Why is India performing so bad at the Olympics?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why is India performing so bad at the Olympics?

When you go aboard, Indian have nothing to boast.
Is India need social revolution to eliminate the corrupt Politicians, corrupt bureaucrats and officials tradition, culture and corruption?

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug. 18, 2016
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/Dave/GarySingh Grewal

The 2016 Summer Olympics, Games of the XXXI Olympiad held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from August 05 to August 21, 2016. These are the first Summer Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Thomas Bach. Rio became the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics. More than 11,000 athletes from from 207 National Olympic Committees of all Countries, took part in the games features of 28 Olympic sports for 306 sets of medals.

India have sent the largest-ever Olympic contingent, of 121 athletes. India has won no medals until Tuesday, August 16, but luckily on Wednesday, Wrestler Sakshi Malik who clinched bronze to give India its first bronze medal at the ongoing Olympics in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro.

---------------------------------------------
NRIs believe that India has sporting talent, so why does it fail to translate this into Olympic success?.

Milkha Singh, an Track and field athlete, who won gold medals in the 1958 and 1962 Asian Games, lashed out at the Indian Olympics Association, holding it responsible for the poor performance of the Indian sportspersons at the ongoing Rio Olympics.

"The Indian Govt. does’nt like to spend on building sports infrastructure. Most sports administrators are mainstream politicians, and are doing it for a purely financial and political reasons," said Rami Malhotra from New York.

"It’s a closed system and the Corruption is the name of the game, and that’s why so many Indians want to leave and millions NRIs have already been settled worldwide," Anju Patel from Toronto stated in her text message.

Bob Dhillon, executive Director of the society of Editors in the UK said, "India has no structured governmental expenditure in sports for teenagers during their high school or college years. China has been excelling at Olympics despite its population being larger than India’s. They should not forget the emphasis that the Government of China places on good showing at that stage. This is severely lacking in India."

Vicki Agarwal stated: Nobody would deny its a problem, but The average NRI says, "When you go aboard, Indian have nothing to boast. Most athletes who win an Olympic medal start their training still during their high school years. Most successful countries do well at one or preferably more of the trio of the system, aspiration, and genetics. The public high schools have swimming pools, track and field areas, soccer, baseball fields, and almost every other sport one may want to participate in."

More than 90% NRIs argue that It is precisely the population of 1 billion who elect politicians, responsible for the poor showing at the Olympic games. The prime Minister and the chief Ministers of all States must appoint qualified Ministers with minimum education such as BA or Ms degree, lawyers, doctors and or foreign educated NRIs who can communicate with bureaucrats..... training an Olympic-caliber athlete in any sport becomes more challenging than the actual Games.

"From poor infrastructure to vegetarianism, Chinese media outlets are debating reasons for India's performance at the Olympics," US News Paper wrote.

If Modi government or future Indian government has the will to improve medal from now on, Indian can host in future Olympic in 15-20 years and chances to win 50-60 medals easily.

Spirited Sakshi takes bronze to end India's medal drought at Rio Olympics

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 18, 2016: A diminutive 23-year-old girl from Mokhra village near Rohtak in Haryana, Sakshi Malik, touched glory at the Rio Olympics on Wednesday by reaching out and grabbing the only medal India has been able to win at the 31st Olympiad.

What's even more astonishing is that she is the only women wrestler from the village which has produced several achievers in the field.

Sakshi brought an end to India's long medal wait, when every hopeful had failed one by one. She clinched the bronze in the Women's Freestyle 58kg category with a spirited comeback victory over Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan.

The young wrestler overturned a 0-5 deficit in a hectic second round to script an 8-5 victory in the medal bout at the Carioca Arena 2 here.

"I have stood up to the hopes of the country for the first medal. I was confident that I can win in the end even being down. The last two hours were the most difficult for me thinking whether the medal will come or not," she said in her initial comments soon after winning.

"This is the first time that a medal has come for women. It's a success of my 12 years of dedication. My hard work has succeeded," Sakshi said.

It was a rousing display of fighting spirit and never-say-die attitude from the Indian.

Aisuluu was clearly the superior wrestler in the totally one-sided opening round, displaying impressive strength and technique to take five points and open up a formidable lead.

But Sakshi -- who has previously shown a knack of staging strong comebacks -- was a totally transformed grappler in the second round, taking eight consecutive points to send the sizable number of Indian fans in the stands into wild delirium.

Kaori Icho of Japan won the gold medal in the category while Russia's Valeria Koblova -- who had defeated Sakshi in the quarter-finals -- took the silver.

Eight-time African champion Marwa Amri of Tunisia took home the other bronze medal in the category.

Icho also created history by becoming the first-ever wrestler to win four Olympic titles. She is also the first female in any sport to win gold at four Olympics in an individual event.

Sakshi's medal capped another day of heartbreaks for India including an unfortunate injury to Vinesh in the women's 48kg Freestyle category that forced her out of the competition.

"To those who told me I am a girl and I could not wrestle, I want to say please show some trust in girls, they can do everything," she said.

