The feat that the Indian athletes have achieved is nothing short of extraordinary and no amount of words could amplify the quantum of the hard work they had put in day in and day out to be the best of the lot. Every Indian should be filled with pride and take a moment to appreciate India's performance at Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Each member of the Indian contingent belongs to the finest breed of individuals who overcame insurmountable odds, some went against their family's desires to pursue their dream of playing professional sport, some even had to fight the system to get a fair shot at representing India at the global stage.
They must have heard this phrase multiple times, 'the higher you climb, the steeper shall be the fall', they still made the climb, overseeing the challenges coming their way, one obstacle at a time. When their friends screamed 'party' their hearts silently whispered 'practice', and they slept off early that night and every other night, so that they don't miss the next day's early morning practice session. They won't even have a count of the number of times they would have said no to social gatherings.
"Why are you being so hard on yourself?", this question might have popped up in their head one too many times, but then they realized they didn't come this far only to come this far. And they continued chasing their dreams. They are the special breed who don't work out just for the fitness quotient, they rather grind at each and every practice session, so that when the D-day comes they are well prepared to outperform their opponents. If that's not an indicator of a strong character, I don't know what is!
There were a few instances which would be etched in our memories for a long long time. First and foremost, the never say die attitude of the women's hockey India team, losing their 1st 3 matches of the tournament, and then making a stunning comeback, going down in the history books as the 1st women's national team to play an Olympics semifinal match for a medal in which they played their hearts out against the Brits. Let's not forget, there were one too many instances when the girls showed us what its like fighting hard to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. Be it Savita Punia saving 8 out of 8 lethal penalty corners against the mighty Aussies in the QFs or Vanadana Kataria's hattrick against the Proteas to keep our QFs hopes alive or the sight of Brits consoling the Indians after a hard fought game for the bronze medal, every instance had a story of valor and courage to depict. Talk about the adage, 'Fall down 7 times, get up 8' and this tale of a bunch of extraordinary women would serve as a synonym for the same.
Moving forward, kudos to the Indian Men's Hockey team for securing a medal in the Olympics after 41 long years. Just like their counterparts, their story wasn't a smooth ride either but whenever an adversity arose, these champs responded with grit and determination and showed the world they are not the ones backing down from a fight. Scoring twice in the final 3 minutes of the game against Argentina was sheer class and so was that medal-assuring, match-saving, keeping-hopes-inatct save from our champion goalkeeper with a rock-solid experience of 21 years, PR Sreejesh in the last 6 seconds of the bronze medal game against the Germans. The men in blue once again helped us believe that its not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.
Talk about mastering your skill-set and the name of Ravi Kumar Dahiya serves as the perfect example. The one who stormed his way to the semis by winning back to back matches on 'Technical Superiority', ridiculing his opponents' hard work and determination within a matter of 6 minutes. Not only that, during the semifinal match, when he was down and out, the way he turned around the tides in his favor is just another level of crazy. Flipping the match result in your favor in the dying seconds of the match, after being 2-9 down in the game, executing a perfect 'pin-fall' on your opponent to book a slot in the finals, is a comeback story to be remembered for ages. Let's not forget, he's just 23 and this was his 1st appearance at the Olympic games.
The sight of our ace shuttler PV Sindhu, bowing down to the crowd in a namaste gesture after her every game showed us its does one no harm to remain humble when they win and accept their loss with grace. Time and again, she has served as a perfect example of class, honor, hard-work and all things nice.
On the other hand, we got to see the heroics of another wonder woman who goes by the name of Mirabai Chanu, her journey serves as a perfect example of sheer courage, determination and lots of heart. Her olympics journey was more clinical rather than dramatic or the one defying odds. She relied on grit and resolve and cruised towards victory in style. More power to you girl, the latest silver queen of India!
Ponder over 'Cometh the hour, cometh the woman' and moving forward, there would be the image of 23 year old Lovlina Borgohain popping up in our mind. When the big names from the boxing, shooting and archery contingent were getting outperformed by their opponents, Lovlina Borgohain silently sailed through the semis and ensured India's medal tally ticks forward. She played her like she always knew she had a few more punches left in her and she never backed down from a fight.
As they say, one should always save the best for the last and the last day of Olympics for the Indian contingent panned out be exactly the same. First, Bajrang Punia lived upto his expectation by securing a bronze and later what followed was the 23 years old army boy, Neeraj Chopra becoming the 1st Indian to secure a gold medal in Javelin throw and in the process secured the only gold for India at Tokyo Olympics 2020.
On a positive note, there were one too many occasions which made our hearts fill with pride. One couldn't be more proud of some of the extraordinary human beings like CA Bhawani Devi (Fencing), S.Reddy & C.Shetty (Badminton), Kamalpreet Kaur (Discus Throw), Anshu Malik (Wrestling), Aditi Ashok (Golf), Atanu Das (Archery), Fouaad Mirza & Seigneur Medicott (Equestrian) to name a few who played with their hearts on their sleeves. When the time came to show the world what they are made up of, every time they donned the Indian jersey, they played like there's a chip on their shoulder and in a perfect world, they would have settled for nothing but a W. They are the ones who succeeded in igniting hopes for us in games where the probability of securing a W in their respective category was bleak. Win or lose, these superheroes played their souls out and their performance is definitely a right step facilitating the transition from being known as the 'ones who also-participated' to being champion contenders.
Last but not the least, sport has the tendency to make one feel low when legends happen to miss out on a fairytale ending. Likewise, our hearts skipped a beat when the 8 time world champion and an Olympic medallist MC Mary Kom bowed out from the pre-quarters bout. Thank you for all the memories Mary Kom, we are the lucky ones to have gotten a chance to support you and watch you deliver lethal punches with precision and power.
If we could take home a lesson or two from India's performance at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, the most prominent one would be the fact that if you truly back your instincts and you give in everything you have, then you can conquer your dreams and write yourself into folklore. Also, winning never comes to you easy, you have to prepare really hard to outsmart and outperform your opponent to claim that well deserved W.
