Olympics and India
Debdatta Acharya
Driving Customer Value | Supply Chain Management | Transforming Businesses | Contract Lifecycle Management
Growing up and even now I wonder why my country India does not do well in securing many more medals in the Olympics. Today the Paris 2024 is concluding and the nation of more than 1.4 billion is again left with a handful of medals.
Everyone in India you talk to or ask will give their reasons, share their opinions and bicker about this. I am not trying to write about what went wrong or is not working for Team India. I was fortunate to have been able to watch several exciting and interesting games (some late in the night IST) over the last 3 weeks when I got time and wanted to share my observations of what some of these athletes or their communities were doing differently.
Incidentally, many of these are also applicable to any professional discipline or work one takes as a career.
1.??????? Passion and personal commitment
Being at the 5 rings event is not a dream for many, winning a medal is ingrained in their minds and body (so many had tattooed it).
Early in their childhood, these athletes have committed themselves to the sports they love more than anything else. Many may have been honing their skill even before they could form sentences and write essays.
For them playing a sport was not an alternative to keeping themselves fit or a sidekick, but the only thing they wanted to commit to. Many US and Chinese athletes train and work on their skills at the tender age of 4 or 5 years.
2.??????? Tribe and community commitment
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As they say, it takes a village to raise a child. In many countries, communities have been able to create a pool of talented individuals who not only compete with each other to push their limits but also encourage each other in these mentally tough sporting events.
A good example is the dominance of long-distance runners that some of the African nations have produced over the years. They compete together and become a support system for each other during these big events.
3.??????? National commitment to sports
When a nation and its citizens give equal support to various sports and widen their love for each discipline, it motivates individuals to take up the sports of their interest and ability to a professional level. ?Many of the big sporting nations have committed their resources and time to identify, nurture, and support talent. Sports is part of nation-building and they ensure these individuals are no less than the ones who work in the corporate world.
Image a nation that only looks at cricket to be the only viable sporting option, how can athletes see their future or develop an interest in aquatics or the long jump?
Every sport requires different abilities and skills. When these athletes see the support and commitment from their families, communities and the nation, their commitment only gets better.
These were my initial thoughts; I am sure you have many more. I am looking forward to learning from you all.
Business Development Executive/Technical Writer
6 个月The answer is simple, schools in foreign countries let choose sports subjects of their choice, and also gives them proper support and guidance they need right from the primary education till high school which probably is not the case in our country.
Head of Corp. Security @ Henkel
6 个月The Olympics organization has also realized this and has therefore newly added Cricket as of Olympics 2028. It is estimated that this will leas to a huge boom in India although I am not entirely sure about that as the time difference will be horrible…
General Management: IT Network Services& Roll Out
6 个月Well while I see that medal tally of India is less impressive but I would say we as a country have invested adequately if not more (I hear Rs470 cr) for training etc. which is humongous. What I find missing is rigid KRAs which is key for getting the Perks. Perform and get perks should be the mantra. The Ex- Sportspeople should volunteer free for all these training’s as a give back to the society (to bring down the whopping cost) and get outcome based bonus.If Gold let the trainers be give X value and Players Y . If not nothing .I think even when a person graduates from IIT majority are not even getting placed (It’s top 1% only who qualifies ) where parents and students do so much hardwork and spend a fortune on coaching etc themselves to get till there and the alibi that education path is sorted as many without jobs . It would be hence not fair to spend more for catering to just a handful but utilise the money well to drive results .
Senior Scientist(C) | National Institute on Aging (NIA-NIH) | Longitudinal Study Section
6 个月Debu, you are lamenting the wrong number. Its not so much the population of the country as it is the money and infrastructure you put into competitive sport. It is always about money. There was a time when we used to say the same thing about fast bowlers in Indian cricket and now thanks to IPL, increased network of accessible coaching, exposure and a well funded system we have the leading fast bowlers of the world. You can never expect parents to put their kids in sports early on if there are no incentives or hope for them to do well and compete on the world stage. The key would be to look into how much money countries who are doing well in Olympics spend on their sports infrastructure and how they rehabilitate their sportsmen and women once they are past their prime or the ones who never gets selected for the big games.