The Olympics will soon end in a couple of days from now on. And India is staring at the prospect of returning back empty handed, after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Even if we do manage to win couple of medals in badminton, wrestling, there is no stating the fact that this has been one real disappointing show. Not that it is something new. From the time, I had my first glimpse of the Olympics in 1984 at Los Angeles to the current one in Rio, have always been hooked on to the games. I had witnessed many memorable moments, moments of heartbreak, new champions being crowned, old ones bowing out. And yes, India always managing to disappoint. From 1984 Los Angeles to 1992 Barcelona, it was always the same story, Indian contingent taking part, returning empty handed. We won the odd medal in tennis, weightlifting and shooting at the Atlanta, Sydney and Athens games.

But this games has proven to be a disappointment, especially so considering we had a decent tally at London where we won 6 medals, our highest in fact. Which actually raised the expectations of the public and sports lovers, that we actually could do better. Soon the Games will be over, and our media will begin the inquisition, which actually is far worse than the losing. We will be subject to the same inane rhetoric of “1 Billion People, yet no medal or just a handful of medals”. Cricket will be blamed, our stress on academics will be blamed and some will soon pass inane Facebook posts and What’s App forwards about “We need quota to win in Olympics”. The point is these same lazy arguments have been thrown about, during every Olympics. And the fact that we are still peddling the same lazy theories, shows that we have not really learnt any lessons, nor have identified the root causes.

First things first, I am not angry with our athletes, they have put in their best effort to reach where they are. Most of them had to deal with a culture where sports is looked down upon, where athletes are treated like bonded labor. These athletes have had to put up with pot bellied officials, babus and Netas, who have no clue about sport. And for whom the Olympics is just an occasion to go on a pleasure trip abroad. They have had to travel for hours together in economy class, while the babus, officials travel in business class, doing what, maybe formulating strategies on how to keep their jobs, for the next foreign junket. These athletes have come from poor, modest rural, mofussil backgrounds.

We had Dutee Chand, who came from a remote village in Odisha. She did not even have running shoes, and it was only an ecommerce company that managed to help her get one. We had Dipa Karmakar from small town Agartala in the North East, the first Indian girl to enter gymnastics, a discipline which most Indians are not even familiar with. There is no basic equipment even for gymnastics in India, and this girl managed to make it to the finals of the Vault, undertook the Produnova vault where one wrong landing could mean the difference between life and death. And she missed the bronze just by a fraction of points. Lalita Babar from drought stricken Satara district, became the first Indian athlete to enter the finals of a track event after P.T.Usha in 1984. And that too the 3000m steeplechase one of the most grueling events ever. Dattu Bhokanal from a remote backwaters village in Maharasthra, who put on an impressive performance in rowing. Vikas Krishnan in boxing, Abhinav Bindra in shooting, put in their best efforts, and though they lost out, it was not for want of effort. Every one of the athletes there at Rio, earned the right to be there, and yes even earned the right to take selfies( yes Ms.Shobha De take that). The fact is that these athletes have the talent, they have the passion, they are willing to push themselves, do the hard yards. But just talent, passion would not result in success without the proper guidance and structure. A diamond needs to be polished properly for it to shine really well.

Now while it would be tempting to blame cricket as the root cause, that is pretty much a knee jerk reaction. The fact is that every country has that one game, about which they are crazy. Canadians are crazy about Ice Hockey, yet have done pretty well in most Olympics, coming away with a decent haul of medals at every event. Take Brazil, the country is crazy about soccer. But for all their soccer madness, it has not prevented Brazil from producing one of the finest F1 racers( Ayrton Senna) and they do quite well in volleyball too. And in the US of A, baseball, American Rules football, rugby, basketball will always be more popular than swimming, notwithstanding Michael Phelps. If Indians are crazy about cricket, it is because we have had a fair amount of success in the game, starting with the 1983 World Cup Win. And while the BCCI is no symbol of honesty, transparency, it has done well enough to put the money on players, infrastructure and training. Damning cricket won’t help matters, it is one sport where we are doing fairly well, so just let it be. And if you are speaking about popularity, the fact is most Brazilians are not exactly thronging the stadiums in Rio either. Hockey for example has been played in near empty stadiums. Most other events too have had modest turnout, now just compare this with the turnout for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Nor does blaming our obsession with academics help. China, Korea, Japan are even more obsessed with academics than us. They have their own equivalent of the Kota IIT coaching centers and the Narayana, Chaitanya kind of techno schools. And having stayed in S.Korea for a year, can say, their academic schedule is even more stressful than ours. But that has not prevented these three countries again from taking a good haul of medals in every Olympics. And if we are speaking about corruption, most of the Latin American nations are as corrupt as India is, and their economies are not exactly booming either, but even they also manage to do well in most Olympics.

So where does the root cause lie?

First things first, just because a country has a billion plus population, it does not meant it is automatically entitled to win a huge number of medals at the Games. Sporting excellence has nothing to do with the population or area of a nation, there are a whole lot of reasons out there. And these reasons are not new, they have been known from long, and it’s just that during the Olympics they come out in the open.