Later, at an impromptu press conference, Sakshi was asked if she was still feeling the pain from the battering during the match. "After the medal all the pain has gone. If I had missed the medal, all the aches would have shown up," she said beaming.

"I was confident till the end that the medal was there and I told myself, you have to fight. That's why I attacked again and again succeeding after a lot of effort," she said, adding that the medal was dedicated to "every person who helped me along, my parents, my coaches and my training partners."

She said she was disturbed and her mind got diverted when Vinesh, her wrestling colleague, was injured in another bout and had to be carried away on a stretcher. "But then I thought I must redouble my efforts to get a medal which she would also have got."

She broke out in applause "yayyyyy," when someone told her that her name would now be taken in the same breath as Yogeshwar Dutt and Sushil Kumar, the earlier bronze medal winners.

"When I used to see them I was in awe how I would be able to even train with them. My idols have been men like Sushil Kumar who paved the way for our success," she said.

Right from the beginning, the Kyrgyz grappler displayed impressive strength and was more active in the opening stages which forced Sakshi to go on the defensive.

However, the referee invoked the passivity rule against Sakshi which handed the Kyrgyz the first point.

Aisuluu then made a successful takedown to bag another two points. Aisuluu continued to pile on the pressure and bagged another couple of points with another successful tackle to build up a healthy 5-0 lead at the break.

Sakshi made a superb comeback in the second round, turning a defensive position into an offensive one to bag two points before flipping the Kyrgyz over to bag another couple of points.

With the momentum firmly behind her, Sakshi continued to pile on the pressure before drawing level with another two-pointer.

With just seconds remaining in the bout, the Indian pulled off another takedown to take the lead and make sure of the win.

There was a visible sigh of relief among officials and coaches. Her coach of eight years, Kuldeep Singh said his heartbeat had increased after she was five points down, "as they were of all Indians."

He said he told her during the break that she should "untwine her fingers from the opponent and go for her legs. She did that and gained two points and then went on to win a match."

He said her strength lay in her ability to attack with both the legs. "I had a lot of hope before the match, and I kept on telling her the medal was hers to take."

The Indian chief coach by the same name, Kuldeep Singh, said that the bronze medal match was the best one because she showed her true value by coming back from a very low point.

"During the break we explained to her the mistakes she was making. The opponent was placing the weight of her body on Sakshi without moving her legs. So we advised that Sakshi should divert her weight and attack her," he said.

Earlier, Sakshi had crashed out of contention for the gold medal after a one-sided 2-9 loss to Valeria in the quarter-finals. Sakshi, who trailed 0-1 after the first period, made a comeback in the initial minutes of the second period to go 2-1 up.

She, however, failed to maintain the lead as the Russian overpowered her with some incredible moves to take an unassailable 9-2 lead in the dying minutes. But with Valeria later making it to the final, Sakshi qualified for the repechage round for a shot at the bronze medal.

She started her bid for the bronze in superb fashion by defeating Orkhon Purevdorj of Mongolia 12-3 in the Repechage Round 2 to move within striking distance of a medal. The Haryana wrestler was too superior for the 22-year-old Mongolian and dominated right from the start.

Sakshi grabbed the early advantage and effected a takedown to take a 2-0 lead. But a loss of balance from Sakshi allowed the Mongolian to take two points and make a comeback. Sakhshi did catch Orkhon off-guard with an arm-lock towards the end of the first round, but could not capitalise on that.

Sakshi grabbed the initiative right at the start of the second round, baging two points with double leg hold.

But Sakshi's efforts to preserve her lead by decreasing the pace cost her dearly as the referee invoked the passivity rule against her which allowed Orkhon to bag another point.

Orkhon then tried to go for a leg hold but Sakshi came up with an effective counter-attack to bring the Mongolian down before rolling her over to bolster her lead.

With a comfortable 10-3 lead behind her, Sakshi produced a strong finish by coming up with another take down in the closing seconds....IANS..Hardev Sanotra

------------------------------

India endures day of heartbreaks at Rio

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 17, 2016: It turned out to be another day of heartbreaks for India at the Rio Olympics with wrestler Vinesh Phogat's victory march halted by a freak injury and Sakshi Malik losing her quarter-final bout while shuttler Kidambi Srikanth's valiant fight in the semi-final ended on the losing side.

Wednesday also witnessed double lap runner Tintu Luka finishing sixth in the 800 metre heats despite clocking her season's best timing.

The day started with Srikanth going down after a valiant fight to two-time defending champion Lin Dan of China in the quarter-finals of the men's singles event of badminton competitions.

Five-time world champion Dan edged World No.11 Srikanth 21-6, 11-21, 21-18.

With this win, the 32-year-old Chinese legend took a 3-1 head-to-head lead against the 23-year-old Indian shuttler.

In the semi-finals, Dan will face his long-time rival and Malaysian veteran Lee Chong Wei, who crushed Chinese Taipei's Tou Tien Chen in a dominating 21-9, 21-15 victory.

