With India’s population, it surprises many that India is not a force at the Olympics. R.J. Elliott wonders the same in a comment in Aaman’s recent article:
I've always found it a bit baffling that India, with over one billion citizens, doesn't seem to have much success in either the Winter OR the Summer Olympics...and that they don't seem to have many (any?) nationals playing at the professional level in the US in any of the four major American sports. Surely there is a 7-foot 6-inch Indian fellow out there who would like to make millions playing in the NBA. Or a 35-pound [sic] Indian who would make a good offensive lineman in the NFL. But where are they?
Winter Olympics
Most Commonwealth nations have performed poorly at the Winter Olympics. Apart from Canada who had won 31 golds and was at number 10 in the all time Winter Olympic medal table before the games started, Commonwealth nations have had little to show. Poor performances at the Winter Olympics is not an India specific or South Asia specific phenomena.
Great Britain have won 8 golds in all, and among them are medals from an era when not many nations competed in the Olympics. Australia hadn’t won a medal before 1994. Australia loves its sport passionately and evidence of that is its improvement in the Winter Olympics. 40 athletes are competing for Australia at the Torino games, almost double the size in recent times. However, I might add that the latest gold medal winner for Australia, Dale Begg-Smith, is Canadian born.
What about the other nations? New Zealand is at number 36 with a solo silver in a tally of 38 nations which had won medals before the current Olympics started. Countries like Norway, Austria, Finland and Sweden have extreme cold conditions unlike a Great Britain or Australia which explains the vast difference in medal counts in winter sports.
The fact that India has sent out 4 participants for the Torino Games is a big enough achievement considering the bare facts. India does have the Himalayas, but how many skiing resorts exist?
Summer Olympics
The wonder cannot be put to rest with the Winter Olympics, however. With a population of 1.1 billion, India still has not managed to win a single individual gold at the Summer Olympics.The reason which is usually given? India is a one sport nation.
Is India really a one sport (cricket) nation?
Cricket is played on every street in India. Go to the cities, villages, sea beaches, deserts, or mountains - everywhere you will find children playing cricket. Why then, can India not produce cricketers who are better than cricketers of the rest of the world combined, if all its sporting resources are going to cricket?
To begin with, there is hardly any infrastructure, and talent is not tapped. If it is tapped, it is not groomed well enough. This has changed recently with cricketers coming from outside the major cities like Sehwag, R.P. Singh and Suresh Raina. The fact remains though, that for every Sehwag there are countless kids playing with rubber balls whose talent is not tapped and do not know what playing with a proper cricket ball is.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ty
India not being a force in the Olympics can be easily explained:
1.) For the winter games, Indians don't play games that would appear in the winter games, partially because of a closed-minded attitude towards them. Indians refuse to play new games, which means you will never see an Indian baseball team, or an Indian ICE hockey squad.
2.)For the summer games, the sports that Indians do play they don't do well in because many Indians are vegetarians. They don't eat meat, they don't take in enough protein, and they don't ever do strength training. Ever see an Indian in a weightlifting competition? You'll see it the day pigs fly.
3.) Did I mention how closed-minded Indians were toward sports? It's cricket or bollywood. These are the only two forms of entertainment for the masses. They simply don't "get" other sports and have an elitist attitude towards them
"We Indians only play the distinguished sport of Cricket. That's it."
2 - Vicky
we want to become doctors and engineers only
3 - RJ Elliott
Can't Indians get enough protein via soy and other means?
4 - Matthew T. Sussman
I suppose MLB scouts should scour the streets of India, looking for the next big thing.
5 - Bhavi
Another important aspect that needs to be kept in mind if corruption, which acts as a major impediment in bringing those good in to forefront. The best example to prove to this the politics and the prolonged debates which go in to our ever loved CRICKET game
6 - Vadiraj
Indians(we) should have life style change. Entertainment should not just mean TV, movies or a time-consuming 9hour match. Sport not only means entertainment but also fitness which I see is a boon to any country, considering the costs reduced in govt. health benefits. Jogging would be a gateway to a bunch of sports. There are enough rivers/ canals in india to get started in swimming. This is peoples initiative. Government on the other hand should encourage sports, improve infrastructure. We hardly see a play ground in city schools. The right talent should be spotted and groomed. It should be all sport no games.
