The way the Indian athletes performed at the Rio Olympics assured that the future of sports is bright in the country. A huge shoutout to all the 119 athletes who formed the Indian contingent representing their nation at the most coveted sporting event of the world. Let's take a moment to applaud their valiant efforts and their fighting spirit. They defied insurmountable odds, sacrificed a lot of things, made the most of the limited sporting facilities with the hope that the tricolor flies high at Rio.
The fact that the most no. of 4th place finishes at Rio belongs to India shows us that sports can be really harsh sometimes. It all began by Indian Women archery team going down in tie-breaker against Russia after making a sheer comeback in the game followed by Indian flag bearer Abhinav Bindra missing the bronze by a dot. Vinesh Phogat's injury and the Indian men's hockey team going down against Germany in the final seconds of the match are some of the other instances which added to our miseries.
This shaky start was overshadowed by the heroics of Dipa Karmakar who risked her life to perform Produnova, the most lethal stunt of the game, thus becoming the first person to represent India in gymnastics at Olympics. The way she remained gracious in her defeat speaks volumes about her character. The world applauded her efforts and she won million hearts along with inspiring a whole generation on her own.
The silver lining struck for the Indian fans when we got to witness the performances of two players whose potential has always been underestimated due to the presence of better ranked players in their respective sport, they gave in their everything and fought hard to bag a medal each for India.
Sakshi Malik became the 1st Indian women to win an Olympic medal in wrestling, turning tides in her favor by overcoming a 0-5 deficit during the last 90 seconds of her bout and emerging victorious subsequently. On the other hand, PV Sindhu showed the world what she's made of by becoming the first and youngest Indian to win a silver medal in badminton. She succeeded in uniting a nation of more than a billion people and making us feel proud. To achieve this feat in the past it took a group of 11 men competing against Pakistan cricket team. More power to you PV Sindhu, the Silver Queen of India!!
It's great to see the matured nature of the Indian audience who appreciated Indian athletes' performance at Rio irrespective of the medal count and acknowledged the fact that it's not size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of fight in the dog!!
Dipa Karmakar being denied a physio for the games because the officials didn't feel the need to do so, the players sleeping on bean bags at the Olympics village due to the incompetence of the Indian officials, Indian chief medical officer at the Olympics, Pawandeep Tony Singh, a radiologist by profession knew nothing about sports medicine, his standard response to all the players in pain was to have a Combiflam, he also turns out to be the son of the Vice-president of the Indian Olympics Association was reported having a gala time at the games, hanging out by the pool , drinking from 3 pm thus, making the most of his Rio trip which has been financed by the hard earned money of Indian tax payers. It's a matter of shame for a country whose sports minister is warned of cancelling his accreditation due to his inability to follow the rules set by the organizing committee.
Such instances forms a tiny part of the humongous issues related to the Indian sporting scenario currently. How can we expect our athletes to defeat the best in the world when we are not being able to provide them with the basic amenities. Hopefully the officials have learned from their mistakes and open more avenues of development for our athletes. Hopefully Olympics 2021 is a different story and a better one!
