Another shot at gold

India has not missed participating in any Olympic Games since its debut 96 years ago. For long, going to the Olympics for Indian athletes meant participation, not winning. That mindset changed only after liberalisation and the opening of the Indian economy in the ’90s. The athletes realised they had to go out on their own to train and compete with the best in the field. A system has now been put in place to help the meritorious.

One thing has been settled once and for all, that there is money in Indian sport, provided the people running it are clean and willing to work professionally for its promotion and the welfare of sportspersons. Some former sportsmen and women joined hands to oversee the process and things have been streamlined. The results are there for all to see.

Eight out of nine bronze medals, four silvers and the lone gold came in the last 20 years. In the decades before that, individuals like Henry Rebello, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, Milkha Singh, Sriram Singh and PT Usha had done the country proud by coming close to winning a medal.

Importantly, modern-day Indian athletes have appeared to be a determined lot. Their counterparts from the pre-’90s era were more interested in cheering the hockey team than worrying about their own performance. But the hockey team, too, became also-rans after the 1964 Games, if one forgets the discounted 1980 gold.

For India, it all started at the 1996 Atlanta Games when Leander Paes won a bronze medal, 44 years after Kashabha Dadasaheb Jadhav won an individual bronze at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

On that overcast morning at Stone Mountain Tennis Centre, Georgia, Paes played with a wrist injury, which most scribes came to know after he rallied to beat Brazilian Fernando Meligeni 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. He earned praise from tennis legends for his tenacity.

Four years later, iron woman Karnam Malleswari won the first medal by an Indian woman, and that was a bronze in weightlifting in Sydney. Another four years, it was a silver in Athens, double-trap shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore becoming the first Indian to win it. The long wait for gold ended in the next Games in Beijing with Abhinav Bindra shooting it down. Boxer Vijender Kumar and wrestler Sushil Kumar swelled the tally to three with two bronze medals.

At the London Games, the medal spread was bigger with two silver and four bronze medals. Sushil Kumar became the first Indian to win medals in successive Games and the shooters continued to be considered serious medal prospects. Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom proved the mettle of women in Indian sport with their bronzes.

The August 5-21 Rio Games are almost upon us. The Indian contingent has set another record as the largest ever for the Olympics, with 48 men and 40 women qualifying so far. Some spots are yet to be filled from athletics, tennis, boxing and golf.

The Olympic rules state that the quota the individual earns is for the country, and not for the individual who won it. The selection thus becomes subjective, like it is happening in wrestling and tennis.

The first whiff of controversy is being stoked in wrestling, a discipline where India looks good for a medal. The wrestler who achieved the quota for India, Narsingh Yadav, is jittery about the reputed Sushil snatching it away. It is going to be a political decision with Wrestling Federation bigwigs lining up on both sides.

Another controversy is brewing in tennis. India has a realistic chance of winning medals in both the men’s and mixed doubles. The two high-ranking players — Sania Mirza, world number one in women’s doubles, and Rohan Bopanna, ranked 13 in men’s doubles — are the people to watch out for. Mirza would like to choose her mixed doubles partner. Like Sushil, Paes is also talking about his past, more so about his three Grand Slam titles in the run-up to the Olympic year. There are no wildcards this time and that will deny Paes a berth in what would have been a record seventh Olympics. Another discipline with medal hopes is shooting and India will have one more shooter than the 11 at London. Past medalists Bindra and Gagan Narang (bronze) will be there once again.

The most exciting entry is that of gymnast Dipa Karmakar. The Agartala gymnast’s performances in the lead-up to the big event make her a serious medal contender. For the first time, there will be two women’s singles players in badminton, Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu. And the women’s hockey team will be playing only for the second time at the Olympics, after making their debut 36 years ago. Add to the list three women archers, each of whom can win a medal on their day. Two other gutsy women, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik, have won quota places in women’s wrestling.

Finally, what are the chances of the men’s hockey team? After hiring and firing well-known hockey coaches, things have settled down. They should make the knock-out round from a tough pool.

Veturi Srivatsa is a veteran sports journalist

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