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Familiar hopes, but are they justified?
If hype more than hope was the mantra whenever Indian teams left home shores to compete in the Olympics, writes S. Kannan
If hype more than hope was the mantra whenever Indian teams left home shores to compete in the Olympics, then the present contingent is perhaps the best ever.
In the decades gone by, when hockey was played on grass, the Indians were kings, winning eight gold medals. Stick-work, wizardry, genius --- we had all of them in Dhyan Chand, KD Singh Babu and the illustrious triple Olympian Balbir Singh, to name a few.
But once synthetic surfaces replaced natural turf, the Europeans emerged masters where teamwork and better fitness mattered more than individual brilliance. Yes, we did win gold in Moscow, but that was in a watered-down field following the boycott by the West Bloc.
Indian Olympic history is incomplete without mention of the glorious medals won by Norman Pritchard and KD Jadhav.
And if one talks about gallant performances, the names of Milkha Singh -- who then earned the sobriquet of Flying Sikh -- and PT Usha come to mind. Milkha and Usha's showing continue to remain our best performances in track and field, even though many would want us to believe that Anju Bobby George is going to rewrite the script in the long jump pit at Athens.
Yes, KM Beenamol did the best she could --- run two outstanding 800m races and make it to the semi-finals in Sydney --- but the rest of the athletes were like excess baggage. With five days left for the start of the Olympics, if you want to know where to put your money, be sure it's not hockey.
These are times when we are no longer automatic qualifiers but have to go through the 'nightmares' of pre-Olympic tournaments.
If the last two Olympics are to be taken as indicators, a medal could realistically come from an individual or maybe, two. In 1996, at Atlanta, Leander Paes showed what a journeyman could do with sheer adrenaline-felted performances in a tough field. No one, even in their wildest dreams, had wagered on him winning a bronze.
He was supposed to have won the doubles medal four years later with Mahesh Bhupathi, but that did not happen due to their own indiscretion. Yes, this time, Leander and Mahesh know this is their last chance for a shot at Olympic glory and the reunion has been fine so far.
How much Indian sport has changed in the last 12 years can be gauged from the fact that we have a whole lot of shooters knocking on the doors regularly. Jaspal Rana's father NS Rana has been screaming from the rooftops since 1994 that if India have to win a medal, it would not be in the 100-metre sprint, but perhaps shooting.
If Jaspal Rana, a wild card entrant at Atlanta, failed, don't blame him. He never went there hoping to win a medal as Olympic events were never his forte. But yes, when Anjali Bhagwat and Abhinav Bindra were there at Sydney as wild cards, they showed they had it in them to do well.
From a tough field, Anjali made it to the air rifle final, where only eight competitors figure. This time around, with greater experience, Anjali has as good a chance as anyone else and will do anything to win a medal. The same goes for Major RVS Rathore, whose rise to the top in double trap has been phenomenal. If people say Anjali and Rathore are strong contenders for a medal, please believe them.
If Leander's medal is still being referred to as some kind of fluke, lifter Karnam Malleswari's bronze medal in Sydney was also not really on the cards simply because her effort came against all odds. Since then, Malleswari has done little of note, but says she can do it again with a bit of luck.
In the past, for several sportsmen, just being there at the Olympics was an achievement. Perhaps that's true of events like athletics, badminton, wrestling, boxing, swimming and table tennis. The Indian challenge fades out so fast in these disciplines, one wonders whether it was worth the effort to send them in the first place.
In athletics at least, one wonders what the logic behind sending such a huge contingent is. But these are days when some sports federation officials still believe Olympics mean exposure. Come on, don't come back exposed.
