Saina Nehwal

At a time when the whole world is celebrating the rise of Michael Phelps, the swimmer from the United States who has won his 21st medal at the Olympics recently, as the most decorated Olympian of all time, Indian athletes are limping for medals in London.

If we exclude India’s two silver medals in the 1900 Paris Games, Phelps tally of 21 medals equals India’s total record of medals in the history of the Olympics. It is a case of glory on one side and deep shame on the other.
India has been taking part in the Olympics for the last 92 years, but this nation of a billion people has a poor record as far as winning medals is concerned. The 81-member strong Indian contingent has been contracting in size since its first outing as many of its athletes have crashed out from the competition.
“It is a matter of shame that China with a similar population is leading the medals tally while we Indians are struggling to win a single gold medal,” says Ritwick Borpujari, a student of Delhi University.
In archery, World No. 1 Deepika Kumari, who was one of the biggest hopes for India, missed the mark and is out. “But all is not lost. Our archers have the talent to turn it around in the next few days,” Limba Ram, Indian archery coach, was quoted as saying after a lukewarm show by his wards in the ranking round of the men’s and women’s team event. Nothing happened and with each passing day, one by one every archer succumbed to the pressure, dashing India’s hopes of a medal. Even Deepika Kumari lost in both the team and individual events.
In tennis, the men’s doubles tennis team of Rohan Bhopanna-Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes-Vishnu Vardhan are now out of the Olympics. The women’s doubles team of Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthi crashed out in the first round. “Being the first time that we have played together as a team, we’ve played a hell of a match again,” Paes said after the defeat. The Indian women’s badminton doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa is also out after Japan lost to Tawain in a match that would have decided the fate of the Indian duo. Although the Indian duo appealed that the match seemed to be fixed but the appeal was rejected.
The Indian hockey team, which had earlier lost to the Dutch in their opening match, continued with its disappointing run as they lost to the New Zealanders 3-1 in their second match and to the Germans 5-2 in their third match. Women pistol shooters Annu Raj Singh and Rahi Sarnobat were knocked out after failing to qualify in the women’s 25-metre event.
“I have no major lament about the Indian hockey team. Of course, losing to New Zealand was a big setback in the quest for a place in the semis, but let’s face it, getting into the last four was always far-fetched,” wrote Ayaz Memon.
A lot now depends on India’s flag bearer Sushil Kumar who enters the ring in the 66-kilogram freestyle wrestling event on August 12. “I personally had no hope from either the hockey team or the archers,” says Manish Shukla, who works in Flour London. Hopefully, India will also come up with an athlete like Phelps who has been one of the best — or the best — in swimming and we too will set a standard that will be very difficult, if not impossible, to outdo.