India's Olympics shame, once again

[T90TankGuy]

Who is never happy?

did you even read the article before posting it?

 

[bouncing betty]

Yea, we did poorly compared to our potential. We missed so many gold medals from gymnastics, weightlifting, shooting, even judo, etc...

China needs to beat their little kids some more. That'll get more medals.

 

[Bobby]

Don't bring in Pakistan, you obsessed weirdo...

I can see who is obsessed here...worrying about Indian medal in Olympic...

India population is 6 time bigger than Pakistan....
if India won 6 medal ...then Pakistan should have won atleast 1 medal to equal with Indian Olympic shame

Zero medal means beyond any shame......

 

[gilaan]

India's Olympics shame, once again

India has the world's second largest population, and yet it placed 55th out of 79 countries that won medals at the London Olympics. Our athletes brought home six medals, with no gold medals. As a result, we were firmly in the bottom third of the table. Why does a country with so many people do so badly in international competition?

Those who worry their heads about these things, and even those who don't, identify a variety of reasons for our rather sad tally. One of the favourites is that physical factors conspire against us - our tropical climate and our genes. The problem here is that there are several countries above us in the Olympic standings that have tropical-like climates ( Iran, Jamaica, Ethiopia) and that have people who are as skinny and spindly as Indians (see Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tunisia, Algeria).

A second argument is cultural. Indians, we are told, are just not "sporty". We apparently despise physical exertion, don't like to compete ("no killer instinct"), are intellectual and spiritual, and so on. This is quite an attractive logic, and i quite often resort to it myself when i am assailed by contemptuous foreigners. But the truth is that the ordinary Indian exerts enormously just to keep body and soul together. In a country of scarcities, we are spectacularly competitive, always desperate to nose ahead in a queue. And just look at our children who are no more intellectual or spiritual than any other nationality but are driven to average 99% in their board examinations!

A third set of arguments is more sociological and relates to our attitudes to the kinds of sports represented at the Olympics. There are those who suggest that Indians don't respect these sports. This is the "cricket argument". For some reason, we only truly value cricket. Our youngsters, teachers, media, sports sponsors and governments are mad about cricket, and nothing else seemingly matters. The difficulty here is: which came first? Did cricket rise in public esteem because we did well at it, or did we fall in love with cricket, leading to its rise?

Finally, there is the view that, as in so many things, it is our wretched politics and administration that lets us down. Above all, our sports authorities don't select the best sportsmen because they are obsessed with the proper caste, ethnic, religious and regional balance in our teams. They are also corrupt, and so the money that should be spent on the proper infrastructure lines their pockets instead. Worse, the government fails to identify talent at a young age, to cultivate and support it, and to provide scientific and rigorous training.

Most educated Indians today would probably agree that this is the core of the problem and that in every sphere of life our political and administrative class botches it all. This is of course close to the truth and does explain a lot, though you wonder if sports governance in Kazakhstan, Jamaica, North Korea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Tunisia, Algeria, Bahamas, Grenada and Uganda, all of whom placed higher than India, can be much better. These are not exactly the gold medal winners in the league table of political governance!

Climate, genes, culture and social values play a part in winning, but in the end to win at sports requires extended financial and public support. In the 1996 Olympics, Britain won one gold medal! In 2012, it won 29 and placed third in the final table, in large part because a UK lottery poured money into sports after 1984. China, which has risen so marvellously, spends hugely on developing sports at every level, from the everyday school level to the international competitive level. Both countries encourage sports widely.

We in India have restricted sports facilities and training to a few. It is no accident that the only sport where we do well is cricket. Cricket is a middle-class game, and it therefore gets the money, expertise and glamour. When we in the middle class moan about our sports performance in the Olympics, we should look at ourselves. In the end, it is us, the rich and privileged, who are the cause of our country's sporting shame.

India's Olympics shame, once again - Times Of India

Shame on Pakistan that you never won a single medal in last 20 years and talking about India now......what if we have 6 medals.......most of them entered final round........some ended with 6th and 7th place......overall it was a best ever performance from India....this is not the end after all........we are hoping more medals in Rio.......

 

[Shardul.....the lion]

anarchy is sinochallenger he he just changed is id.

@topic: Yes India has lot of potential and it can do definitely better than current 6 medals. Even in this olympics we could have won 4-5 medals more.

 

[kaykay]

Don't bring in Pakistan, you obsessed weirdo...

well if a pakistani has been concerned about Indian medals...so who's obsessed now????

 

[drunken-monke]

India's Olympics shame, once again

India has the world's second largest population, and yet it placed 55th out of 79 countries that won medals at the London Olympics. Our athletes brought home six medals, with no gold medals. As a result, we were firmly in the bottom third of the table. Why does a country with so many people do so badly in international competition?

Those who worry their heads about these things, and even those who don't, identify a variety of reasons for our rather sad tally. One of the favourites is that physical factors conspire against us - our tropical climate and our genes. The problem here is that there are several countries above us in the Olympic standings that have tropical-like climates ( Iran, Jamaica, Ethiopia) and that have people who are as skinny and spindly as Indians (see Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tunisia, Algeria).