Meanwhile, in the wrestling arena, Sakshi and Vinesh lost their respective quarter-final bouts in contrasting fashion to dent India's medal chances in the category.

While Sakshi lost 2-9 to Russia's Valeria Koblova in 58kg Freestyle category, it was heartbreak for Vinesh, who was forced to concede her 48kg bout against China's Yanan Sun 1-2 after a freak knee injury.

Sakshi is still in contention for bronze via Repechage as Valeria reached the finals of 58kg weight category.

Earlier, Sakshi defeated Moldova's Mariana Esanu Cherdivara on a four point take down criteria to enter the 1/4 final round.

In the 48kg category, Vinesh's surge was cut short after her Chinese opponent hit back with a single-leg takedown hurting the Indian in the process.

The 21-year-old Haryana grappler was leading 1-0 before hurting her knee as the Chinese gained two points to be declared victorious by injury at the Carioca Arena.

Vinesh, who got her injured knee wrapped, was taken off on a stretcher as the injury seemed to be a very serious one.

Earlier, she got her Rio campaign off to a rousing start by overpowering Romania's Emilia Alina Vuc 11-0 in the 1/8 round after getting a bye in her opening round.

In track and field, Tintu was the lone Indian athlete in action on Wednesday.

She started off well but her strategy backfired to finish with a timing of 2:00.58 minutes in Heat 3. Tintu finished overall 29th in the qualification round.

The qualification round was topped by Canada's Melissa Bishop followed by Marina Arzamasova of Belarus and Habitam Alemu of Ethiopia respectively at second and third spots.

Another Indian in the fray is woman golfer Aditi Ashok, whose first Round is currently underway....IANS

----------------------

Should coaches be held responsible for poor showing at Rio Olympics?

As India's chances of getting a medal recede at the Rio Olympics, with only the shuttlers holding out a promise, are the men and women behind the athletes equally responsible for the poor showing?

How far are the coaches responsible for the lack of medals at the 31st Olympic Games?

"I have no problem in taking responsibility for the loss, and I don't care about my position. In the end only one thing is important, my team," said Roelant Oltmans, chief coach of the Indian men's hockey team.

"But the players also have to show initiative and energy. Without that, as we saw here in Rio, the team gets the bad end of the equation," Oltmans told IANS.

India lost 3-1 to Belgium in the quarter-finals.

The London Olympics in 2012 had yielded six medals -- two silvers and four bronzes. The lack of a medal in Rio is likely to result in a lot of soul searching in India as the athletes start returning home empty-handed.

In general, coaches have a larger than life role in the performance of the athletes. They act like friends, philosophers and guides to the youngsters, steering them away from problems and pointing them towards possible greatness. Often they have to act tough, giving a dressing down to those who step out of line.

"I do have to shout at a boxer or two. But that depends on the person. Some people take well to strong criticism. But others wilt. So I have to use different tactics for different people," says chief boxing coach Gurbux Singh Sandhu, who also often dominates the interaction boxers have with the media.

"A coach's role is very important, from the first day of training to the ring. In the ring between bouts I just tell them what mistakes they are making and how to use things to their advantage," Sandhu told IANS.

Theirs is a reflected glory. Although they remain largely behind the scenes, the role of a coach gets a lot of attention if a player wins a medal. "It's a great feeling when your ward wins," says chief archery coach Dharmendra Kumar.

"You sleep well that night."

But if he or she does badly, it affects the coach as much as the athlete, he said adding that all coaches feel responsible for the loss.

Many athletes give high marks to their coaches for their success, although sometimes the nationality of the coach too comes into play. "Indian coaches should be given enough recognition. No one can say they cannot do anything. The contingent in Rio had many foreign coaches, but their teams could not reach the finals. We did. For gymnastics, that's a great achievement," Dipa Karmakar told reporters after having come fourth in the vault event, missing the bronze narrowly.

Expectations of the people and the media too weighs heavily on athletes and coaches. "This is the problem of the media. They are not interested in the performance. They just ask why we didn't get gold. You send athletes from a country which doesn't have good training facilities, as they have in Europe and China, and you want a gold?" Abhinav Bindra's coach Heinz Reinkemeier told reporters after the shooter came fourth in the 10m Air Rifle event shootout.

Good performance, he added, was a value on its own and people have to understand that.

But shouldn't the athletes be held responsible for the performance? "No point in demoralising them. In shooting I feel responsible and take responsibility. I don't want to take it out on the boys as they have to go for world championships and other competition," National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) President Raninder Singh told reporters after the shooters came out blank.

"I think we have to give more attention to the mental aspect of the athletes. I think they were getting overawed by the whole scenario of global champions being their opponents, not only in shooting but most of the other disciplines. We need good psychologists who can talk to them and raise their morale," Raninder told IANS.

Coaches, psychologists, physiotherapists and support staff may all be required. But in the end, if athletes fail to click, the age-old question crops up with only the number changing. A country of 1.2 billion and such poor performance at the Olympics?... IANS, ..Hardev Sanotra