India finished with just one silver and five bronze at Paris . What is required to win more medals in 2028 at Los Angeles? Medals of better colors, that is?
Digging deeper into the results, the result could have been much better. We had 6 Fourth place finishes. There were losses by small margins .
As a nation, I believe that the curve is slowly changing to be a sporting nation. Why do I think so? Let me explain the rationale:
Vinesh Phogat truly deserved a wrestling gold but lost out due to 100 grams of weight. There is a case to argue that if not for gold, she should have been given a silver instead! The rules are vague here & I can envisage them to be made tighter now!
Manu Bhaker could have won 1 silver and 2 bronzes in shooting, if she could have improved her accuracy by a narrow margin(0.1 points in fact). Shooting is an event of focus & concentration and physical toughness to stay still for long periods. Matches that happen back to back, need the shooters to be on their toes continuously and focus on their goal, rather than get impacted by the high pressure. Manu's team did a lot of simulation of such situations but you can never get the real feel that a high profile Olympics final gives an athlete.
Swapnil Kusale could have grabbed a silver as well in his shooting event, but he lost by a single point!
Lakshya Sen had 3 chances to get a singles gold in badminton but faltered to slip & didn’t get a bronze too, after losing to the eventual champion!
The badminton doubles pair of Chirag Shetty & Rinki Reddy were the favorites & couldn’t lift themselves at the big stage at the last moment – they could have won a bronze medal at the least.
I felt that the overall tally could have been 2-5-3, rather than what we eventually ended at. Only Neeraj Chopra should consider himself unlucky for missing out on a gold, thanks to a freak throw by his friend from Pakistan.
So, how can we get better in four years from now? the answer cannot be a straight-forward one. This should be driven by multiple factors –
GoI support with corporate sponsorships,
cross-pollination with foreign coaches & world-class infrastructure.
participation in international events to participate against top-class athletes & proper planning to reach peak performance at the Olympics!
We have seen the GoI provide good support to the sporting fraternity over years. The government has started khelo India games to promote sports throughout the country. Talent scouts are available to identify one to get more funding through the TOPS scheme. Almost 3500 Crores has been set aside in this year's budget for sports by the government. Corporates have come forward to support sportspersons in terms of sponsorship. JSW, Reliance, Mahindra, TVS to name a few.
There are good facilities available. SAI(Sports Authority of India) centers exist throughout the country and there is a plan to upgrade the existing facilities. In addition, there are great facilities at the Armed Forces & quite a lot of private academies.
Cricket has inspired other sports too. Multiple leagues like IPL have spawned up, where international participation exists too & they have increased the quality of our local talent. Look at the case of our football players, for example.
Foreign specialists are already available to provide the technical know-how to our players. Look at how the Indian hockey team has gained by the insights of the foreign coach, over years.
I think, mental conditioning coaches can help our players going forward!
Players must be taught how to handle pressure at world class levels and avoid mistakes. Look at the hockey team who benefited from a mental conditioning coach(Paddy Upton).
More importantly, parents must be coached so that they realize the benefits of sports, not just from the medal’s outcome, but also to emphasize that sports as a culture needs to be developed.
I believe this is a good starting point to think about improving our performance at Los Angeles in 2028. What do you think on areas where we can improve? Share your comments!
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