India is continuing with its medal haul at the Hangzhou Asian Games, despite the occasional setback such as the humiliating defeat at the hands of China in women’s hockey. While the overall performance will be celebrated, particularly as the declared objective of a ‘hundred plus’ medals is within grasp, when the dust settles, India will need to consider how it is that even small nations like Japan and South Korea have done considerably better.
Quite obviously, as these countries belong to a higher income group, they can provide better facilities to their population to excel. The necessary facilities are also provided at the grassroots level. Young people have the leisure and motivation to participate, instead of being concerned about where the next meal is coming from. All these factors have been mentioned earlier in this column. However, there is also a necessary element of strategic planning.
How much effort went into winning a bronze in women’s hockey? A lot! A large flock of athletes need to perform at their personal and collective best to win a medal in these team sports. On the other hand, in a lot of disciplines, athletes come home with more than one medal, in some cases, several. India has been making waves in some such sports like shooting, archery, boxing, weightlifting, wrestling etc., but not enough effort is being put into disciplines like swimming and gymnastics, where there are medals aplenty. It may be noted that top gun nations in the Olympics and Asian Games get a significant number of medals from such sports.
While India has been increasingly expanding its base with representation in new disciplines like Wushu, Taekwondo, Sepaktakraw and so on, it needs to build on the natural potential it has, particularly in gymnastics and swimming. How can a nation with so many rivers and a vast coastline not have the required talent pool in swimming? One needs only to see the kind of traditional sports like Malkhamb, and the physical agility displayed in everyday tasks by the working class, to imagine the potential that exists for gymnastics. A focused strategy needs to be formulated to identify and develop such medal rich disciplines in the manner that is being done in so many areas these days by the present dispensation. Such an approach is bound to pay off within a decade and India will be able to rank among the top five countries in the number of medals at the global level.
