Olympics comes after every 4 years, and we, Indians wake up after every 4 years. We expect to win few medals in every Olympics, but end up with a single medal, probably by chance rather than design. As 2008 Olympics is coming to an end, we again probably end up with a single medal by Abhinav Bindra. Even though Abhinav saved our skin with exemplary display to win the gold medal, our expectations relies only on our lady luck rather than well focused approach to win the medal.
When can we see many images like this ?
On last Sunday, I read an article on ” What we need to do if we want to win medals in Olympics”. The article talks about two models which we can adopt. One is a Chinese model, where we have to concentrate on low profile,medal rich games like weightlifting,shooting,rowing etc and give rigorous training to the aspirants.It is said that Chinese rigorously train children right from the age of 4-5 years only on the sole intention of winning a Olympic Medal. Second model is an American model, where we need to go for funding of sports at base level and then encourage people to take up sports.The article was well written. Probably India has to use mixture of both these models to win medals.The article allows me to think on what is necessary for Indian sports.
I remember as a child, I was always encouraged to study and discouraged to take up sports. I would not blame my parents for this. It is a universal phenomenon in every household throughout the country. The reason is very clear. The sports never offered you a job or a career. If you take sports as a prime career and fail in that,you are always at a risk of ending as a jobless person. In contrast we were told to study hard and go for engineering or medicine fields and excel there. Primary reason off course was to get a very good job and settle in life. Hence our parents had no other option but to push us to perform in studies and always discouraged(??) us from taking up sports. Not only parents, even schools also viewed sports in a similar manner.
But today time has changed and so is life. The job opportunities are plenty and hence choosing sports as a career is relatively not tough, if not easy. However many other things need to be done. I started to list down few of the things we need to do if we want to win medals at Olympics.
1. Commercialization of sports
We have seen how a sports business model work and cricket is an example. The cash starved BCCI, started commercialization of Cricket in late 1980s and today it is one of richest sports body. Similar commercialization of other sports should be done. The prime challenge here is off course generating interest among public for a particular sport. Once a high profile professional league ( like IPL) is started, it tend to generate interest among public and then a automatic cycle starts with more and more funds coming in and generating interest among public to both participate and view these sports. Another example is the success of reality TV Shows. The success of these shows and the fame it bring in allowed many parents to encourage their children to take up singing and dancing very seriously.The sports need to be in a same league as entrainment Industry and it need to be seen as a Business.
2. Rural sports promotional programs.
If we analyse, most of our sportsmen come from rural background. Two prime reasons are
- Unlike urban men and women , who have various options for career growth, the same is limited for rural men & women. Hence they tend to go look for alternatives to low profile agriculture. Hence inclination towards sports naturally comes to them.
- Second reason is the rough and tough life they live. The urban men and women live a very sophisticated life and hence their body does not easily adjust to rigorous training for a particular sport. In contrast, the rural men and women live a rough and tough life right from the beginning and their body easily adjust to rigorous training.
Hence there is a need to put in lot of focus on developing sports infrastructure at rural parts of the country. Best idea is to start rural sports academy with the basic facilities. This will help us to identify few potential candidates and then they can be trained further in a more structured manner.
3. Identify the body structure- sports relationship.
Why always Kenyans win long distance races and Jamaicans wins short distance races ?. This is because their body structure helps them. Similar is the case of Chinese in gymnastics and diving. We need to do an exercise to identify which group of people can fit in to a particular sport. Traditionally Kerala and Punjab produced many athletes as their body structure helps them in athletics. More focus is required in these states to produce high quality athletes. Similarly Punjab, Maharastra and Karnataka produced many players in Hockey and hence focus is required in these states for hockey.
4. Corporate sponsoring
The sports can not survive unless until funding is enough and government alone can not fund. The big corporate houses have to come forward to sponsor budding athletes and provide them with both funds and job security. This has to be a part of their corporate social responsibility.
5. Government Initiatives
Do you remember when the last National games held and who won the medals ? Probably not !. This is because the government has not taken any initiatives to popularise the National Games. A lot of things need to be done from Government side also.
- Popularize National Games/National events. This will help many unknown athletes come to lime light and form there onwards, corporates can take up sponsorship. Commercialize these events, generate funds and use these funds for further. Probably some one like Mr. Amit Modi of BCCI is required here.
- Funding on sports infrastructure and development of stadiums.
- Revamp all sport academies and boards. The influence of politician in these boards to be minimized. Each sports body has to be given targets and need to be accountable for the performance.
Today , most of the sportsmen and women take up sports only to earn living rather than to win a medal in Olympics. Our focus should be mainly to win medals rater than just participating in olympics. When small countries with population of 1/100 th of Indian population can win 10 medals, India need to win atleast 20 medals by 2020.
Since 1991, the liberalisation of India, helped us to be a significant player in world economy, now the liberalisaton of sports is required for us to be significant player in sports also. It is daunting task , but a possible one. It is easy to write here…. But who will bell the cat ?
Critically yours
Critickiran
