning possibilities. The Indian contingent at the Olympics is now ‘expected’ to win medals and not ‘hoped-to-do-so’; the build-up has been injury-free, and there is a buzz about the contingent.

There would be a few who wouldn’t want to believe the rosy side of the story, and rightly so. India has a track record of less than a medal per Olympics, India’s highest tally at a single edition is 3, and India has participation at only 50% of the events that will be organized at London. Realistically, we don’t have too many out of the 81 in strong medal-contention. Given India’s history at the games, there will be a few who will support the athletes only once they notch up the numbers on the medals tally. South Africa’s sports minister bid their contingent luck expecting 12 medals, while we are left to wonder whether Ajay Maken would really want to predict a number.

Athletes’ pride on participating at the Olympics is justified, for doing that is an achievement in itself; a podium finish is icing on the cake. The Indian contingent has a few who are participating at this event for the first time, and you don’t need to search for the joy on their faces. They would be aware of the massive hopes that are pinned up against their names, they would be aware that all their competitors would be tough to beat, they would be aware that this could be their moment of a lifetime!

Indian Olympic sports have had, and continue to have a problem of less participation, and too many expectations. A medal finish is what each one of the 81 would be playing for, but to expect those many would be unreal, and a bit outrageous. Abhinav Bindra, Vijender Singh, and Sushil Kumar weren’t celebrated names before Beijing 2008, but at the end of it, we had these 3 as our poster boys! It is a fact (and not a mere statement) that India does not have a rich sporting culture; London 2012 could be the game changer. The moments of witnessing the Indian flag unfurl, and the anthem being played at the medal distribution ceremonies have been rare and scarce events for Indian fans; this Summer Olympics could raise that frequency. Indian fans are left to wonder why they couldn’t have more reasons to celebrate after an Olympics edition, but this August, we could probably end up discussing London Olympics, and not about Indian Cricket news!

Wishes are pouring in, theme songs are being played all over, sports pages have no space for cricket, sports slots on TV can’t seem to get over the Sainas and Vijenders, and websites seem abuzz with Olympics news, views and previews! India’s approach to an Olympic event has never been as euphoric (if I may exaggerate!) as this; touchwood this momentum translates into something really big, something really memorable, and a transformation that our budding athletes and ignored sports deserve. India may end up winning 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or even more medals, but what will never cease to change is the unsatiated Indian fan! In a country that has a weak Olympic history, a medal is a huge achievement for people to be inspired, and that particular discipline to have a legend; let us build up to 27th July hoping for new legends to be incarnated, and under-followed sports to receive their moment of fame and glory!