Six Billion and One Bronze!

In 2016 when Rio Olympics was just on the verge to start all the media houses and our fellow Indians were gazing towards the Indian contingent at the games. Neither of us had given a damn about them a month ago. I think we Indians just love to do things spontaneously. Our attention shifts from the world of dirty politics to the young sports persons when any prestigious event on a global scale takes place. And I would like to mention that as our attention shifts, our dreams and aspirations from our youngsters skyrockets and flies higher than a jet aircraft. But unfortunately when our team returns with a handful of medals the criticism and flak they are subjected to is ridiculous. They are demoralized, dejected and despondency takes over them.

Critics argue that there are a number of reasons of the underperformance of the participants. But the primary one of them is the intervention of politics and corruption into the sports arena If we observe to majority of the sporting bodies of our nation, they are being controlled and managed by politicians. These politicians due to their desire of money making and greed, ruin the sporting body as well as hundreds of careers alongwith them they are also ruining millions of hopes of the native citizens. This has been responsible for the decline in the performance of our players. The potential of our nation is not harnessed by the academies. We still have a long way to go to ensure that the medals are not elusive for us.

Another fact on which I would like to draw the light is that of the narrow mindset of the guardians and parents of the society. The craze and amazement of IIT as a career option has increased phenomenally. People are now much more inclined towards it. This needs to be revamped, we will have to work on it. Birth of future Michael phleps or next Usain bolt is only impossible when students at acknowledged about there achievements so that their children may also get an idea of what it actually means to raise our flag high in the field and depict our nation as the champion of champions in any event so this mindset needs to be revoked and parents must ensure that their children prefer his / her field of the basis of their interest. Our nation still needs to work a lot on this road to success. I think that the steps taken by some other developed nations are really worth appreciating. Some nations in this world have set up sports academies which are properly equipped, developed, and they are training their young ones from a very tender age.

If we draw the criticism of this field it is just next to innumerable. The steps taken by the present govt of establishing khelo India school gmaes is just a giant leap for our nation and one day sooner or later India is also going to be at the top of tally in medal rankings, that day is not far away when when our nation is growing to win a bunch of medals at any professional meet.

So the picture in the frame is going to change very soonly and our children are also going to make our country as well as the country men.

As an Indian we should first draw a thick line between politics, money and sports. To bring every thing on right track, politics, money use and sports should be very transparent. Until these three things are not transparent and free from money flood, we should be ready to accept such result.

Let me now discuss these three majors are getting mixed with each other and how can we avoid it into three points :

1. Politics : There isn't any thing left like patriotism in politician now. Money is all which is driving all our politicians (vote for money is recent major scam). There is huge influence of politics in sports too, due to which our true sportsmen are missing. Politician plan well not to promote good talented, but their own kins. Also, sports management and conduction has merely became a another way of filling pocket in quick time (CWG the recent scam). Now the question is how can we over come from this curse.. Answer is establishment of transparent policies, and selection of sportsmen should be through that channel only (example : there should be an independent body which should select and promote deserved sportsmen like Election Commission where govt. can't do anything)

2. Money : Money should be used in its best possible way. Money earned from Cricket must also be shared with other sports in creation of other sports infrastructure, payments for sportsmen. We know that India has most revenue from Cricket, but money earned from it should be shared in other sports. We have to think in all directions in all sports bodies.

3. Sports : We as Indian should think in giving respect and support for other sports also, so that our players in other sports get encouragement. Also, we should change our angle of thinking towards hard work. To defend this hard work point i would like to ask a question, why indian batting is far better (one of the best in world) than indian bowling? Answer is : we don't want to do hard work. Right from childhood we appraise a player who hits a six, but give very less appraise ( or I can say nil) to a bowler who has sweat a lot to take a precious wicket. So, in India every wants to become batsmen but nobody wants to become bowler. We want everything without doing much effort.

To summarize my view all I can say is until unless we bring a lot of changes in view and approach we are not going to get anything except this result of one bronze being world's second largest in population.

After reading the entire discussion all I could learn was many are pointing out the politicians and rest other are talking about the fault in the system, while there is another group who is talking about the game cricket. Here I just want to ask everybody one question, How many of us go out during elections and vote? How do you cast your vote by looking the face of the minister or by looking the work he/she has done? Why everybody is just talking about the cricket game and not about others?

Our ministers are the person whom we choose and its all our fault that Indian political system is full of corrupts and wrong politicians, take an example of country like USA people choose that person to lead them who thinks about the public first and then about himself but here in India the votes are caste on the basis of payment. During recent elections my driver told that he voted for XYZ party cause they were giving everybody who is voting Rs. 500/-, its not his fault here also the fault is ours only cause all the literate people are busy sitting in their ac villa and bungalows and enjoying the money where as the illiterate and poor people are going out and casting their votes.

