India & Olympics : How Far & How Close

 India & Olympics; How Far & How Close

India has always been a nation that loved sports and has always been among the Nations that are not just sports-loving nations but also sports-playing nations India & Olympics are not two words that complement each other.

India has been a country that is known for its outstanding achievements in Hockey winning 8 Olympic Gold out of which 6 have been in a row.

Just after independence in 1948 Olympics 79 athletes all men in 10 sports represented the country and won Gold in the field of Hockey.

In 1952 Olympics a total of 64 athletes out of which 4 were women participated in 11 games. India as a Nation won a Gold in Hockey and K. D. Singh Jadhav won a Bronze medal in wrestling, ranked 26th position with two medals.

Indian football team finished fourth and there had been a few more times where we missed an Olympic medal just by a few inches.

If we deep dive into the facts and potential of our athletes and specifically geographical as well as physical standards as Nation India always has the advantage to produce Olympic champions in all formats of Olympic games.

In the 2008 Olympics, India as Nation only sent 56 athletes for representing in 12 sports. Two of our boxing athletes Akhil Kumar, and Jitendra Kumar went in the semifinals and just lost their medals by a win, Sayana Nehwal lost her medal by being in top 4, Bajrang Lal Takhar represented in rowing sport reached in top 4. In 2008 India as a Nation was in 50th Position in Bejing Olympics.

In the 2012 Landon Olympics India finished in 56th position by winning 4 bronze and 2 silver medals. A total of 83 athletes represented the country in 13 sports.

In 2016 India ranked 67th by winning just two medals one silver and one bronze both by the women while 117 athletes representing 15 sports.

In the recent Tokyo Olympics, India won 7 medals out of which 3 medals were won by the women athletes, Indin women's hockey team had hard luck and could not win the bronze medal in the quarterfinals, Aditi Ashok in Golf and Deepak Puniya in men's freestyle wrestling also reached in the quarter-final and missed the medal by just a win. The total contingent had been 126 to represent 18 sports. The ranking was 48th.

India as a Nation which is now officially number 1 in terms of population was always at number 2 after China but in the Olympics, India has been never ever nearby to its neighbor country China. Since its Independence India has not missed any Olympics participation and has won a total of 30 medals on other hand compared to China, China had won Olympic medals in 36 different sports and 780 different Chinese athletes have won a medal for their country. To date, China has won 283 Gold Medals, 231 silver medals, and 196 bronze medals which makes it a total of 710 medals.

China participated for the first time in the summer Olympics in 1952 when just one athlete in swimming participated and witnessed the entire Olympic standard then China appeared for the 2nd time in the Olympics in the year 1984, after 32 years of missing 8 Olympics. They were not even bothered to just have a single participation like in 1952 for a formality.

In the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics China participated after 32 years and won 32 medals out of which 15 were gold. A total of 215 athletes represented China in 19 different sports. China ranked 4th and since then China never looked back.

In the last Tokyo Olympics India sent its highest-ever number of athletes a record of 126 athletes represented India in 18 sports which is still much less than the Neighborhood China 1984 Olympics matrix in all formats.

Chinese sports administration is completely dispute free, their selection criteria are always clear, and every rule and regulation in the entire Chinese sports ecosystem is clear to everyone concerned.

The recent supreme court intervention and passing order for conducting the election of the Indian Olympic Association with various eligibility conditions is self-explanatory to clarify the administration-related strength in India. Many National Sports federations are always in dispute and have parallel federations being least concerned about athletes by keeping their fight separate and players' interest separate. Financial scam in the Indian sports ecosystem is always a big challenge, CWG 2010 Scam, the CBI raid at ex-Indian Olympic Association president Narendra Batra and many other such incidents clearly indicated the prime focus of sports administrative officers.

Many incidents mark questions on women's safety in the Indian sports ecosystem such as in the year 2014 when the entire selected state team was replaced in a day when a few athletes put sexual harassment allegations against the team administrator.

Various Olympic sports like Taekwondo which can give multiple medals in both men's and women's categories are in dispute and sports administration is busier with court cases than with athletes' interests.

  image taken from Indian Olympic Website ( IOA) logo.

In Sports like Taekwondo despite on Delhi High Court order the Indian Olympics has conducted the proper election but still, there are three national federations claiming to be the real one, each conducting their own Nationals charging huge amounts of money from participants and none of them clearing there a vision for this year upcoming Asian Games where Athletes by winning gold qualify for Olympics and next year we have Olympics.

Last year on 14th November 2022 the Delhi high court-appointed returning officer Honorable Mr. Justice G.S. Sistani (Rtd) successfully conducted the elections of Taekwondo Federation of India n the presence of the Indian Olympic Association Observer 

Now to date on 7th February 2023, the Indian Olympic Association has not clarified which is the affiliated National Sports Federation of Taekwondo with them. 

The supreme authority of Taekwondo i.e World Taekwondo reflects on its website that to date India Taekwondo is affiliated with it.

 

Now apart from India Taekwondo, there are three national federations functioning by the same name i.e Taekwondo Federation of India (TFI) Two different TFI conducted the 39th Junior National Taekwondo Championship in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, and one in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh claiming they are the real one.

Players from all over the states and union territories have participated and invested there time and money.

 Both events can not be correct, who is going to take responsibility for the loss of players in the National Interest.

Not just these all these National organizations and their affiliated state, and district units are not just organizing championships but also many educational programs and seminars promising bright sporting taekwondo careers.

These huge money-making events are the primary objectives of all organizations as on their website are full of such events and activities. Who cares about the upcoming 2023 Asian Games, the Next year 2024 Olympics. Taekwondo has 4 men and 4 women weight categories in the Olympics  and such a beautiful game has this kind of status INR 17000/- for a seminar, Thousands of rupees for a Black belt, Global Athlete Card, Federation unique ID cards, etc etc 

The Olympic sport Taekwondo which can provide 8 athletes to win Olympic medals has such a situation and the similar situation in other Indian National Sports Federations are there which clearly depicts the situation of the administration and it can be realized that if such things happen at the national level then what would be happening at the state, district level.

Neeraj Chopra first picked a jawline in his hand at the age of 13 and at the age of 23 he won Olympic Gold, what if he would have chosen a game like Taekwondo. 

The problem is known to everyone but what is the solution to overcome it. Let here out what the then President of Indian Olympic Association Mr. Batra says at a sports summit in the Year 2019

Despite this promise, the IOA president could not sort it out for more than two years till he left his position at IOA as President.

The recent protest by the Olympic medalists, who were our Olympic Flag bearers,  and the prime wrestlers of India against their National Sports Federation is not something that should be taken lightly. the Olympic medalist is protesting and requesting defunct the wrestling federation of India. They are asking the sports ministry to take over the control of the wrestling Federation of India for proper governance and administration.

If India makes sure to implement a proper sports code that should ensure the proper election system in the sports organizations, proper selection procedure of athletes, and the proper financial transactions not just at the national level but also at the state as well as district level i.e. from the grassroots level to the highest level then definitely India & Olympics will complement each other.