Indian Sports Scene in Post Rio 2016 phase

So finally Rio Olympics 2016 closed to a grand end. The baton for the next(Summer)Olympics has been handed over to Tokyo, which had earlier hosted Olympics in 1964- thus it was the first Asian city to host the Olympics.

I saw some pictures of the Final Closing ceremony- it was a grand event where colors reigned supreme.

Coming to the Indian Sports, a lot was expected from the Indian contingent of 100+ athletes.

The expectations were also high since India had garnered six medals in all in the 2012 Summer Olympics that were held in London, UK.

Probably the high Indian diaspora that lives in London and UK was a motivating factor there, or may be they smuggled in some Yummy paranthas to make the Indian athletes perform better!

Well leaving the last games aside, India managed two medals. One was a silver medal won by the Badminton player P.V.Sindhu.

The other was a bronze won by the female wrestler Sakshi Malik.

That both won these medals against odds is very well deserving.

However, what followed has been short of craziness.

We have had one minister who said that he will provide P.V.Sindhu with even a better coach who will get her a gold medal, disregarding that her existing coach is a great player of  repute- Pullela Gopichand, who was a champion of his own times.

Governments have showered crores of rupees on the medal winners.

Many of these governments or even national sports bodies did not spend even 15% of what they are giving now which is unlike what is done in United States, UK, some Asian countries, Australia etc. There too athletes get good rewards for winning medals but they also spend quite a lot while in the preparation stage.

So, a question comes to the mind- are the governments and sports bodies unplanned in terms of insufficient spending on sports and Olympic games?

Can’t they spend a little more while athletes get prepared for the Olympics. It is true that due to rising awareness and better state of Indian economy, Government and private spending on sports as well as Infrastructure creation has increased.

Yet much more remains to be done.

Probably we can have a Year of Sports may be starting from 2017, where each school, especially in rural areas and each college has debates, quizzes on sports, special camps, awareness sessions, may be by existing players and coaches to build a vibrant sports ethos in India.

The Indian Government is planning a National Sports University and this seems to be a good step, but a lot will also depend upon the actual implementation.

And it remains a mystery whether one of the Indian female athletes was deprived of proper water during a marathon race, or is it a false case.

Need to read more in newspapers and news websites.

Sources referred: Based on my study and understanding of various articles on Times of India website