7 - macca
As an Aussie i am a very proud sports fan. A trip to the snow can only be afforded by middle/ upper class citizens, explaining our lacklustre performance in Winter Olympics. As for other sporting achievements, we came 4th on the medal tally at sydney and athens- quite an admirable achievement for a nation of 20 million. If any conclusion should be made from this, it just insults the sporting abilities of other nations who's population is tenfold of ours.
8 - Raju Kallarackal
These are times when positive changes are happening in India despite the government and poiliticians. This is a quote from the recent issue of Newsweek. There are some new dynamics working in India spear-headed by the big businesses. Big companies like Infosys, Reliance, Tata, etc can make a big difference by sponsoring certain Olympic events and try to position India for gold in those events. Starting with the 2012 games, India can be contender if big businesses saw the value in this effort.
9 - Nancy
I would still think that India could lead the world in gymnastics of varying types; most Indians have the wirey, slim body-type needed for it, and besides, tying oneself into knots is an ancient Indian talent.
10 - Matthew T. Sussman
There's probably some great gymnast and other athletes in India, the problem is there's no means to harvest that talent into world champions.
I'll tell ya one thing: if Pakistan develops a strong Olympic program, you can bet your bottom dollar that India will get one too.
11 - Pratyush
Nancy you are absolutely right. Indians have flexible body and tradition to back it up.
It only needs a serious programme and concerted effort for some thing like Gymnastics.
12 - Nancy
It's just that, with 5,000 years of Vedic yoga tradition behind them, where are the hordes of skinny little girls on balance beams? India should be fielding flocks, yea, battalions, of them, and those kids (& their families) could then get lucrative contracts as advertising spokespersons, etc. I should think families in India would be leaping at the chance - & I'll bet India would sweep the Games.
13 - Truth Man
Or how about this - Indians are just physically weaker than other races and biologically not as good at sport? The Indians in WESTERN COUNTRIES aren't good at sport either, for eg. Indians in America, while other races in America come through very well to represent USA. These are Indians that are well cashed-up living in western countries with great sporting facilities and programs. There's Michael Chang and Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan etc for Asian-Americans, Pete Sampras for Greek-Americans, Andre Agassis for Iranian-American, Tiger Woods for half-Thai American. Now tell me an Indian-American that is a world champion(or close) in any sport???
I know it's hard to swallow that Indians are physically not as good at sports but look at my argument and tell me why with the amount of well-off Indian Americans there isn't ONE Indian-American athlete of any quality? Don't tell me Indian-Americans want to become doctors or engineers - a walk through any American university and there are more East Asian students than Indians and yet Asians still have top-level American athletes representatives.
14 - PC
Truth Man: I am Indo-American, and I completely agree. Indians just are not that strong and the culture does not promote strength training.
In India I was told by relatives that lifting weights makes you DUMB. Yes, DUMB. I couldn't believe it, but it is their culture. They take pride in being smart and think that physical strength is overrated, and that's how this myth that lifting makes you dumb came about.
Indians, the ones in America at least, will take their cash (the guy who founded hotmail was an indian dude, and sold it to Microsoft for $300 million) and be quite happy.
But in all fairness, Indians really starting coming to America in the 70's (while many other asians, like chinese/japanese, have been here over a century), so give it some time. My HS, several years after I graduated, had an Indo-American starting QB. In SF, LA, NY, Chicago, etc we are seeing more Indian athletes, just no standouts.
15 - StraightFromtheHeart
Truthman is right. Indians just do not have the genetics for it. In fact, you see the healthiest Indians abroad. A look at streets of Mumbai will show you millions of underfed, skinny and weak people. They do not play any sport and do not lift weights and do not eat much. They just live and one day die as ordinary workers. The culture in India is very fatalistic and achievements are not as valued as Western cultures. It is perfectly acceptable to just have a job, live, bear kids and die. I think this mentality over hundreds of years is very difficult to change. India is not a sporting country. Period.
16 - duane
Yes, it would be so much better for India if they started training little kids to spin around on bars, and to spin around while jumping off a plank into a pool of water. and to walk on a narrow beam of wood, then jump off while spinning around. That's just what they need. What's their deal? Anyway?
