India at London 2012: Citius, Altius, Fortius – Saina embodies the Olympic Spirit

It was a day when one of the greatest athletes ever to grace the Olympic Games, Michael Phelps, retired from swimming, ending with 22 Olympic medals to his name, finishing with gold in the Men’s 4X100 team medley. He now has a staggering collection of 18 gold medals.

It was also a day when an Indian champion, Saina Nehwal, clinched bronze and sent a clear message to the badminton fraternity that she is one to look out for in the future. Even Saina would agree that the she would have ideally liked to have the bronze medal around her neck after completing the match against the World No.2, Xin Wang. But, that is how sport goes, and Saina will take it any day of the week. More importantly, this should not take away from her impressive performance at London 2012.

Whatever luck came her way, she has earned every bit of it. Saina has worked hard in the lead up to the Olympics, and it was clear in her attitude and body language that she was here to win. She was extremely skillful, superbly fit and well-composed throughout the Games, and handled herself very gracefully on and off the court. She is a complete athlete – a rare commodity in India, and her performance at London 2012 will only motivate her to reach greater heights. Saina’s performance will also go a long way in motivating aspiring female athletes in India to dream big, but in doing so they must look at not only the destination that Saina has reached, but the path she has taken to get there.

Saina’s bronze medal overshadowed the other Indian performances of the day. Paes and Sania surrendered to the top seeded Belarusian pair, while Manoj Kumar was ‘boxed’ out of the Olympics under dubious circumstances. There was great expectations from Commonwealth 2010 Gold medalist Krishna Poonia in the Women’s discuss competition, as she had qualified for the finals. Disappointingly, she could only manage seventh place. Even if she would have thrown her personal best, she would have not have managed fifth spot. In the Olympics, athletes usually have to find something extra to finish on the podium. Several Olympians who win a medal do so by eclipsing their best performance of the season, or even their career. The Olympics motivates them to find that extra strength to go the distance. Unfortunately, Poonia could not find that ‘something extra’.

Looking forward, today is when, officially, the fastest man on earth will be decided. The 100m dash is always a thrilling event, but one feels that these men must have tremendous mental capabilities to prepare for four straight years for an event that lasts less than 10 seconds!!!

So will Usain Bolt defend his crown, or will his young compatriot, Yohan Blake, cause an upset? Will the world record be broken? The question though for Indian sports fans is – how long a wait will it be before we see an Indian competing at the 100m finals of an Olympics?

By Suheil Tandon
(The author is Co-founder & Partner, Pro4Sport Solutions, a high-performance coaching firm that trains young athletes in the sport of Basketball, Cricket, Football and Table Tennis)