Olympic Musings: A Girl Called Ned from India

“Hey look, there’s a girl called Ned from India in breaking,” I shouted.

“Accha, she’s a girl called India from the Netherlands!!,” said my son, who had just started breaking (pic above) couple of months ago. He is being taught by a person who is friends with Shigekix, a breakdancer (and gold medal prospect) representing Japan in the Olympics breaking competition in Paris.

“I.n.d.i.a, as in the opposition alliance in India? This must be a conspiracy to defame the country and the Supreme Leader,” I thought. I immediately googled “international plot to prevent India that is Bharat from achieving Vishwaguru-dom in breaking,” but nothing showed up. I must be ahead of the curve. Expect the interwebs to throw up some reliable conspiracy theories on this topic soon.

On a serious note, while it is interesting to think up conspiracy theories regarding Vinesh’s loss (given the impressive track record of the dirty tricks department), it ultimately points to the general lack of professionalism in the field of sports in our country, whether it is the clueless officials or the athletes themselves. If at all Vinesh was worried about the system sabotaging her bid, she should have been extra careful. The sad fact is that a gold for her would’ve taken us to a best-ever finish in the medals table. Now, as usual, we are in the lower half with about six medals. Barring Neeraj Chopra and our badminton stars (regardless of what Prakash Padukone thinks), there are not many Indian athletes who could be considered as having the mettle to compete up there at the top-most levels.

In that sense, Vinesh’s victory over Yui Sasaki in the first round was phenomenal. Sasaki, mind you, has not lost to a foreign competitor ever, till then. Japan consistently produces world-class wrestlers, especially in the lower weight categories. The girl who won the gold in the 53-kg category, Akari Fujinami, has not lost a match since junior high school–137 wins and counting. There were others before her. Saori Yoshida, who won three golds and a silver spanning four Olympics, and Kaori Icho, who won gold in four consecutive Olympics and had a 13-year unbeaten streak. They are products of an effective and efficient professional system that churns out great champions year after year.

Contrast that with what Vinesh had to go through just to qualify. She was fighting a system hell-bent on teaching lessons to those who protest. Just about a year ago, she was being vilified by the lapdog media and the system, so you can’t blame the conspiracy theorists if they come up with stories against the regime. There are some people faulting her for going down a weight category, etc. Such practices, however, are not unheard of in wrestling, judo, etc. Natsumi Tsunoda, the Japanese gold medal winner in judo’s 48-kg category, went below her usual weight category of 52kg, because there was another great athlete called Uta Abe in that category. Abe, however, lost in the first round (a first-ever loss), couldn’t believe that she lost, and cried for a long time on the mat. The Abe siblings’ story is also quite a compelling one, as the bro-sis duo were expected to repeat their gold medal performance from Tokyo. Her brother won the gold again this time.

The fact is, we lack a professional system in India. The sports fields are controlled by dodgy political appointees or moneybags. What has Nita Ambani got to do with sports other than owning a money-making cricket franchise? Why is Ahmedabad the choice for holding Olympics? A state with not much of a sporting pedigree, as opposed to say states like Haryana or Punjab, which produces the few real medal prospects we have. Ideally, it should be Delhi or Mumbai hosting the Olympics in India. But then, it is a choice being made by the powers that be, and you can’t fault them for that (like the semiconductor manufacturers forced to choose between Maharashtra and Gujarat). When 500-600 crore is given to a place where not much sporting activities are happening and one-tenth of that is being given to those places where the actual sportspersons are, you’ll end up with six medals.

And, I'll be clutching at straws like “hey, there is a girl called Ned from India in breaking” in search of some happiness.

 

P.S. As a friend asked in a WhatsApp group, "whatever happened to Kerala?" There was a time in the late 70s and 80s when Kerala was on the cusp of moving to the next level. There were some genuine stars like TC Yohannan, PT Usha, Shiny Abraham, MD Valsamma, Anju Bobby George, and Jimmy George. Where did we lose the plot? Why couldn’t we build on their successes?