Olympic fever

Olympic has commenced in Bijing on 8th August, 2008. Olympic has its root way back in 1896, when it was conducted in Athens, Greece for the very first time. The official Olympic flag has five interconnected rings on the white background, representing 5 continents. The colours of rings are blue, green, red, black, yellow which was chosen so that at least one appears on each countries flag. The rings are interconnected to represent friendship and union among these continents. Its pride playing for your nation.Everybody tries to put their countries top on the medal list. Well, India was never looked shining in Olympics.Lets look at history of India in Olympic.

India's first official appearance came in year 1928 and was able to pull off gold in Hockey. For the next 5 successive olympics, India bagged hockey gold medal. Major Dhaynachand was the backbone of Indian Hockey Team at that time. Years 1928-1956 is know as golden years of Indian Hockey. Indian Hockey hasn't lived up to the hype after Dhyanchand era. On the other hand, history of individual medals is not that bright. Notably Khushaba Jadhav was India's first individual medalist, which he won in 1952 Olypic games in free wrestling. After 44 long years,India again snatched individual bronze medal in form of Leander Peace. Leander came stunner in Barsilona Olympics ,1996, upsetting words top seeded players. The Indian Army Major Rajverdhan Rathod was surprise package in Athens(2004). He pulled off silver in shooting to put country of 1 billion population on the list with count of 1.

One needs to analyze the sports infrastructure, processes and financial limitations, which is responsible for this poor show. Players don't have enough facilities and coaching to master their crafts. Government aids are not sufficient. Even worse, society encourages students to persue high paying professions, even one is capable of making it happen. No wonder, country has poor sporting culture. They say, 'India is an aspiring super power'. I wonder. Cricket fobia is other factor that's ruining development of other sports like tennis, gymnasium, athlete. Corporate word should pore some money for good of these sports and not just for Cricket. Media is also responsible for keeping these sports ignorant.

Whats more fascinating is despite of all odds, we had successes in past. We have players walking on their own to make it happen. With little help and encouragement, things are certainly going to change. China will be our idol for that.

With 2008 games all set up to sizzle, will Indian squad pull off again ? Lot of hype has been created about Anjali Bhagawat(Shooting),Anju boby george(Long jump),Rajvardhan Rathod(Shooting),Pace/Bhupati(Tennis-double). Will they live up to expectations ? Nobody is talking about Hockey team, which has once again disappointed with their poor performance that even couldn't get them into Olympics. Its a nightmare. We need to wait for the answers.

(P.S.: While I was writing this, news came that Abhinav Bindra has managed to snatch gold in 10m air rifle. Kudos to him. )