London to Rio: where do we see ourselves?

After many heartbreaks and some compensation done in the end, the London Games ended. But where did we Indians finish, 55th?

It is good when we compare ourselves with 204 other countries but when we look at the country with the 2nd highest population in the world who are capable of winning just 6 medals, what are we talking about? It is high time we take other sports seriously now. It has been ages since Hockey has been our national game and now, it wouldn’t be wrong if I call Hockey dead in India. The only opportunity for it to be revived was this, and we couldn’t even win a single match – who would call such a game as our national game?

It is not only about only Hockey, even Archery also was no good a result. The coach had to resign as soon as he returned back to India after not having kept up to all the Indian hopes. Though shooting got two medals for India, a few more mainly from Abhinav Bindra were expected to be brought home as his second Olympics medal, but unfortunately he couldn’t qualify for the final. Leaving all this apart, Tennis and Boxing saw some of the biggest heartbreaks by not even being able to to make it to the semis, with the exception of Mary Kom. Then come the other events where we don’t even see ourselves as competition to anyone.

Though some made it big this time like Parupalli Kashyap who from no where came into the limelight by his wonderful game. Vijay Kumar went on to win a silver medal when others expected him to be just a underdog; still Indians have definitely left a mark in some sports but in few games they were just a part of formality.

Leaving all the bad memories behind, lets look forward to a goal to be fulfilled  four years later, but that requires severe training to get better results at Rio in 2016. When the question arises where to see ourselves next time, it would definitely be way better than this time and somewhere around the 30 to 40′s when compared to 55th of this time.

There is no question of talent not being present, but instead, having a proper system free of corruption to be there to make selections more transparent. It is also a shame that the country is not being able to keep up to its ability. A country that can challenge the Americans in their own country can definitely give them tough competition in the field of sports. All that is needed is proper selection and the willingness and determination to win for the country, then success is by no means far away. If this formula is successfully implied, then mission Rio 2016 is not far from being accomplished.