IT'S 1992 ALL OVER AGAIN

India's also-rans at Olympic Games
By Shashi Tharoor
Sunday Times
03-August-2008

NEW DELHI - As the world awaits the Beijing Olympics, many wonder whether China's grand coming-out party will also mark the occasion when it wrests dominance of the medal tally from the United States. China's dedicated athletes are widely assumed to have dozens of gold and silver medals in their grasp. Whether or not they overtake the US, however, one thing is certain: China's neighbour and regional geopolitical rival, India, will be lucky to win even a single medal.

Every Indian who follows the Olympics has cringed scanning the daily list of medal winners, eyes traveling down past dozens of nations big and small before alighting on a solitary Indian bronze in tennis or wrestling. Worse yet, we have all known the shame of waiting day after day for India to appear on the list at all, as countries a hundredth our size record gold upon gold and Indian athletes are barely mentioned among the also-rans.

In fact, in the Olympics, India's record has declined over time.

The one gold medal we had become used to winning since the 1920's, in field hockey, has proved elusive in recent Games, as our players have stumbled on Astroturf. This year, India's hockey players failed even to qualify for the Games. In everything where simple human prowess is at stake - running, jumping, swimming, lifting, throwing - Indians simply don't have what it takes.

An Indian beauty queen, Madhu Sapre, once became an unwitting victim of Indians' sense of national shame at our sporting insignificance. She was unjustly denied a Miss Universe title in 1992 because of her answer to the final-round question, "What is the first thing you would do if you became the ruler of your country?" Her response - "I would build a sports stadium" - was considered stupid by the judges, and the almost-certain crown (she was the overwhelming favorite) slipped from her grasp. Sapre's answer might not have been the brightest, but if the judges had any idea of how desperate Indians are for sporting success, they would have understood that she was not expressing such an absurd priority.

The newly globalized India can no longer content itself with mediocrity in this global competition. For a land with world-class computer scientists, mathematicians, biotech researchers, filmmakers, and novelists, sporting excellence is the last unconquered frontier. But 2008 won't be the year in which that frontier is breached.