Special task force to help India win more medals in the future Olympics

Every time, before the Olympics starts, there’s always this talk about how many medals will India win at the Olympics. Almost half way past the Rio Olympics, the talk is why India has not been able to earn even a single medal, despite sending the top 118 athletes in various disciplines.

People like Shobha De think that the Indian athletes have gone to Rio to have fun and take selfies.

So what exactly is the problem?

The answer lies in this tweet from India’s only individual gold medalist at the Olympics – Abhinav Bindra.

Abhinav Bindra, who understands the dynamics of Indian sports (including the bureaucratic setup) provides the example of Great Britain – how the country increased its sports budget for Olympics and reaped the benefits by winning more medals.

Since the Beijing Games in 2008, Great Britain increased its funding to Olympic sports by a whopping 16 per cent. As a result, they’ve risen in the Olympic ranks from 34th spot at the Atlanta Games in 1996 to third spot at London Games in 2012 to already second place in Rio Games.

Is it all about Money

Some argue that the African and Eastern European countries still win medals and they don’t invest a lot of money, so money cannot be the only criteria. They feel that most Indian parents want their kids to focus on studies, math and science, and not on Sports training.

Most Indian Parents ask kids to focus on studies because sports infrastructure is not good, although things are comparatively better (compared to a decade back).

The various sports leagues provides decent opportunities to youngsters; you can earn well even playing Kabaddi nowadays.

But without investments, a country cannot win lots of medals.

Africa is only good in long distance running (like India is in cricket.) Eastern European countries are also winning very few medals now and their dominance in Gymnastics is also gone.

Although money is not the sole factor, it did work for Great Britain, and it can work for India too, provided the various sports federations in India work towards that goal.

Positive Steps

The good news is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already announced a special Task Force to plan for next three Olympics. Let’s see how it goes.

Another encouraging development is that Nita Ambani (business woman, non-executive director of Reliance Industries, and wife of Mukesh Ambani) is now a member of the the International Olympic Committee (ICC). Ms. Ambani has played an important role in the development of IPL team ‘Mumbai Indians’ and also the Indian Super League.

Salman Khan: Olympics Controversy

When the Indian Olympic Association announced Salman Khan as the goodwill ambassador of the Indian contingent at the 2016 Rio Olympics, it created a controversy.

It first started with the flying Sikh ‘Milkha Singh’ (former Indian track and field sprinter) who strongly objected to the appointment on Twitter.

Salman Khan’s father Salim Khan responded by saying – “Salman khan may not have competed but is an A level swimmer cyclist and weight lifter.” (Salman is also playing the role of a wrestler in his upcoming film, Sultan).
Salim Khan also objected to his son being labeled a Bollywood star, “Milkhaji it is not Bollywood it is the Indian Film Industry and that too the largest in the world.”

Milkha Singh hit back at Salim Khan (who referred to the soaring popularity Milkha achieved after the release of the film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag) by saying that the movie industry hasn’t done him any favours by making a biopic on him.

Milkha said “The IOA should have thought of what’s the need of the ambassador. I’m saying that the team who all are going whether it is shooting, wrestling, boxing or athletics, they all are our ambassadors. Out of 120 crore people in India, they have been our ambassador then what is the need of any other ambassador?
“It doesn’t make sense to appoint someone in this role. If an ambassador is required, we have many great sportspersons, like Sachin Tendulkar, P.T. Usha, Ajitpal Singh, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore,” he added.

After Milkha Singh, Cricketer Gautam Gambhir, Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, and several politicians have objected to the idea that the Olympics needed a Bollywood actor’s endorsement.

Cricketer Gautam Gambhir (captain of Kolkata Knight Riders) says sports doesn’t need a Salman Khan for publicity, and someone like Abhinav Bindra should have been India’s goodwill ambassador as he won the country’s first individual gold medal (at the Beijing Olympics).

Former Indian captain, Sunil Gavaskar, however was in favor. “Why not a known face who is not really a part of that particular profession. If he can bring a lot more awareness to that particular profession then why not? I don’t see anything wrong in it. See how IPL has benefitted by having Bollywood stars in it. Eventually, it’s mainly because of the kind of cricket being played that will decide the fate of that edition of the IPL but having Shah Rukh (Khan), Preity (Zinta) in the ground, a lot of people come to see them, so that’s a plus,” said Gavaskar.

Because of the controversy, Indian Olympic Association had also approached cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, ace shooter Abhinav Bindra and music legend AR Rehman to represent India’s Olympic cause as goodwill ambassadors (along with Salman Khan) of the Rio-bound athletic contingent. They all have accepted the invitation.

Here’s what Salman said when he was asked whether a Bollywood celeb can bring glamour to sports apart from cricket?
Everyone’s watching cricket, and it has lots of stars. We need to make stars in other sports. Today, people watch tennis because of Leander Paes and Sania Mirza. Similarly, Saina Nehwal and Dipika Pallikal are stars in their own right. Football will take over very soon because the next generation is hooked to football. Our fault is that we blame cricket, while we need to watch more sports on TV compared to the rubbish we watch on TV. Once we do that, TRPs will go up, and players will get endorsements and they will become stars. While flipping through channels, stop at a badminton match, and try to know who is playing. You want hockey to return to its old glory, watch a game – be it in the stadium or on TV. We (Bollywood celebs) just give that initial impetus.

Those who have supported Salman Khan are obviously from the film industry, including actress-politician Kirron Kher, filmmaker Sooraj Barjatya and Aishwarya Rai.

Salman Khan’s ex-flame Aishwarya Rai also supported Salman Khan. “Anybody who is doing good to represent the country and anybody who is working or seeking or standing out for whatever vocation we have in the country, be it sports, arts or music, I think that’s wonderful and needs to be recognised,” said Rai.

Here’s what Katrina Kaif, another actress who was romantically linked to Salman at one point of time, said: “A controversy with Salman, is it a new thing?”