Coming to games why curse cricket everybody celebrates when India wins a match but nobody even remember the name of a single hockey player, not to forget that hockey is our national game, when we only won't show any interest in games politicians will also play towards cricket cause they know people will see cricket match and they will gain popularity by going and looking into matters of that particular game, and popularity will give them votes.

Returning back to the topic six billion and one bronze means the talent which is present in our country of six billion its just that one person is having the talent to come up and fight for the country India is a leading giant in the software, companies are coming from abroad and taking the talent why that is not utilized in India, India is a land of opportunity and filled with talented people its just that talent is to be nurtured and focused then only India will transform from developing country to developed country and all this can be done only when we have this courage to stand up for ourselves or have this courage to elect the correct person. Think what we are doing and then and only then we will be six billion gold and one.

Olympics at Rio began with a lot of hopes and anticipations. Our athletes pushing really hard to make it to the top and fans cheering everywhere. This year was expected to be a different story. Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian female gymnast at Olympics and finished fourth at the Women's Vault Gymnastic events. A bronze and a silver by Sakshi Malik and PV Sindhu and we were done already. There are several reasons which together constitute to India's poor performance at Olympics.

1) Lack of sports culture.

Unless there is a synergized sports culture, you are not going to win a string of medals. A fundamental overhaul is needed and urgently so. -Boria Mazumdaar. Without sports culture, athletes are left out of the supportive environment that is strongly needed in the shaping of better-performing bunch of athletes.

2) Poverty and lack of education.

There is a lack of strong foundation for sportsperson in India. While pursuing their interest in sports they also have to take care of their economic factors and pay a part of their attention towards earning livelihood or education for some. You do not get spared from exams in schools for pursuing sports.

3) Infrastructure.

We do lack the proper infrastructure for training and practice session of athletes that could make them more competent and well equipped to deal with world class athletes. It could have been far better of our athletes have access to better infrastructure and get to play all across the country to stay well practised.

4) Lack of encouragement.

Right from the very beginning youth of India is discouraged to take sports as a career. Parents are more obsessed with the likes of medical and engineering. And for girls, the scenario is worse with an obnoxious list of drawbacks and hindrances they have to face before they could persuade their parents to let them play. Most of us are forced to quit sports, in order to do something that would give them better job security.

Our athletes might not have bagged many medals, but they sure are trying harder and doing better. In years to come with more emphasis towards the development of infrastructure and providing world class facilities for their training, I am sure our athletes will make India proud. More importantly, our encouragement and media focus over sports other than just cricket could do wonders.

This question rises in every youth when Olympics is conducted. Out of six people in the world one is an Indian citizen. This depicts our population explosion. Even though we are six billion in number, we could only get only bronze. The gold which we usually acquire through hockey also gone. There is a champion in every state who has greater capability, endurance but there is no encouragement to those people from the government and they do not bother them.

To people who aspire to be an sportsmen or sportswomen there is inadequate facility and lack of proper training. Even though we play hockey well we lose because of advancement in technology i.e., We don't know to link technology with sports.

At least if we conduct some commonwealth games our athletes or sportsmen or sportswomen are exposed to other countries game, but in that also corruption. Our government doesn't leave any place and for money only they conduct these games. They don't know about basic sports. There are schools which can provide training to the students to the certain level. But from there government has to take measures to bring their talent to the fullest level.

Still now there is no separate sports school where the students can be trained by professionals from all over the world. Hitler to make his country proud in the Olympics gave encouragement and incentives to the athletes who won the medal. But our government doesn't take any measures. Recently, IOC suspends IOA for not conducting election. They even don't know the basic conduct of the Olympics. This is where we stand in sports. Our people are exposed like this only CRICKET is a sport OTHERS are just a game.

Yes this is important topic to be discussed .We have many talented people in all fields.But the problem lies in the fact that importance is given to one sport mainly cricket.Of course we should encourage cricket but at the same time we should give equal importance to other sports also.We cant forget or neglect our national game 'Hockey' .Its sad that almost all from young generation prefer cricket first than others.Young generation should know more about all the games other than cricket in India.

Even medias are giving importance to certain games only.They should also treat all games as equal for the growth of other sports in our country.Young generation always find a glamorous world in many sports.So all medias should equally popularize all sports here in our country.

Another point is lack of infrastructure provided to other games.Financial support for other sports is less when compared to others.This also include lack of coaching centers and good trainers for other sports.Even the sponsorship given to other games is less when compared to cricket.

