So why does a country with the world's second-largest population produce so few world-class athletes? Some people point out that India is a developing country that can't afford to compete with athletic programs in Europe and the U.S. The problem with this explanation is that much smaller developing countries like Ethiopia and Jamaica regularly see their runners standing on the winner's podium.
Besides, while a third of Indians live in desperate poverty, there is a fast-growing middle class in this country that already numbers more than 200 million. That's a huge potential pool of athletes.
....Another possible explanation is that young Indian children don't have many role models to inspire them to pursue Olympic sports. The only sport that people seem to care about in India is cricket. 
The game is a national obsession and all over the country all year round you can see boys and men, young and old, playing cricket in streets, parks and open fields. It's rare to see anyone playing any other sport.
....Another challenge facing young athletes here is a lack of training facilities such as gymnasiums, running tracks and swimming pools. The vast majority of Indians can't even swim, let alone hope to one day compete with the likes of Michael Phelps or Ian Thorpe.
India's need for sporting facilities received international attention at the 1992 Miss Universe competition. India's Madhu Sapre, who was also an athlete, made it down to the final three competitors. One by one, Dick Clark asked each woman what would be the first thing she would do if she became the leader of her country. The first two women talked about helping children and bringing peace and prosperity to their countries.
When it was Sapre's turn, she replied: "I'll open up a big, biggest, uh, I can say, sports track and field ground in India because I think we are lacking."
The judges didn't like her answer and she finished as 2nd runner-up. The judges might have been able to appreciate Sapre's reply if they knew how desperate Indians are for sporting success. Cretins!
The other side of this is that it shows how incredibly difficult it is to win an Olympic medal, to be one of the three best in the world at the moment it most counts - something that is easy to forget as we abstract out the medal counts and fret over whether the US will reap its "rightful" 100 medals in Athens. Winning ANY medal is really HARD, and even a population of 1 billion people offers no guarantees - that's a sobering perspective.
Article comments
1 - Bruce Kratofil
Don't forget "Bend it Like Beckham"!
2 - JR
India should lobby to make arguing an Olympic sport. They'd kick ass.
3 - Eric Olsen
Good point Bruce.
"Bend It" may help explain some of the problems of the female athletes, but what about the other half the country?
4 - Bruce Kratofil
Just blame it on the residual evils of living under British colonialism for so long, I guess.
5 - Eric Olsen
hmm, does colonialism make it more or less likely that India would value success in the OLympics?
6 - JR
hmm, does colonialism make it more or less likely that India would value success in the OLympics?
Australia, Canada and South Africa have done well in the Olympics. But in those countries the indigenous cultures were marginalized, unlike India.
7 - Eric Olsen
good point JR, I am inclined to think this is inherent in Indian culture rather than a byproduct of colonialism.
I also think all they would have to do is put their collective mind to it and they would improve quickly, but that decision apparently is yet to be made, for all the hand wringing.
8 - Zelda
1 Billion Population 1 medal!! Great work, the land of atheletes.
9 - Eric Olsen
I think it's a matter of priorities and they have make it more of one if they want to do better
10 - JR
I think they have their priorities straight - they produce plenty of scientists. And they seem to be doing rather better than we are right now at creating high-tech jobs.
Who the hell needs athletes?
11 - Eric Olsen
all work and no play makes Anju a dull boy
12 - JR
That's what music is for, and they've got plenty of that.
What India certainly does not need is the glorification of athletics that creates some of the violent sociopaths we've got in this country. Is this what Anju should to aspire to?
And science is actually work and play. I've met scientists; they are the least dull people in the world.
13 - Eric Olsen
For any number of good reasons including national pride and unity, the well-being of their own athletes, the general physical well-being of the nation, international stature, it is wise and worthwhile to make make a concerted effort to do well in international athletics.
Is there such thing as over-emphasis? Many of the problems you are referring to are specific to American football and to our scholastic and collegiate systems of sport, which basically means football and basketball.
It doesn't make sense to throw out the baby with the bathwater - read above how the Indians are talking about themselves: that is not healthy
14 - David
Eric is ABSOLUTELY right!
