India’s olympics story chasing glory, falling short

a disappointing performanceIndia falls short of commitment, discipline and ambition 04Indian Olympic team is an outperformer 06Madhura incident: Why don’t our officials fret over results instead 08Is India too old for the Olympics? 10How Abhinav Bindra wins by losing 12

India's Best:

Vijay Kumar Silver medal,

25m rapid fire pistol

Vijay Kumar was ready for the Olympics and he knew it 16Olympics: Vijay bags India’s second medal in London 18Vijay promised me a medal, says father 19

Gagan NarangBronze medal, 10m air rifle

My mom wasn’t happy with bronze, she wanted me to win gold: Narang 21Gagan Narang’s spoils of victory 24Olympics: Gagan Narang wins 10m Air Rifle bronze 25

Saina NehwalBronze medal,

Women’s Singles, badminton

Why Saina’s Olympic triumph is just the beginning 27London 2012: Saina’s moment but it’s time to salute Gopichand 30Gopichand’s belief: Want a champion, forget democracy 32How Saina overcame her shortcomings to win an Olympic medal 34

Mary KomBronze medal,

Women’s boxing (51kg)

Educating Indians: There’s something about Mary Kom 37Olympics: It’s finally Mary Kom’s day to shine 40Emotional win for me as it is my twins’ birthday: Mary Kom 41Of Mary Kom, Manipur, Olympics and curiosity 43India (hearts) Mary Kom. But do we deserve her? 44

a disappointing performance

India falls short of commitment, discipline and ambition

W atching world no. 1 Yihang Wang tame Saina Nehwal easily in the semi-final, 21-13, 21-13 on Friday

morning, I remembered my conversation with a chinese journalist in the Main press Centre a few days ago.

“In diving, table tennis, badminton, we should make a clean sweep,” he had said. The bronze medal for the women’s badminton is still to be decided and it is not beyond world no. 5 Saina

to beat Li Xuerie, her opponent in the play-off and ranked no. 4 in the world. But you get the point.

China’s dominating in certain events has not be-come so pronounced and for so long that it has become a cliché in sports. Only very rarely does a player from another country get to the number 1 spot— or top medals— in these disciplines.

The secret of this success, according to the

Ayaz Memon is in London giving us updates from the Olympics. Keep checking here for more. In his latest post, he talks about how China hone their

Olympic champions.

Ayaz Memon, Aug 3, 2012

Chinese journalist – is in spotting and develop-ing excellence from a massive base of players. Reuters

The secret of this success, according to the Chinese journalist – is in spotting and develop-ing excellence from a massive base of players. The Chinese too have a pyramidical system for sports, but they have spread the dragnet for capturing talent further and wider than in any other country.

They use the hub and spoke model through which talent is spotted in the remotest districts, then fed through a pipeline into sports acad-emies in major cities, and from there on to a pool of elite athletes who are trained to excel at major international events.

I suppose in some way or the other all countries follow such processes, except that the Chinese have done this with a vigour and diligence. Some argue that this is done dictatorially— that has seen them assume dominant position in sports over the past decade.

Beginning with ‘ping-pong’ and badminton in the 1980s when they emerged from self-im-posed exile from participating in international sports events, the Chinese have expanded their expertise to include diving, swimming and gym-nastics.

Though track and field and the swimming pool is still ruled by the Americans, it seems a cinch that by the 2020 Olympics, the Chinese would be nudging them for top honours in these disci-plines too.

“The strategy is to produce champions in big numbers,” says the Chinese journalist. “At any given point in time, there will be three or four players in TT, badminton, diving etc who must be capable of winning a gold medal.”

The strategy may seem simple. But it is the implantation that is the crux. It requires com-mitment, discipline and ambition – not just of athletes, but the entire country. This is some-thing where India falls terribly short.

But that story for another day.

****** ****** ******India’s hopes of making it to the semif-finals in hockey were dashed by Germany in emphatic fashion.

Not that these hopes had much basis in real-ity: after losing to Netherlands and even New Zealand, chances of finishing in the top six too seemed remote. But after the rout by Germany, India are now in danger of finishing 10 or be-low.

