Open Letter by an Indian Sports Fan (post Paris 2024)

Dear Reader,

First things first. Yes, I do follow sports other than football too. But I rarely have the energy to summon an entire blog on them. We can make an exception this time though, after all, it’s the Olympics. I love the Olympics. Everyone gets obsessed with random athletes playing random sports. Something I do regularly is considered normal and not weird once every four years.

Paris 2024, though, was a peculiar experience for Indian sports fans. It was like a long European vacation where on the third day itself you lose your passport and all your money. Locals don’t treat you well and the food is horrible. And you just can’t wait for it to end. Too much exaggeration?

Let's go chronologically. It started well, as Manu Bhaker won the 10m Air Pistol bronze on Day 2. The victory brought equal measures of ecstasy and relief. For the past couple of Olympic cycles, shooters were under a lot of criticism for underperformance. And no one faced the public brunt more than Manu herself after Tokyo in 2021. This is why her performance not only redeemed herself but also broke the mental barrier inhibiting Indian shooters. Fortunately, Manu wasn’t done yet. Pairing up with Sarabjot Singh, the power duo outshot the Koreans in the mixed team 10m Air Pistol bronze match. Yes! The mighty Koreans!!

The overall mood was optimistic, majorly due to the shooting performances. Ramita and Arjun also made it to the finals of their respective events. For the latter, it was a 4th-place finish heartbreak, the first of many to come for India. On the 6th day, Swapnil put on a valiant display to win bronze in one of the toughest events, the Men’s 50 m rifle 3 position. As cheerful as this were, the day ended on a sombre note due to a series of high-profile losses. Sift Kaur Samra, the World Record holder in Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, failed to make it to the finals after an underwhelming qualification process. Double World Champion Nikhat Zareen bowed out to top seed (and ultimately the Gold medalist) Wu Yu from China in Boxing. Our star badminton pair, Satwik and Chirag, lost to their Malaysian opponents in the QF after winning the first set. Within a few hours, three serious medal hopefuls were out of contention.

India’s next medal came exactly a week later, which we’ll get to. But what transpired in between decided the general feeling about these Olympics. Shooting itself hit a rough patch, with even the invincible seeming Manu finishing 4th in the 25m Pistol event. In the Men’s 25 m Pistol, both Vijayveer and Anish were among the leads for most of the qualification. But a poor ending meant neither could make it to the finals. Was the Shooting Curse back? Unexpectedly, the Skeet pair of Anantjeet and Maheshwari reached the Bronze medal faceoff. But they too lost by one point (China 44 - 43 India).

As Indians, we are used to near-misses, in cricket as well as in other sports. That feeling of getting too close and then giving everything away is very familiar to us. But the frequentness of this in Paris was almost eerie. Dhiraj and Ankita losing the bronze medal match in Archery. Deepika taking the lead versus the Korean in QF before surrendering due to another ‘8’. Lakshay crumbling in front of Lee Zii Jia. Nishant being denied a rightful place in the semifinal after a terrific bout. Mirabai Chanu falling short of a consecutive medal by just 1 kg. Nisha succumbing to injury (or deliberately being injured by her North Korean wrestler) just when a semifinal spot seemed confirm.

None of these, however, come close to the case of Vinesh. She was entering this time as a battle-hardened veteran. Very few gave her any chance against the undefeated Yui Susaki in the first round. But Vinesh, never the one to go by odds, did the unthinkable. Her victory over Susaki sent shockwaves across the wrestling world. Two more wins and Vinesh was in the final. And while she had an upper hand against the American, at least a silver was already confirmed. Right? Wrong, was the answer we got in the most tragic way possible. The 100 grams she wasn’t able to shed in time led to instant disqualification. For various reasons, it instantly caught the attention of the whole nation. Most mourned but some grinned too. What it made clear, however, was the level of ignorance and misinformation prevalent within our country related to sports.

I first saw Vinesh fight in 2014 CWG. Belonging to the famed Phogat wrestling clan, gold wasn’t unexpected there. But even then she appeared special. Her speed, her technique, her drive. It was captivating. Over the next 8 years, she won two more CWG golds. She also remains the only female wrestler from our country to win an Asian Games Gold and multiple World Championship medals. And this is something I hope people understand about her. Vinesh was already one of our greatest athletes before 2023. Neither the absence of an Olympic medal nor the result of her fight against the former WFI chief Brij Bhushan could change that. Can’t imagine how devasting the last few days have been for her, let alone the last couple of years. I hope she recovers soon and finds mental and physical peace.