Please do not just blame and sneer others, learn from the successful experience from China and start to do it by yourself!
15 - Eric Olsen
thanks David, and it doesn't have to be done with the maniacal intensity of the Chinese - just stating publicly that the country is going to focus more on athletics and creating a budget for training and facilities would be a big step in the right direction. With that volume of people to draw from, a little encouragement and attention from the government could go a long way
16 - Laura Philliposis
Or r they too practical a people? better to get all the jobs from the west than some meaningless medals? I wonder...
17 - An Indian
The discussion is very interesting and as an Indian I know how terrible I feel when I see all these people just obsessed with cricket. I go crazy when I hear negative talk about loosing and stuff.......It is as though an Indian cannot and will not ever win an international athletic event. They can only study and be doctors and engineers and thats all. Even in those fields they do not have any pioneers just followers .......Who study the Western trends and simply copy them. India lost the orginality is once had. The teachings of yoga and the Vedas that the Hindus of India researched and studied are far more advanced than any Western medical development. If so, then, "Why won't they let the world know what they are made off?" This goes back to the very nature of non-agressiona and peace that the founding Hindus believed in. Westerners would call them 'tree huggers' Well I only hope that they change and don't consider sports as false pride and understand that they are a necessity.
18 - kapil1982
Well, let me first introduce myself. I am Software engineer and working for a elite software company in india. From my childhood i was inclined towards sports although i was very good at studies too. Well 'Why indians dont win medals in Olympics and other world level games'? Answer in simple. Parents tell kids to study and not to play because you will become dumb doing so. So the kid will work hard and will become a software engineer making softwares for a US client and will teach his/her child to do the same. Because survival in india is important not some medals. I have seen players commiting suicides in india because of their poverty. Man, scene is gloomy i must say.Every indian wants to make those few rupees/dollars more and will die one day silently. No life of significance...
19 - Sreeraman M.G
India wins it's first individual olympic gold medal at Beijing through Abhinav Bindra in the 10m air rifle category. Way to go India. Perhaps this is the one among the many to come in the future years.
20 - Akhil Sharma
Ok Sreeraman. If you're being serious you should kick yourself in the balls a couple times because that has to be the most pathetic thing I have ever heard, ppl in India are acting like men but not being men, WTF happened to mardanigiri, Fukking shooting air rifles, a bronze in wightlifting, WTF that is pure bullshit. Lets do swimming, basketball, soccer, and you know what about soccer its the cheapest sport, you buy a ball u kick it around, thats it. Just pure bull shit, I was at a pool in a university with a bunch of university kids that were INDIAN and I gave them half a pool lead, and I beat them in a race, and I am not even on a swim team, and not only that I am 15 thats pathetic.
21 - Sreeraman M.G
@AKHIL SHARMA: So what is your point mate!
22 - B S Kumar
Why do we all assume that it is absolutely necessary for every country to prove its prowess at the Olympics? Some countries love their sports, and so does India, but maybe it just isn't important enough for Indians to dedicate their lives to sport. So what? American food is lousy, but we don't have a worldwide cuisine competition to criticize how unimaginative American cooking has always been, do we?
23 - STM
Yes, I know this is an old post, but ... Well, they might not do that well at the Olympics, but geez, they can play cricket a bit.
Eric's probably hit the nail on the head in regard to cricket, at least in relation to boys. Just about every boy over the age of five in India can be found on a street corner every evening pretending to be Shane Warne or Sachin Tendulkar. That's how they hone their cricket skills, by bowling over and over again at a few sticks of wood whenever they have the chance, or belting a tennis ball against a wall a thousand times a day with a makeshift cricket bat.
That might not mean much to Americans, but elsewhere in the English-speaking world it's way bigger than baseball ever will be and is also a genuine international sport.
That's the truth of it ... cricket's a national obsession in India, it's their only true national sport, and they are very, very good at it - and unbelievably passionate competitors and fans.
Excellence at anything else doesn't mean much and really pales in comparison. In India, Test and international limited-over cricket players are gods ... and very well remunerated for earning that honour, not just by Indian standards but anyone's standards.