The Beijing Olympics saw an unprecedented performance by India;winning three Olympic medals was truly a great effort.The winners need a pat on the back for all the hardships they faced and the sacrifices they made.While the media was going overboard with the feat and celebrating it,which no doubt they should,but a thought crossed my mind.Somehow I could'nt come to terms with the magnanimity of the situation.At the end of the day we were ranked a lowly 50th on the table,with three medals and small countries like Jamaica and Kenya managing top 15 spots.
We pride as ourselves being one of the fastest growing economies in the world and draw parallels with China.But China has surely moved far ahead of us and infact everybody at these games bagging 15 more gold medals than the second placed US.
We need to look into our sports much more seriously because sports has a truly global appeal and performing at the highest level takes everybody sit up and take notice.The politicians need to give up their decades old jobs as heads of the sports' governing bodies.We need CEO's as Abhinav Bindra puts it.We need to manage our resources judiciously.We need some MBA's from the millions that we produce to come and work in this field.There needs to be a vision and a dedication to accomplish it.
I think that these Olympics can prove to be a watershed event in context to the Indian sports.We need to build from this.This should prove to be a stepping stone for better things to come.
Come on India.....we are in for bigger and better things.