This would be a major blow to coach Michael Nobbs, who has been talking of reviving Indian hockey within a reasonable time frame. Nobbs did well in ensuring that India qualified for the Olympics, but a very low position here would mean that it’s virtually back to square one.

The coach himself has looked and talked somb-er. “I don’t know if I am getting through to the players about tactics and whatever else,” he mused after the defeat against New Zealand.

That sounds foreboding.

Indian Olympic team is an outperformer

Strange, but true. As things stand this morning, India is one of the most efficient teams at the London 2012 Olympics when the performance is viewed as a ratio

of medals won to the contingent size. Read how.

Anant Rangaswami, Jul 31, 2012

S trange, but true. As things stand this morning, India is one of the most effi-cient teams at the London 2012 Olympics

when the performance is viewed as a ratio of medals won to the contingent size.

North Korea, with four medals so far, has a contingent size of 56, making it 7 percent, the super-outperformer of the Games. China is the next most efficient, with 24 medals won by their 389 strong Olympic team, a medal winning rate of 6 percent. Japan, with 17 medals won by their 303 participants, is also at 6 percent.

The Indian 84-member team, with the win by Gagan Narang, is already at a little over 1 percent. A couple of more medals (we won 3 in 2008) will see this ratio fly to 3.7 percent — and, incredibly, India could emerge as one of the best performing contingents at the London 2012 when seen by this prism.

Details of this, and other fascinating trivia, can be read at BBC.com.

The BBC exercise is interesting as it could well be used as a measure of the efficiency of those involved in the selection of national contingents for the Olympic Games. If the selection process-es are fair and professional and unaffected by politics and personal biases, the ratio of medals: athletes is likely to reflect that.

So far, North Korea seems, clearly, to have got their team selection correct. With their team being only 56 strong, another couple of medals will see the dictatorship move to an unassailable medal to participant ratio. For Japan, for ex-ample, to outdo North Korea, they will have to almost match their 2008 performance and win 22 medals.

But with another medal North Korea will see the ratio move to 9 percent. For Japan to beat that, they will have to outdo 2008 and win at least 27 medals.

China, with 396 athletes and USA, with 530 athletes, though, will top this table as well. In 2008, China won 100 medals and the USA 110. If the squads were similar in size in 2008, China would have had an efficiency of more than 25 percent and the USA would have been just over 20 percent.

But India might just make it to the top ten if we win four medals — it would take us to 5 percent, just a tad below Japan’s current ratio.

Useless stats, maybe, but they make India look good.

Why Indians are unrealistic in expecting medals at Olympics

T he London Olympics, much like the ones in the past, has caught on with much fervour in India and has left the

general public in awe of its neighbouring na-tion. Sadly, it has also left a large portion of the general public in a state of dismay over the lack of medals in India’s tally. The real issue here is not that of India’s inability to rake in the med-als, but the fact that spectators and viewers tune in just once in four years and expect the Indian contingent to produce a bunch of rather unreal-istic results. What happens in the period before and after the Olympics, simply disappears into oblivion.

For starters, there’s always a comparison drawn between the Chinese way of administrating sports and the Indian method. A lot of muck is generally hurled at the current Indian system, but this is done only when India’s sporting contingent either don’t qualify for the Olympics or don’t manage to bag medals. Sure enough the current systems in place aren’t the best and it’s about time that they improve, but for that to happen there needs to be constant interest in those sports. If people don’t bother about the scenario of sports in India for more than a span of just 17 days, then the men running the sport are nevergoing to be under any sort of pressure to change

the way things function. Interest levels for most sports other than cricket, in India, is almost ob-solete, and waning interest will always generate woeful results.

In India, there’s this bizarre concept of “cricket is hogging all the limelight so it must be ig-nored for the other sports to be able to thrive.” Hang on, the United States of America does not ignore the NBA, NFL and its baseball league in order to win all those medals at the Olym-pics. Football is the biggest sport in the United Kingdom, but they do not shun it away to win a gold medal in rowing. Countries do not neglect one sport in order to succeed in another, they simply collectively thrive on the success of each sport. There’s no reason to banish cricket, but what’s needed is some serious equality in inter-est levels shown not just by the general public and the media but also the sporting federations. Perhaps it is time that other sporting bodies are subject to the same amount of pressure that the BCCI undergoes from the general public.