Most of the young talented guys in other sports are from financially poor background.they are not able to go forward due to this.Fair financial support should be given by the government to overcome the problems faced by them and to go ahead.
In context of commonwealth games which took place recently its clear that there should be good governing board to promote each and every sport ,or otherwise this will all end up in political game,thus badly affecting growth of sports

Yes I do agree that our govt is not encouraging sports.

Basically our Indian mind set is that, most of the parents think that we have only one career option and that is studies, most of the parents give a lot of emphasis on study they don't even bother to think about sports they just regard it as a cheap thing or it is something that we should not take it as our career, but now a days they are lot of educated parents who are giving importance to sports also and they regard sports as a upcoming career option and expelling in sports is not an easy thing at all it requires lot of physical and mental stamina and lot of dedication and hard work and efforts to be put on to it.

Coming to the point why they are only bronze medals in spite of India being second largest populated country. Leaving all these things that : govt is not encouraging sports; political involvement in sports etc etc. We should stop blaming all other factors first sports men and women should have keen interest and should have tremendous zeal to work hard and their will power should be high to excel in particular sport. India is lacking in sports is due to lack of efforts and patience by the players there is no proper dedication towards the sport.

There is a quotation that "WHERE THERE TS A WILL THERE IS A WAY".

So finally I conclude by saying that if you have real will to succeed in life you will definitely achieve your goal. So lack of concentration is the main reason is what I feel.

Thank you for reading with a lot of patience.

Surely it is so distressing to hear this news that out of six billion of people we had won only one bronze and gold this olympics! But the main question to be asked that who is stalling the Indian athletes to take the big leap?Is it our own system or not?

I think that firstly our civic bodies or our system is greatly responsible for this situation. We (our system) have no elite coaching plans for emerging players at state or national level. We can take example of a sprinter Seema Antil having best achievement of clinching a gold medal at 2014 Asian Games at Incheon concedes that she didn't get right grooming during her transition years. There are no customised plans for talented athletes, no state-of -the-art facillities, no scientific backup.

Second point is there is lack of job security in this field. This is the very huge problem for the athletes who get mired in into various injuries and got sidelined.

Also there are some recalcitrant athletes who make India shamed. For example a 17 year old javelin thrower Rohit Yadhav failed a dope test at a national youth meet and was stripped of his Asian Youth championship silver last year. List of such athletes is endless.

So there shall be some customised plans for the atheletes at the junior level. Also system should care about the job security assurance and right grooming for the emerging athletes. Also our national level athletes should focus on improving their technique instead of focusing on latest food supplements.

Hello friends!

Six Billion and One Bronze, these five words speak the current condition of India in commonwealth games. When a small boy/girl is studying school their parents focus on getting them good marks in exams rather than cultivating his/her hobbies in sports. As people want their children to be doctor or scientist or engineer rarely parents support their children for sports. They just end up the conversation saying "It's not your cup of tea". This improvisation should be done by Indian Education System by adding sports as a subject and encouraging students for participating in every sports.

Another problem is that India is obsessed with cricket those parents who encourage their child they want them to become a cricketer. In commonwealth games only 2 swimmers are sent for representing India! this is a brutal truth. As cricket has got fame and money involved in it, so everybody wants to be cricketer. After Mr. Milkha Singh there has not been a single person to continue his victory streak. After cricketers retire they still get into limelight with commentary or something like that but does anyone care when a gold medalist of discus throw retire. They live an ordinary life inspite of giving so much to team India. Indians love to play football then why are they not participating in FIFA representing India?

On those five words anyone can give a lecture of two to three hours but there should be some steps taken for prevention of it.

Thank you.

We are second most populated countries in the world and yet we haven't been able to perform the way our counterpart's china has been able to do. How do you get gold in Olympics The one straight forward answer that I see to this is economy of the country. When India competes at Olympics it's more bronze in our medal tally than gold whereas when we compete at SAARC games we top the charts, and we are doing this on consistent basis. So this leads us to the very ultimate solution that if a country needs to be good in games than it should have a strong economy. The neighborhood countries of India apart from china are countries which are going through a lot of political disturbances or are still in process of making, and that is why they don't emphasis on sports and keep political stability as their priority.

In spite of that I don't see why we cannot do well in sports. We are a developing nation and just need to spend a bit more than what we are currently spending on sports. We all might have heard the stories of Olympic heroes and how did they fought the situation and made their way to the top. If small countries can get 5th or 6th ranked in the table then why can't we do it? Providing players with all the necessary facilities that they might require to nourish, and also need to find players who are really eager to perform and represent their nation at international level.