A second argument is cultural. Indians, we are told, are just not "sporty". We apparently despise physical exertion, don't like to compete ("no killer instinct"), are intellectual and spiritual, and so on. This is quite an attractive logic, and i quite often resort to it myself when i am assailed by contemptuous foreigners. But the truth is that the ordinary Indian exerts enormously just to keep body and soul together. In a country of scarcities, we are spectacularly competitive, always desperate to nose ahead in a queue. And just look at our children who are no more intellectual or spiritual than any other nationality but are driven to average 99% in their board examinations!

A third set of arguments is more sociological and relates to our attitudes to the kinds of sports represented at the Olympics. There are those who suggest that Indians don't respect these sports. This is the "cricket argument". For some reason, we only truly value cricket. Our youngsters, teachers, media, sports sponsors and governments are mad about cricket, and nothing else seemingly matters. The difficulty here is: which came first? Did cricket rise in public esteem because we did well at it, or did we fall in love with cricket, leading to its rise?

Finally, there is the view that, as in so many things, it is our wretched politics and administration that lets us down. Above all, our sports authorities don't select the best sportsmen because they are obsessed with the proper caste, ethnic, religious and regional balance in our teams. They are also corrupt, and so the money that should be spent on the proper infrastructure lines their pockets instead. Worse, the government fails to identify talent at a young age, to cultivate and support it, and to provide scientific and rigorous training.

Most educated Indians today would probably agree that this is the core of the problem and that in every sphere of life our political and administrative class botches it all. This is of course close to the truth and does explain a lot, though you wonder if sports governance in Kazakhstan, Jamaica, North Korea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Tunisia, Algeria, Bahamas, Grenada and Uganda, all of whom placed higher than India, can be much better. These are not exactly the gold medal winners in the league table of political governance!

Climate, genes, culture and social values play a part in winning, but in the end to win at sports requires extended financial and public support. In the 1996 Olympics, Britain won one gold medal! In 2012, it won 29 and placed third in the final table, in large part because a UK lottery poured money into sports after 1984. China, which has risen so marvellously, spends hugely on developing sports at every level, from the everyday school level to the international competitive level. Both countries encourage sports widely.

We in India have restricted sports facilities and training to a few. It is no accident that the only sport where we do well is cricket. Cricket is a middle-class game, and it therefore gets the money, expertise and glamour. When we in the middle class moan about our sports performance in the Olympics, we should look at ourselves. In the end, it is us, the rich and privileged, who are the cause of our country's sporting shame.

India's Olympics shame, once again - Times Of India

What is the point in starting this thread, will you elaboarate please....

majority of Indians are comfortable with what we have achieved and hoping to do better in the future games... China have spent about 4.5 billion USD for the preparation of their athletes.. accoding to this you got expect china to do better and which they have... We need some time to get in that particular leage.. We are improving,, its just the matter of time.. and no need to bash india or her athletes for the performance... Britan and US have sent about 450 athletes where as india have sent 80 of hers... the probability of wining medal increases with increase in the participation...

regards

 

[Archie]

How Many Olympics has it been since Pakistan won a medal

Most Indians are happy that we doubled our tally from Beijing and are mainly looking at getting 10 Medals at Rio

 

[anarchy 99]

China needs to beat their little kids some more. That'll get more medals.

and the despotic american regime needs to supply more drugs and masking agents to your athletes, that way you will continue to cheat your way to the top.
eg. marion jones, justin gatlin, antonio pettigrew, barry bonds, alex rodriguez, carl lewis, floyd landis, lance armstrong, mark mcguire, jessica hardy, gary hall jr, etc etc etc

slavery sure did help you bring all those medals in track & field.

 

[yyetttt]

I can see who is obsessed here...worrying about Indian medal in Olympic...

India population is 6 time bigger than Pakistan....
if India won 6 medal ...then Pakistan should have won atleast 1 medal to equal with Indian Olympic shame

Zero medal means beyond any shame......

Indian population is 7x bigger....

 

[agamdilawari]

Indian population is 7x bigger....

So that's ur excuse ?

 

[Doctor Death]

Indian population is 7x bigger....

India Won 6 medals.
Pakistan won 0 medals.

So,6/0=∞

 

[kawaraj]

India will take another decade to increase the tally of medals at Olympics. Our generation had to struggle a lot with studies and it is still there because of stiff competition. Sports does not guarantee a successful career but education does (in India).

China USA UK govt spend considerable amount of money on rigorous training, while Indian govt cannot afford to do same or does not believe that priority right now is to spend on sports.

I do not see it as shame personally considering that Olympics have very recently picked up in our nation (last 2 Olympics). People have not shown interest in the past decades hence motivation from the nation as a whole was lacking.

Thanks,

Yes the priority is not SPORTS nor social welfare nor power failure. The priority is spending on corruptions and weapons as always. Weak nation mentality as they spend more on armors to protect their inferior physicals.

And some pride Indians call it not a shame so it's an honor to be such a lousy situation obviously. good job, Mr. Word Power.

India Won 6 medals.
Pakistan won 0 medals.

So,6/0=∞

Yeah so I said good job, you are a word power so much better than us, a war-zone state and failed state than your so successful nation only with a few power CUT and half of pride citizen in poverty and the largest weapon importer and etc.

 

[Vinod2070]

Don't bring in Pakistan, you obsessed weirdo...

Who else found it a little weird!

 

[Zeeshan360]

Indian population is 7x bigger....

Wow !! What an excuse