For now, India’s public needs to be patient and realistic. There needs to be a clear understand-ing of what India can achieve at its current posi-tion and there has to be some sense of apprecia-tion for those achievements. As an example it is important to laud Gagan Narang for that bronze medal, rather than whine about him missing out on the gold. The answer to Narang bagging bronze and Abhinav Bindra not making it past the qualifications, is encapsulated in the four years prior to the event. That time span unfor-tunately probably went completely unnoticed.

India still has a decent amount of fire power at the Olympics and it may well bring in some more medals through badminton, tennis and boxing. What’s important though, is that people don’t forget that these sports still exist after the closing ceremony.

What’s needed for us to excel at the Olympics is some serious equality in interest levels shown not just by the general public and the media but also the sporting federations.

Shashreek Roy, Aug 2, 2012

Madhura incident: Why don’t our officials fret over results instead

If there is one thing Indian officials are good at, it is being officious and expressing outrage over faux controversies. Why don’t our officials lose sleep

over our poor performance instead?

Tariq Engineer, Aug 1, 2012

I f a tree falls in a forest and there is no there to hear it, does it still make a noise? If an unknown woman walks alongside the

Indian contingent during the Olympic opening ceremony and nobody complains, would anyone have noticed?

I watched the opening ceremony and have no recollection of Madhura Honey aka the mystery woman. My attention was drawn first to Sushil Kumar holding the Indian flag and then to the rest of the athletes. She never entered my con-sciousness. And even if she had, there would still have been no reason to suspect anything

was out of the ordinary.

Unfortunately, if there is one thing Indian officials are good at, it is being officious and expressing outrage over faux controversies. Act-ing Chef-de-Mission Brig PK Muralidharan Raja was quick to make it clear that a terrible dishon-our had somehow been perpetrated. “She had no business to walk with the Indian contingent and we are taking up the issue with the organ-isers,” Raja said on Saturday. “We don’t know who she is and why she was allowed to walk in. It is a shame that she was with the athletes in the march past.”

The real shame is that Raja’s response resulted in attention being drawn away from those same athletes and exemplifies all that is wrong with the attitude of Indian officials: appearances are everything; results are nothing. There have been years when the Indian contingent was made up of more officials than athletes, but that never seemed to bother anyone. Neither did India’s lack of results. When Leander Paes won a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics, it was the end of a 44-year individual medal drought. Where was the outrage then?

And where is the outrage now over India’s poor start to the Games? The anticipation and expec-tation for London have been unprecedented in the sub-continent. Much ink has been spilled on how 2012 could end with India’s best ever med-al haul. While that may still turn out to be true, four days in, India have only Gagan Narang’s shooting bronze to show for its efforts. Yet more time and effort has been spent on unravelling the mystery of Honey than on analysing the performances of our athletes. Meanwhile China already has 23 medals (including 13 gold) tied for first with the United States.

Two of those golds have come courtesy of China’s 16-year old swimming wunderkind, Ye Shiwen, who has set one world record and

one Olympic record. In contrast, India’s lone swimmer, Gagan AP Ulalmath, is only part of the competition because of FINA’s universality quota: a country that would otherwise be un-represented at the Olympics can enter one male and one female swimmer, with the condition that the swimmers should have taken part in the last World Championships.

The 20-year-old Ulalmath competed in the 800m freestyle at the 2011 World Champion-ships in Shanghai, but will take part in 1500m freestyle in London. Essentially, and this is not meant to disrespect Gagan, his is a token pres-cence. Yet our officials feel no shame over this state of affairs. It is just business as usual. As if that isn’t bad enough, the Indian Olympic Asso-ciation is yet to formally remove Suresh Kal-madi as it president, despite Kalmadi’s arrest on charges of fraud related to the Commonwealth Games. Apparently that does not bring dishon-our to Indian sport.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, or LOCOG as its commonly known, apologised to the Indian contingent yesterday for Honey’s presence. The more important question is when are those responsible for running Indian sports going to apologise for the way they have mismanaged it?

A s children, we’ve all heard the tale of Arjun’s son Abhimanyu – from the Ma-habharata.