17 - tanushree ghosh
with the enormous size that india has in the matter of population there are many factors that india faces other than not excelling in the sports arena .There are the problems of food for masses ,literacy ,employment and many other zillions of problems .The basic body structure of indiand is not as strong as their western counterparts and hence they are not good in sports which needs physical strength but when you see condition of the sports which needs more brains than brawns they are excelling ,example vishvanathan anand and many more .
18 - khushan
Because max people in india see the sports as a fitness programe. we have to became proffessnal in sports We have to take it like a job.
19 - Roger
It appears that Indians do poorly in areas that require any degree of physical strength or endurance. It also does not help that people shy away from these activities, and are not rewarded proportionately for efforts expended. This guarantees a vicious circle that guarantees mediocrity.
Even in the game of cricket which has a lot of support and resources behind it, the entire nation has not been able to produce ONE true "fast bowler". This is hard to explain indeed.
20 - reggie von woic
could it be a culture thing? unwillingness to do things that are widely considered "Western"?
It's not just the olympics by the way...you try to name an indian in any of the more popular sports such as soccer, basketball, baseball, football, tennis(?)...its really baffling especially considering how spread out they are throughout the world they are.
21 - Aditya
I'm an Indian and I think I can answer your question.
99% of us lack passion in what we do - sports, work, arts etc...
There is no will to excel. There is no reward to excel. As far as sports is concerned, only cricket players get all the money - win or lose.
Indians are not encouraged to take up sports in school. The focus is on education only. Sports is fine as a hobby, but not a profession. If a child tells their parents that they want to be a sportsperson, they will be thrashed. We are tied to family. Kids live with parents forever. Parents take care of the childrens' education, and when the children work, they take care of parents post-retirement. So, we are obliged to get into something steady.
No one wants to take a risk. All the successful people in the world have taken risks and sacrificed a lot. Indians cannot afford to fail. Society will ridicule them and they have the burden of family.
I hope I have answered your question
22 - machesh
Guys you are missing the point. India can't win the medals in Olympics because we are backward in sport. There is no way we can compete with China, America and russia because we are a country which has been oppressed. We need to first formulate an internal and external policy for sports taking into account the most contemplative thoughts of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
First we need to suggest and impress upon the olympic comitte that India is a 'Scheduled Nation'. And being 20% of world population we are not winning any medals so we and a few countries like - Pakisthan, Saudi arabia, Bangladesh etc should be termed as 'scheduled nations'. The qualifying entrance criteria should be removed for us and we should be able to qualify for participation in all sports. There should be separate rules framed for us in all the events. For example the 100 meters sprint should be changed to 80 metres for us and the rest of the nations should run 100 metres. Apart from this there should be certain reserved sports (like our reserved constituencies) where only the scheduled nations can compete. Maybe Kabbadi, Guli Danda etc should be introduced as reserved sports. Atleast by this we will be guarenteed minimum medals.
Next the Internal policy within the country. This is simple. We are past masters in this. Adopt the SC/ST, OBC reservation, Mandal comission, Sachar commission and also get in the services of experts like Karunanidhi to introduce the most advanced form of resrvation in the team selection.
This is the only and most effective way for us to be the champions.
23 - mmathers
Weak Indians?
Have you guys seen the Indian on the US gynmastics team - Raj Bhavsar? I've never heard of this guy before but he completely powered through that whole rings routine this evening. It probably helped that his shoulder muscles are bigger than his head...
24 - AR
I have lived in Manhattan and Tokyo for more than 2 decades. There's a lot of guys/girls of Indian origin who run at very respectable average and play other sports very well. And there are some great sportsment in India as well. I don't know great swimmers or skiiers, but that's OK.
It's all about training and talent.
But you don't recruit talent and cant train them, unless there's MONEY, and SOCIAL PRIDE. Money is not a problem in India, but there is no social awareness or pride associated with excellence in sport.
I bet India will not win a single medal this time. Hopefully that will wake up a billion people, and the GOVERNMENT, it has to be funded by the government.
25 - Victor
Well we won at least ONE GOLD in Shooting today 11/08/08, Indians try always very hard but due to some reasons or problems with the athletes we were not awarded. Problem with athletes in the sense he/she will have a burden of all indians and they knows that each eyes are looking at them consider each 1.1 Billion people.
I hope that today some people around the world got the answers