It happens every leap year without fail. There is a sinking feeling, a feeling of great shame. As the second most populous nation in the world marches into the Olympic arena along with every other countries (some hitherto unheard of), the Indian in me cowers. I know of the feeble attempt we will manage, and feel terribly sorry to see the tiny contingent who has made it to the Games.
What do we lack?Political will for sure. The making of Sports as an industry for another. Sports have to be made enticing enough to want to make people pursue them as a career. The prime-time in the life of an athlete is a short span, and if the industry surrounding this spurt does not sustain such talented individuals, few people would make the choice. There have to be careers for those who excel - as trainers, as team co-ordinators, as people who can be given the responsility to contributing to decisions in ways that touch not just their lives, but those of others who have the honor of representing the country. Cricket has achieved that, and I think it should be the same for other arenas too.
Brainwaves and I were chatting about this, and one viable option would be to have a roadmap to win 5 medals in the next Olympics, and then make a career path for aspiring athletes. Make the infrastructure ready and available, hone skills and inspire people to succeed.
It is not difficult to achieve once the commitment is made, just difficult to overcome the reluctance to commit.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
A Leap_Yearly Affair
Posted by nourish-n-cherish at 1:48 PM
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2 comments:
I am sure this topic is discussed in Indian forums at least once in past week.
Everyone knows that the sole gold medal did not came because of infrastructure but inspite of it.
But I see a new hope with the boost in economy in general, youngsters are not so hooked on being a software engineer. For them, it seems to me at least, it is just another means to make money. Children of this generation will have lesser will to achieve financial security (as we did) and MAY have more free spirit.
"Hope is a good thing", Shawshank redemption!
I think the term "infrastructure" is overhyped... There are lots of sports where infrastructure is not a necessity... A lot of track and field events, in my opinion does not require much infrastructure... ( I think most decent schools have a good playground...).. I think the same is true for sports like swimming... In my opinion, the real problem is the average indian's balance of education/career and sports... Trying to be risk averse by trying to get the best of all worlds... And, the very few who take the extra effort and risk are the ones we really see... Unless, we evolve as a system (privatisation looks appealing), there is not much that's going to happen, except that, we will talk about it during the next olympics..:)
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