The most fascinating part of the story was the part which described how Abhimanyu’s edu-cation began while he was still in Subhadra’s womb. He overhead Arjuna telling Subhadra the secrets of how to enter, exit, and destroy various battle formations. Of these, it is of note, that he only heard how to enter (but not exit or destroy) the secret of the Chakravyuh formation as Subhadra fell asleep and thus Arjuna didn’t

complete his explanation.

But still it was an early beginning. And we are noticing at the London 2012 Olympics that an early beginning helps. Last night, Lithuanian teenager, just 15 years old, Ruta Meilutyte stole the pool headlines as she won her country’s first Olympic swimming gold in the women’s 100 metres breaststroke.

She wasn’t the only teenager making waves in the pool. Missy Franklin, of the US, is just 17 and she won the 100-meter backstroke. China’s

Is India too old for

the Olympics?For India to win regularly at the Olympics, we

need to go back into time and learn a few lessons from Abhimanyu. The others are doing it,

so why can’t we?

Ashish Magotra, Jul 31, 2012

Ye Shinwen is just 16 and she is already setting the pool on fire and has broken a world record already. Sun Yang, 19, became the first Chinese male swimmer to earn gold as he won the 400m freestyle with an Olympic record.

Some might say, that it is in just the swimming events. But have a look at the weightlifting events. China’s Wang Mingjuan extended a 10-year unbeaten international record to win gold in the first women’s weightlifting event of the London Summer Olympics, giving the Chinese team a perfect start at the Games.

Mingjuan is 26 now. Her unbeaten run started when she was 16. Incredible isn’t it?

Tom Daley, one of Britain’s biggest Olympic stars, was the 2009 FINA World Champion in the individual diving event at the age of 15.

The runners begin early too. Usain Bolt won a 200 m gold medal at the 2002 World Junior Championships, making him the competition’s youngest-ever gold medalist at the time. He also competed in the 2004 Olympics at the age of 18.

The list really is endless. The whole point of this argument is simple. You just have to start early. And Indians don’t do that often enough.

India’s best bets at the Olympics are Saina Nehwal, Deepika Kumari, Sania Mirza-Leander Paes, Mary Kom, Vijender Singh, Abhinav Bindra – and the one common thread that runs through all of them is that they all started young.

- By the time, Saina was 13, she was beating players who were 23-24.- Deepika Kumari won the 11th Youth World archery Championship held in Ogden, USA in 2009, at an age of 15 years. She also won a gold medal in the same competition in the women’s team recurve event along with Dola Banerjee and Bombayala Devi.- Sania Mirza made her debut in April 2001 on the ITF Circuit as a 15-year-old.- Mary Kom, by the age of 18, had won a silver in her first AIBA World Women’s Boxing Cham-pionship in Scranton, USA.- Vijender Singh, 27, has already competed in three Olympics.

- Leander Paes turned professional in 1991 – at the age of 18. Before that he won the Junior US Open and the Junior Wimbledon title.- At 15, Abhinav Bindra became the youngest participant in the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

At 15, Meilutyte is winning gold medals while most Indians are just thinking about passing 10th standard – including those who are talent-ed in sports and are competing at the national level. And by the time, we become any good we are 25-plus giving us a very short window in which we have to succeed.

But to succeed at the highest level, to match China or the US or any other major medal-winning country – the mindset needs to change. We complain about the infrastructure and the lack of it but how many parents are prepared to back their child’s athletic talent? India’s failure to win a ton of medals is as much the fault of the parents as it is of the athletes.

All those stories of Indians maturing late is nonsense. The list of athletes above have shown us that. And if you look at cricket – the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli have also shown the world what ‘young’ Indians can do. So let’s not go down this rule.

On paper, India may have the youngest popula-tion of the world’s biggest countries but does that reflect in the way we play sport? It does in cricket and hence, we do decently at it. But with other sports, most of the time – Indians are trying to find the right balance between success and failure. The question on the minds of most of the athletes is this: What will I do if I fail?

So because you want something to fall back on, you put your dreams on hold. You deviate and that deviation often means that you never quite get back onto the right path. A few persist and they do well but they will always remain the exception and not the rule.

