It takes a country to raise a successful Olympian

Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification remains India’s story in Paris. And how quickly it became a political hot potato at home! | Photo credit: archive photo

Now that the festivities are over and the over-the-top coverage of the Olympics is behind us, we can say what we hesitated to say: India disappointed. And we should all take some of the blame.

Participation was the Olympic credo – and for years we did, with little hope of a medal, but a good chance of free train passes on our return to India. Our ambitions were limited, and so were our medal totals.

Somewhere along the way, the emphasis on the Olympics themselves shifted from participation alone. One of the slogans in Paris was: this is true Champions are made and legends are born. Participation was passé, from the last century. Now it’s about winning. And that’s a slogan India struggles with. Two individual gold medals in this century is fantastic considering what came before, but that’s far less than a top swimmer or athlete wins at a single Olympics.

There are two ways of looking at our medal haul in Paris. For those who came of age in the 1980s, a period when we revered fourth-place finishers and semi-finalists because that was where our best athletes finished, bronze in any sport is a big step. KD Jadhav won bronze in wrestling in 1952, Milkha Singh and PT Usha finished fourth in the 400m and 400m hurdles respectively.

Between 1980 and 1996 (another bronze medal – Leander Paes in tennis) India had no medals. Since then we have won a ‘medal’ (the wording of a noun is also an Olympic achievement) at every Games.

The other way to look at this year’s six bronze medals is to marvel at our celebration of reaching 71st place.^st on the list of medal winners, behind Botswana, Hong Kong, Tunisia, St Lucia, Uganda and Pakistan. Landlocked Botswana consists largely of the Kalahari Desert and has a population of about two and a half million. It gained independence in 1966, almost two decades after India did.

Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification will remain India’s story in Paris. And how quickly it became a political hot potato at home! For Phogat it must have been a death in the family, the loss of a medal, given all she had been through in India. But did she have the professional guidance that is so important for athletes? Or was she left to sort things out for herself?

How much do we care about how sports are run in India? How much does PT Usha, a great athlete and the president of the Indian Olympic Association, who initially said that the protesting wrestlers were tarnishing the country’s image and showing indiscipline, care?

Sexual harassment, which wrestlers accused their officials of, often leads to victim blaming in India. Perpetrators are protected. And although Usha later retracted his words, it left a bad taste in his mouth. We want medals, but are reluctant to support our athletes.

Just as it takes an entire village to raise a child, it takes an entire country to raise a successful Olympic athlete.