The other day I was browsing through Indian news sites when I came across an article about the possibility of India hosting the Olympics. I mean you must be joking !!! are you serious ?? Do you honestly think a one sport nation like ours should contemplate such an action??
I am not saying we are not capable, definitely not. What I am trying to say is do you think there is enough of a sports culture within our society today to give the respect an Olympic event deserves?? I mean would they play the cricket world cup in the USA or France just because there are facilities there meet the standard. NO!! definitely not because they are not in to cricket. Just as we are not in to the concept of the Olympics i.e the sports that are in it.
Yes we have won medals including multiple gold in field hockey but today our field hockey team is not even at Beijing. I do not blame the system, players or the so administrators who run the game but I blame us. We the people of India have become indifferent to sports other than cricket. It is sad but true. For example when we got dumped out of the cricket world cup the nation was up in arms saying "oh my god say it aint so" but we did not qualify for the Olympics in field hockey how many of us were devastated??
Today at the Beijing Olympics our country has 3 realistic medal hopes the Bhupathi and Paes duo which is at twilight, Raj Vardhan Singh Rathod the same whose national camp did not happen because there was a lack of ammunition and a boxer named Vijender Kumar. I have never heard of the boxer till a few days back and yes there will be another who will come out of the blue and win medal like Karnam Malleshwari.
But 4 from 1 billion hmmm... I do not know but lets look beyond that. Who ran the Indian leg of the Olympic torch relay it was not our athletes but our movie stars. wow!! can u believe that movie stars !!
Ok now critical question would you go and watch the athletics, swimming, wrestling or any other sport?? I dont think so... come on !! National games, World Military games and so on went on with empty stadium seats as their audience. (please look beyond opening and closing cermonies)
I am sure the honor of empty stadiums is not something we do not want to bestow on the Olympics. Such a travesty of the Olympic spirit would be act of treason. Basically we do not deserve to host the Olympics at this point of time. We still do not give sports or sportpersons the respect they deeserve in our society yet.
Being an optimist I feel some day things will change and then just may be we might see an Olympics in India.
I am not saying we are not capable, definitely not. What I am trying to say is do you think there is enough of a sports culture within our society today to give the respect an Olympic event deserves?? I mean would they play the cricket world cup in the USA or France just because there are facilities there meet the standard. NO!! definitely not because they are not in to cricket. Just as we are not in to the concept of the Olympics i.e the sports that are in it.
Yes we have won medals including multiple gold in field hockey but today our field hockey team is not even at Beijing. I do not blame the system, players or the so administrators who run the game but I blame us. We the people of India have become indifferent to sports other than cricket. It is sad but true. For example when we got dumped out of the cricket world cup the nation was up in arms saying "oh my god say it aint so" but we did not qualify for the Olympics in field hockey how many of us were devastated??
Today at the Beijing Olympics our country has 3 realistic medal hopes the Bhupathi and Paes duo which is at twilight, Raj Vardhan Singh Rathod the same whose national camp did not happen because there was a lack of ammunition and a boxer named Vijender Kumar. I have never heard of the boxer till a few days back and yes there will be another who will come out of the blue and win medal like Karnam Malleshwari.
But 4 from 1 billion hmmm... I do not know but lets look beyond that. Who ran the Indian leg of the Olympic torch relay it was not our athletes but our movie stars. wow!! can u believe that movie stars !!
Ok now critical question would you go and watch the athletics, swimming, wrestling or any other sport?? I dont think so... come on !! National games, World Military games and so on went on with empty stadium seats as their audience. (please look beyond opening and closing cermonies)
I am sure the honor of empty stadiums is not something we do not want to bestow on the Olympics. Such a travesty of the Olympic spirit would be act of treason. Basically we do not deserve to host the Olympics at this point of time. We still do not give sports or sportpersons the respect they deeserve in our society yet.
Being an optimist I feel some day things will change and then just may be we might see an Olympics in India.
3 comments:
Sad but true,that our actors are made to carry the olympic torch where as around the world its the sportsmen who have that honor.
Good 'genuine' observation.
Very true that tennis,shooting and boxing are the only medal hopes this time.....weightlifting wherein we had a chance seems to be a distant dream due to the steroid usage controversies.....
after every olympics alongwith a medals tally there is also a stat which relates the population of a country to the number of medals won by the country and sadly we are at the very bottom every time....
Mate, putting aside the moral/ethical issues, we simply don't have the infrastructure to host such a mega-event and neither are our officials competent enough to improve the infrastructure. Case in point - Commonwealth Youth Games 2008. Google it.
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