For India to win regularly at the Olympics, we need to go back into time and learn a few les-sons from Abhimanyu. The others are doing it, so why can’t we?

How Abhinav Bindra wins by losing

Abhinav Bindra won’t get another Olympics medal in London this time. But he deserves a medal from all of us for showing us how to lose with grace. We need to learn

that more than we need to learn about winning.

Sandip Roy, Jul 31, 2012

S ometimes you can win by losing.

The nation, led by Pranab Mukherjee, is congratulating Gagan Narang for picking up the first medal for India at the Olympics game and deservedly so.

But let’s take a moment to congratulate Abhinav Bindra.

After winning a gold in Beijing, India’s 10 m Air Rifle sharpshooter didn’t even qualify for the finals this time around.

But in a country hungry for medals, in a nation obsessed with winning, we can all learn some-

thing from Abhinav Bindra about how not to be a sore loser.

The hullabaloo of over-excited Indian fans was a big distraction for the defending champion. But he didn’t blame anyone. “This was not my day,” he said simply. “I started slowly and that was a lot of pressure. It was a highly competitive field, my performances went up and down.”

That doesn’t mean Bindra does not have the fire to win or feel the sting of losing keenly.

In an earlier interview with The Telegraph he had said, “Nobody wants to fail, yet it happens. That’s life.”

At that time, London had not happened. So one could say it was easy for him to wax philosophi-cal. But in his defeat he showed he truly believes that losing is also part of the game. “Time was running out and I had to take some risks,” he said simply. “You need a little luck for some shots and unfortunately I didn’t get it.”

It’s not a lesson that comes easy to us. Our 24×7 media culture is all about the winner takes it all, the loser standing small. Ad deals, red carpets, flash bulbs, Page 3 gossip — winning is heady business. But it makes losing all the more lonely these days. It’s like going cold turkey after the high.

The loser “becomes invisible” said artist Sarnath Banerjee who did a series of billboards celebrat-ing losers for the London Olympics — the pole vaulter who wonders mid-air if he has chosen the wrong sport or the badminton player who finds his real vocation in a cholesterol clinic in South Bombay.

Banerjee said there is something called a “los-er’s spirit” not to be confused with someone who is just used to losing all the time and has no spirit at all. “It is perhaps more humane than the winner’s spirit and definitely not as vulgar as the ‘killer instinct’. It needs sophistication — and sophistication is fragile,” Banerjee told The Times of India.

In India, these days, we are a nation in desper-ate search for the killer instinct. We buy shrink-wrapped books to learn it and go to seminars headed by pony-tailed management gurus to imbibe it. We once pushed, pushed and then pushed our children some more to get into IIT or med school. Now our horizons are bigger and our ambitions are bigger as well.

“It’s a good achievement,” said bronze medal-ist Gagan Narang’s father after his son’s win. “Although we expected a gold.” Narang has two more chances for a gold, and his father said when his son called from London he would “congratulate him and tell him to do well in the next two events.”

But in the gold rush we forget that for years we didn’t win anything. We’d become a nation used to being a laughing stock of the sporting world.

But one Abhinav Bindra victory pumps us up to the other extreme so that even before this Olym-pic team set out for London, confident pundits in India were predicting this would be India’s biggest medal haul yet as if one boxer and one shooter had discovered the secret key to un-ending victory. One victory just whets the ap-petite for more and more, making us even more unforgiving of loss. When the Indian cricket team floundered against Australia this year, the World Cup win less than a year before was no consolation. Headlines screamed “Humili-ation” and “Smashed to Pulp” and angry fans presented them with bangles. We were happy to shower endorsements on Dhoni and his men and lionise them after that World Cup victory, only to turn around and accuse them of having gone “soft” because of all that attention.

We are merciless towards the loser and happy to quickly designate yesterday’s winner today’s loser whether it’s Anna Hazare or Shah Rukh Khan or Akhilesh Yadav. On the lighter side, one of Sarnath Banerjee’s cartoons is about how the memory of a missed bronze can bring about a bad mood even after twenty years. On a bleak-er note, after every school leaving examination we read about youngsters who commit suicide because they failed or even worse they didn’t do as well as they had hoped. Recently there was a media story about one young man in Calcutta who logged into his best friend’s email account and rejected various Ph.D offers his friend had received from foreign universities because he was jealous of his success. “A combination of two strong feelings — an intense sense of inse-curity and jealousy — could prompt someone to indulge in such an act,” psychiatrist Randip Ghosh Roy told the media.

