As the dust of the glimmer and glamour of the Olympics at Paris fades slowly. This has been another “ what could have been “ experience for the Indian contingent.
This has also been a great learning experience for the many Indian sportsmen & women from across various sports, who participated in these games, but if one would go a step further, this is where probably all sports players, the ones even just starting should introspect and learn from.
Since the old PT Usha days, there have always been for Indian sports, rather unfortunately, a traditional & historical slip between the lip & cup.
Indian sports teams and players have always been good to mediocre to best, but very rarely have we demolished opponents aggressively or done total domination in a field or as someone would say, we often lack the killer instinct, but never has been it so stark and evident & never has it hurt so much.
Being contenders and then losing by 1 point / 1 Kg / 1 goal at the very last stage & we have a nation with unfulfilled expectations & a road of serious introspection ahead.
The legendary basketball player Bill Russel says “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory “ & that could be something that we can imbibe in our culture & that very well could be the missing link.
The good thing about sports is that every loss teaches you & eventually the ones who learn, adapt and come back stronger will shine.
A friend used to say the biggest problem we have is that we give “certificate of participation “ in school sports & sometimes you wonder at the gravitas of that.
Is it our acceptance to be happy at just participating a hindrance to getting a killer instinct or is it a question of nerves too many or is it a lack of mental toughness that we somehow falter at the alter.
Simon Senek has a similar take on this — For those who want to read Link Attached — https://zenmoments.org/why-we-dont-succeed-simon-sinek/
Genetics also plays a role & while that cannot be helped, mental toughness is something that can be imbibed early and well. Paraphrasing the below article
“ When evaluating athletes, most non-elite players only mentally train themselves when they’re in a negative state of mind, however, implementing mental training into day-to-day life can be beneficial. Cowden et al. (2019) focused on the key characteristics of Mental Toughness as self-determined motivation in addition to a sense of perfectionism “
For those who want to read more
The other problem for “ developing “ nations like ours is the spend towards infrastructure and sports, to put in perspective — “ India’s budget for the 2024 Olympics was ~ $50 million while China spent ~$1000 million and Australia ~$250 million. Now that we are # 5 economy and soon to be # 4 and so on, our spend and awareness should go up manifold.
Lets not go into the angle of people running the associations, India has always succeeded inspite of them instead of because of them.
Reaching the pinnacle is no mean feat, competing amongst the best should be celebrated but we should not be satisfied. The competition is real and fierce, just look at the 100 Mt race ( picture attached).
All in all, focus on infrastructure, mental toughness & catching them young & we will have a very different and better result next time around.
Lets not forget, the very fact that so many people stayed up (Around 3 cr) to watch Neeraj Chopra compete in the Javelin at midnight or so many people became weight loss experts after the shock disqualification of Vinesh, augurs well for Indian sports.
The wheels of India sport are turning, albeit slowly, but when so many people are disappointed, you can be sure, the future will be bright!