We need the infrastructure and training period. And if we can’t afford them, at least give the athletes exposure on a global level. Of course we could point out, that the African nations which are far poorer than us, regularly produce winners in track and field, especially the long distance events. There is a difference, most of them are genetically suited to those events, due to their environment, weather, build. And the fact that these Africans are naturally athletic helps them. One more thing, most of these African athletes who do well, train in the Western nations, they regularly take part in international events, and good training too. We just can’t throw athletes into the ring with no proper training, guidance, coaching and expect them to do miracles. The fact is barring some sports like cricket, hockey, tennis, shooting, badminton, most of the other disciplines have absolutely pathetic infrastructure. Add to it, most athletes are treated worse than bonded labor. So while we have the potbellied babus, officials, netas living in star hotels, travelling in business class, the athletes have to stay in cramped accommodation, travel second class. In most cases, athletes don’t even have the proper kit to practice. Dutee Chand did not have money for a pair of running shoes, and only an ecommerce firm stepped in at the last minute, sponsoring her.

The fact is most sports associations in India, are staffed by geriatric Netas, and Babus, who treat them as their own private fiefdom. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, has been president of Archery Association, since the 1970’s and his contribution in improving the sport, your guess is as good as mine. Praful Patel of the Air India scam fame, heads the Football Association, and what has been his contribution to date? Again your guess is as good as mine. The Netas and Babus who head these sports associations treat them as their own personal jagirs, with a Mai Baap attitude towards the athletes, the ones who actually matter. The athletes who slog it out on the field, are supposed to feel grateful to His or Her Royal Highness, for actually allowing them to play. Better facilities, better training, better exposure, I mean how dare they even ask, those ungrateful people.

Whatever success India has had in the sporting field in recent times, has been due to professional efforts. Like Gopichand’s Academy in Hyderabad, that has been producing some excellent shuttlers. Or the numerous boxing, wrestling academies in the Northern hinterland, from where some of our medal winners came from. If we are serious about doing well in sport, we need people who are either passionate about the game, care for the athletes or those who have played the game and know it well to head the associations. As long as we have those geriatric attention seekers, who are only interested in themselves with no care for the athletes, heading our sporting associations, we will always have the same story in every Olympics or any major sporting event for that matter.

One more thing, we have to cast our net wide. Majority of the Indian contingent is from rural, mofussil, tribal areas, and that is where the sporting talent is. You are not going to get sporting talent from our urban metros, where most playgrounds are disappearing for hideous looking malls or complexes. Our future champions are out there in the country side, in our villages, in our tribal areas, in our small towns. And that is where you have to be looking for. Those living in the tribal areas, would make for excellent archers, runners, even swimmers, these are something that come to them naturally. Similarly we could be having potential swimming, diving, rowing champions in our coastal villages. We could also tap into our existing sporting traditions. The akharas in the Northern hinterland have been producing some excellent wrestlers in recent times, tap that well. We have something called the Rural Olympics in Punjab held every year. Who knows we might be having our own running, weightlifting champions there.

We have a lot of raw diamonds out there, waiting to be discovered and polished. The question is who is going to do that. Now there are two ways, one is like in Russia,China where the Government invests heavily in sports, sets up infrastructure, trains the athletes from a young age. The other is like in US, where the Government per so plays no role, but all schools, colleges, universities have a good sporting infrastructure and scholarships are given to athletes who do well. Personally I feel we need a mix of both, Government intervention as well as efforts from schools, colleges, universities and corporates. But whoever is running the show, must be people who are sincerely interested in the athletes welfare. The Indian Army and Railways for one have been doing a great job at nurturing athletes over the year. So too have some PSUs, as well as corporates like TATA, through their various foundations.

There needs to be proper incentives for people to enter sports. If many parents are not enthusiastic about their children going into sports, it is because they do not see much of a future in it. Cricket is different, because there is money in it. And much as I hate the IPL, it has given a break and platform to many aspiring cricketers especially from the small towns. In the US, for many sports is often seen as a ticket to a better life. Boxing, Athletics has made a difference in the lives of many poor Black people, who otherwise had no avenues of progress in life. The same in most Latin American nations, where many from the slums, see football as a means to a better life. Both Pele and Maradona, were rags to riches stories, boys from the working class who became world champions. In India cricket has been filling that space, though of late wrestling and boxing too have attracted many, and to some extent hockey. If schools, colleges, universities in US, can give scholarships to athletes what stops our better known ones from doing the same. I am sure our IITs, IIMs, BITS, have a good enough money to do so. And so do the private universities that are springing up all over. When people see that a career in sports is going to make a difference to their lives, and give a better future, many will automatically move towards it.

One thing we need to understand, sporting champions are not developed overnight. It takes years of practice, training, support, coaching. It took a good 25 years for China to make an impact at the Olympics, and once they did, they never looked back. I am not unduly disappointed by the efforts of our athletes at Rio. I see Dipa Karmakar, Lalita Babar, Dattu Bhokanal as future champions in 2020 Tokyo. But for that they have to be nurtured, cared for, trained well. What has happened has happened at Rio, let’s learn the lessons from that, and look forward to Tokyo 2020. But for that we have to learn the lessons and do a proper root cause analysis, else we will once again be ranting and cursing.