We don’t know how to cope with losing because we are obsessed with winning.

“People look at things from the point of view of a win and loss… But overall sports is a different story,” Bindra said.

And Bindra showed us that he is a sportsman first, before he is a winner. And that’s a lesson we would all do well to learn because you don’t have to play sports to be a sportsman.

India's Best:

Vijay KumarSilver medal,

25m rapid fire pistol

As soon as he grabs his pistol, the soft-spoken, mellow and mysterious aura is gone. Cut to the army

subedar looking ominously at his targets before smashing them in a consistent fashion.

Pulasta Dhar, Aug 3, 2012

Vijay Kumar was ready for the Olympics and he knew it

F or someone who is a double gold medal-list at the Commonwealth Games 2006, a bronze medallist at the Asian Games

2006, runner-up at the Asian Championships in 2007, silver medallist at the 2009 ISSF World Cup and an Arjuna Award recipient, Vijay Ku-mar comes across as the most chilled out and down-to-earth person.

The moment he had his hand wrapped around my shoulder while speaking to me at an Olym-pic Gold Quest press conference, I realised that

he was one who gave the little details impor-tance. A friendly chat is always a pleasure for any journalist. Not only was he unfazed with all the glaring lights and cameras, but with that small gesture I was suddenly speaking to a friend, not a future Olympic medallist. It made me forget the lights, my slight inexperience and the constantly barging in by the TV mics.

But as soon as he grabs his pistol, the soft-spo-ken, mellow and mysterious aura is gone. Cut to the army subedar looking ominously at his

targets before smashing them in a consistent fashion.

“I understand expectation on shooters is always high,” he said, “but we are mentally well prepared for the Olympics.”

And that is what won him a silver medal at the highest stage. Vijay Kumar kept his nerve when the Chinese shooters and Germany’s Christian Reitz were knocked out in a close final of the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol in London.

Actually, he had guessed that Russia and Germany will be the toughest opponents, and thankfully, both of them lost out. He may have been wrong there, but shooting is all about what sort of day you have… and Kumar had an amazing one.

One thing which stood out during the interview was the fre-quency of him talking about ‘mental strength’.

“I am concentrating more on mental strength in respect to the new format. We don’t just keep shooting all day, but we need to do a lot of yoga and other concentration exercises to keep going.”

He also spoke about how surroundings matter for a shooter. “The correct atmosphere is vital for a shooter to develop. Be-ing in the army has helped me a lot.”

Kumar, who is 27-years-old, held a gun in his hands for the first time in 2003 i.e. when he was an 18-year-old.

Given that, he has ‘rapidly’ (pun intended) developed into a fine shooter and has accomplished what every Indian athlete dreams of: an Olympic medal.

He probably spoke the least among all athletes present there, and has — for now, achieved the most.

“Vijay Kumar is in joint first with 5 points after the first round. Alexei Klimov, the world record holder, also shot 5. There are a total of 8 rounds.”

“Ding missed one. Pupo missed one as well. Vijay missed one as well. He is still in silver medal posi-tion. Pupo 22 points. Ding and Vijay are 20 points. Zhang Jian eliminated – he had 17 points.”

“Vijay is joint 1st after first series”

“Vijay is joint 2nd after five series ”

“Vijay gets the silver”“Pupo gets the gold – equalled the finals world record. Vijay Kumar gets the silver… he hit just two in the final round but he has the silver. That’s India’s second medal of the games. Pupo ended up with 34 and Vijay shot 28. Super, super stuff.”

Olympics: Vijay bags India’s second medal in London

Army marksman Vijay Kumar gave India the second medal from the Royal Artillery Barracks winning the

silver in the men’s 25 metre rapid fire pistol.

FP Staff, Aug 3, 2012

A rmy marksman Vijay Kumar gave India the second medal from the Royal Artil-lery Barracks winning the silver in the

men’s 25 metre rapid fire pistol event of the 2012 London Olympics here Friday.

