Now that the Olympics are concluded, most nations would be busy with tallying their medal count, reviewing the performance of their delegates and charting a course for the next outing. And India, possibly, is not one of them. I overheard someone at office say that people here are still busy celebrating the meagreness in their victories. Well, it seems very easy to look at it that way and be impervious to the verity and to the emotions of the participants.
I honestly believe that our people did a wonderful job at the Olympics - may be the best of all the countries out there. Yes, this is a tall claim but consider these two hypotheses before jumping the gun to ridicule it.
1. Achievements in Olympics are notoriously short-lived in India. There is almost no long term perk given to the medalists and even if something is announced, it either takes a decade to be finally reimbursed or is lost in time if there is a political turmoil in tandem. So, after the long and tiring training and an equally grueling participation, there is only disappointment awaiting the winners back home. The winners have just become temporary whims of the local media.
2. Winding the clocks back to the domestic qualifying rounds for the Olympics and the subsequent training, the participants are allegedly subject to preposterous amounts of vices of the concerned officials who expect bodily and/or financial bribes.
Going through all this or seeing their fellow participant go through all this and still wanting to willingly participate in the rigor of the training and the event itself is an achievement not short of a gold medal. Anything over and above is an obvious incentive!
This is just my side of the coin and I do acknowledge the existence of unadulterated zeal of many in the delegation. But irrespective of that, the achievements of our people in the Olympics is in no way lilliputian and should not be jested at.
