New Delhi: A sum total of 26 Olympic medals (9 gold, 6 silver, 11 bronze) is what a nation of 1.2 billion plus population has to show for its efforts in sporting sphere since 1900, the year when, in Norman Pritchard, British India first sent its representative in the quadrennial extravaganza. From Pritchard to Sushil Kumar, from a hopeless colony to a struggling economy, from daily struggle against oppressive misrule to daily drudgery of failing institutional mechanisms, India has come a long way; coming of age, though, still remains a chimera.
For many of us, growing up meant carrying a monstrous school bag on our drooping shoulders, sitting aimlessly in dreary classroom sessions where rickety ceiling fans kept us alive, not because of their efficient cooling, but for the ceaseless screech they generated each time they as much but rotated. Sports was the last thing in minds of parents, teachers, and perhaps children. Many years and quite a few sporting idols hence, the scenario is not much different.
Sufficient as it is in representing India’s inadequacies in competitive sports, the grand total of 26 Olympic medals (China won 88 in London, 2012 alone), does little to reveal the inherent inefficiencies in a system that spawns from parochial prejudices and fosters favouritism and power-lust. The picture appears increasingly bleak when country’s national Olympic committee, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is embroiled in a brazen effort to nullify International Olympic Committee's (IOC) bid to cleanse its system.