Let’s talk about the sport that finally gave us a break, Hockey. To be honest the start wasn’t exhilarating. Two close victories over New Zealand and Ireland and a clumsy draw with Argentina. Ironically, it was India’s performance in their loss against defending champions Belgium that gave some hope. Then came a result that many Indians had been yearning for since eternity. India beat Australia!!!!! The QF gave us another win for the ages. We held Great Britain with a man down for almost the whole match, with Sreejesh then doing the needful in penalties. India was playing good entertaining hockey and many of us were confident of a good result in the semifinal. However, a narrow loss against Germany proved that while Indian hockey has covered a lot of ground in the last 10 years, there’s still much scope for improvement.

By the time we had approached the bronze medal match the number of 4th place finishes had taken such a toll on our minds that here too we feared the worst. But kudos to the team for keeping their heads straight and winning the medal. As the referee blew the final whistle and players started hugging each other, I couldn’t help but control my tears. We needed this win more than anything else. Someone had written on my Olympics WhatsApp group that given our history in this sport, being on the podium feels like our rightful place. I couldn’t agree more.

On the same night, Neeraj helped us earn the only silver medal of this campaign. Our golden boy gave his best and was eventually beaten by a humongous Olympic record-breaking throw. Emotions always run high in any India—Pakistan contest. And for sure I would have loved for Neeraj to win the whole thing. But the more you learn about Arshad Nadeem, his story and his struggles, one can’t help but feel happy for him. Both countries couldn’t have asked for better sports ambassadors than these champion throwers. Aman’s medal made the end smoother, reassuring us that wrestling always delivers. The 21-year-old’s journey has been anything short of extraordinary. Orphaned at the age of 11, he dedicated himself to honing the craft of wrestling. And after years of perseverance, wrestling has rewarded him with the highest of honours.

This was a quick look at India’s campaign. Of course, there were other sports too. Like Table Tennis, where our women made further strides in both singles and team events. I tried keeping up with most of the Indian performances. At the same time, I was also interested in watching some of the world’s best in other sports. One that I thoroughly enjoyed this time was swimming. From the US-Australia rivalry to Marchand’s medleys, these were a spectacular set of events. While Athletics seemed to have lost some sheen in the post-Bolt era, we saw star performers in Mondo Duplantis, Sydney McLaughlin, Lestile Tebogo and Sifan Hassan. My favourite moment also came from the track. In the 4x400m Mixed relay, Femke Bol ran an anchor leg for the ages to take the Netherlands from 4th place to the gold. Freestyle wrestling was amazing as always. Japan spread its arms being Women’s to win multiple golds in both Greco-Roman and Men’s Freestyle. Talking about the latter, on paper, we were missing the biggest heavyweights in the form of Russia. And yet both Iran and the US went home without a single gold in this space. As it turns out, even Russian-born athletes representing other nations can beat the world’s best.

Let's talk about expectations versus results. After 7 medals in Tokyo, people were hoping for more. And the media too presented a picture where a double-digit medal haul seemed achievable. The actual result (6) turned out to be a far cry. There are two ways to look at it. Firstly, although the medal tally saw a drop, the number of athletes in direct medal contention increased this time. In so many events we were just a win away from the podium. But this brings us to the next point. So many of these opportunities ended up in 4th place finish. Maybe our athletes lack the mental conditioning to deliver under pressure when needed the most. The truth lies somewhere in between.

But this is about incremental growth. How do we make the jump to winning (or expecting) 25-30 medals, which would rank us somewhere between 10-20 in the medal tally? At a high level, it needs a two-fold approach. Firstly, in sports like boxing and badminton where we already have medal hopefuls, stronger internal competition is needed. The dependency should be on the strength of the whole program and not just one or two individuals. We have gotten close to this in shooting, where even world-class marksmen find it hard to qualify for India. Next, we need to expand the base of prospective sports. Ones like archery and TT are already on the fringes. But there is Judo, Taekwondo, Fencing, Rowing etc. where the growth potential is very high. And I haven’t even mentioned the big two — Athletics and Swimming.

Sounds simple but easier said than done. Because there are deep systemic issues plaguing sports in this country. The few world-class athletes we produce are despite the system and not because of it. Only after they reach the top, do we see resources being availed to them. There too officials and federations have a very single-minded approach - We spent xyz crores on this sportsperson. If they still can’t deliver, it's not our fault. And the blame is put back on the athlete.

I’m not saying the athletes shouldn’t be held accountable. But maybe not directly to the country and the public. Rather, each sports federation should be given a goal or target which they need to meet. And then, it should be upon the federation to select the best and nurture them to deliver at the highest level. If the athletes fail, they answer to the federation. If the federation fails, it answers to the public. But the ground reality today is that corruption and red-tapism are so rampant in these organisations that athletes find it better to take things into their own hands.

The problems are endless. And yet as a sports fan, I’m hopeful. Hopeful about the progress we have made as a sporting nation over the last 15-odd years. Hopeful about the increased attention being garnered by sports other than cricket in India. And hopeful about what our athletes will bring to the table at LA 2028 and Brisbane 2032.

Cheers!