INSPIRATUS

Since 1894, when the Olympics Movement was launched, the motto of Olympics has been Citius, Altius, Fortius – meaning faster, higher, stronger. In 2021, the Olympics Committee added Communiter to this motto. It means together. But as I sat in Stade de France? last week, witnessing the historic athletics event at the Olympics Paris 2024 , the dominant thought in my mind was Inspiring. In Latin it loosely translates to Inspiratus. My a priori assumption was that every single human in the Olympics Village is much faster, higher and stronger than me! But still to see the finest of the species homo sapiens in action is nothing short of awe-inspiring. To put things in context:

·????? The guy you thought was lagging far behind in the 800m race was only 5 seconds behind the winner of the race! All the runners were completing two full rounds of the track within 2 minutes!

·????? There were women elegantly jumping over a bar that was set at the same height as my Land Rover!

·????? Then there were athletes throwing 4kg iron balls some 18 meters away. This felt particularly humiliating given that I have hurt my elbow handling a computer mouse weighing 100 gms!

As I looked beyond the obvious traits of faster, higher and stronger I found the inspirational qualities of discipline, process and control over one’s emotions under an enormous amount of stress on display. And then, all of a sudden, Olympics felt just like investing – and more advantaged. The average age of an Olympics athlete is 27 years. Value investors are known to be at the prime of their career even at 99, as the late Charlie Munger showed. Patience is the sharpest tool in my kit, and its a luxury that the athletes can not afford.

Talking of patience, commentators and social media warriors are losing patience with the performance of the Indian Olympics squad. Their frustration stems from the fact that India has won only 6 medals. They won 6 medals in London Olympics in 2012 also, so we don’t seem to be making any progress. As a contrast, neighbouring China has an impressive medal haul of 91!

India’s performance in Paris cannot be hailed as stellar but it has definitely gotten more interesting. I believe the three pillars to a nation’s sporting performance is:

A.??? Meritocracy (or lack of corruption)

B.??? Budget for infrastructure, equipment, training and nutrition ?

C.?? Experience – both successes and failures

India seems to be making rapid progress on all three counts. Its instructive to look at the data for the 2004, 2008, 2012 Olympics and compare it with 2016, 2020 and 2024 Olympics.

US sends c.550 athletes to Olympics while China sends c.450. These athletes participate in some 28 and 32 sports respectively. To get a sense of the talent pool for US, lets consider USA Swimming. Out of approximately 340,000 members, only 52 make it to the Olympics team. Imagine the scale of the swimming infrastructure and training experience in the US. Experience compounds over time.

India does not lack aspiration. As India’s GDP grows, more resources will get allocated to sports. The biggest thing in India’s favour is its large population. Large population is critical – it is no coincidence that the US and China send the largest delegations to the Olympics and they bag the most medals.

The most successful investors in the world have a strike rate of 50-60%. To be the most successful country in Olympics you only need a strike rate of 20%! If you include close finishes, India is already touching that number.

My firm belief is that India’s medal tally will only compound from here. In the face of a dismal 6 medal haul in 2024, this faith is truly Inspiratus!