Back to the topic, Olympics is one of the most popular universal events since its origination in ancient Greece as religious and athletic festivals, while modern days Olympics would be purely a festival for the best athletes on this planet to have games together.
1)
Economic Factor. If we look at the results by countries, country groupings, there seems to be a correlation between economic size (take G20 as an example) and sporting results:
- in the 2008 Olympics, top 10 spots are all G20 countries
- in the 2012 Olympics, top 8 spots are all G20 countries
- in the top spots, 13 out of 30 are G20 countries
- in top 30 spots, we see smaller economies e.g. Hungary, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Ukraine, New Zealand, Cuba, Iran, Jamaica, Czech Republic, North Korea, Spain, Ethiopia, Croatia, Belarus, Romania, Kenya, Denmark, Azerbaijan, Poland, Mongolia, Thailand
While being a G20 member, India underperformed. The argument that it has low GDP per capita (lowest in G20, lower than Sub-Saharan African average) hence lack of investment isn't a sound one, as some countries like
Kazakhstan,
Jamaica,
Ethiopia,
Kenya and
Azerbaijan can perform very well. Economic factor cannot explain India's underperformance in sports.
2)
Political Factor. Some may argue that sporting of democratic countries cannot compete with state-administered sporting like the those from ex-communist camp. However the fact is that over-whelming number of countries in the Olympics are democratic, and those from ex-communist camp have also largely converted into market economy which includes sports (e.g. ad income for celebs).
In the top 12 spots in 2012, 11 countries have same political system as India, they are (1) USA (3) UK (4) Russia (5) South Korea (6) Germany (7) France (8) Italy (9) Hungary (10) Australia (11) Japan.
3)
Religious Factor. Muslim countries have special customs and practices, like some sports are confined to a certain gender, and that will naturally limit their participation in Olympics and hence medal tallies. Among G20 countries, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are Muslim, while India isn't (majority of Indian population isn't Muslim). Hence religious factor also cannot explain India's underperformance in sports.
- G20 countries e.g. Turkey, Mexico, Argentina are in 30-40's, close to the 1st league as above.
- G20 countries e.g. India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are lower in the ranks.
- Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are Muslim countries.
4)
Better Brain Factor. There is an argument saying Indians are pro-academic instead of sports. However when comparing literacy, intelligence quotients, education, international examination scores, India also rank exceptionally low (e.g. IQ 81 ranked 60 out of 81 countries, PISA scores ranked 72~74 out of 74 countries). Hence better-brain factor isn't true and hence again cannot explain the underperformance in sports.
As none of these are true factors behind India's current sports performance, so what are the actual ones? We need to identify the reality behind in order to find out the solution for India's improvement in sports. Wish India can host the 2024 Olympics and perform!
and is ex service man, so he gets monthly pension as well as 7-8 liquor bottles 
(never felt like going anywhere,but my father does
.......so that was a higher middle class explanation.......