Leuris Pupo kept his cool to win Cuba’s first gold of the Olympics. Pupo scored 34 to edge out India’s Vijay Kumar, who took silver with 30.

China’s Ding Feng won bronze after being edged out by Kumar by one point in the final elimina-tion round at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

Russia’s Alexei Klimov had set a new world record of 592 in qualifying, but struggled in the final after two low-scoring rounds early on, and eventually finished fourth after failing to make it into the final two medal rounds.

India’s rifle shooter Gagan Narang had won the bronze medal in the men’s 10 metre air rifle event here Monday.

Vijay is also the second Indian after double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore to win an Olympic silver medal. Rathore won the maiden Olympic silver for India in 2004 Athens.

Vijay promised me a medal, says father

Army marksman Vijay Kumar gave India the second medal from the Royal Artillery Barracks winning the

silver in the men’s 25 metre rapid fire pistol.

FP Staff, Aug 3, 2012

F ather of India’s Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar said his son had promised him a medal before he went into the fi-

nals of the 25-metre rapid fire pistol event at the London Games here Friday.

Cuban Leuris Pupo kept his cool to win his country’s first gold of the Olympics. Pupo shot 34 to edge out India’s Vijay Kumar, who took silver with 30.

“I spoke to him before the finals and he sounded calm. He told me he will get a medal today. He was not sure which one but he said he will get one for sure,” said Vijay’s father.

“His hard work has finally paid off. I was certain he would get a medal.”

Serving as a Subedar in the Indian army, Vijay took up shooting in 2001 and his father said he never expected his son to reach such heights.

“I never thought he would reach this level. My happiness has no bounds,” he said.

Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal also announced a reward of Rs.1 crore for the shooter minutes after his podium finish.

Joydeep Karmakar, who himself came tantalis-ingly close to a podium finish before settling for fourth place in the men’s 50 metres rifle prone, said their show in London proved the great po-tential India had in the sport.

“This is a proud moment for our shooters. He has proved that India has a great talented bunch of shooters,” said Joydeep, who is also a good friend of Vijay.

India’s rifle shooter Gagan Narang won the bronze medal in the men’s 10 metre air rifle event here Monday.

Vijay is also the second Indian after double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore to win an Olympic silver medal. Rathore won the maiden Olympic silver for India in the 2004 Athens.

Gagan NarangBronze medal, 10m air rifle

Reliving his experience during his medal-winning endeavour, Narang said, “I felt a tad bit nervous. Hence,

I started half an hour late. My coach made me play a ‘secret’ game on his iPad. I stepped back from my mark, relaxed, and checked everything before shooting again.”

PTI, Aug 8, 2012

My mom wasn’t happy with bronze, she wanted me to win gold: Narang

P une: London Olympics bronze medal-list Gagan Narang today said that sports should be made a part of school curricu-

lum and asked others states to take a leaf out of Maharashtra and Haryana’s books as far as promoting sport was concerned.

“Sport is an important part of the development of kids and hence, it should be made a part of their curriculum,” Narang said at a felicitation ceremony here after arriving from London.Narang was felicitated at the ‘Gun for Glory’ academy by Maharashtra Sports and Youth Welfare Minister Padmakar Valvi.

Olympian Rahi Sarnobat and her parents were also felicitated on the occasion.

Praising the two governments for promoting sports, Narang said that Haryana and Mahar-ashtra were an example to the other states and they should also imitate their efforts and de-velop infrastructure.

Heaping praise on the national coaches and rifle coach Stanislas Lapidus, he said that it would not have been possible for him to win the medal without their support.

The former world champion said that it was

possible for India to take long strides in shooting provided the youngsters are given proper guidance and get continuous support from the government.

Narang’s parents were also felicitated on the occasion.

Narang said that his mother was not happy with his bronze medal. “She wanted me to win the gold medal. I hope to fulfill her wish in the future.”

Narang wants Mary Kom to add to India’s haul with the gold medal now. “I met her in London and she sounded very confi-dent. I hope that she brings the yellow medal for all of us.”

Reliving his experience during his medal-winning endeavour, he said, “I felt a tad bit nervous. Hence, I started half an hour late. My coach made me play a ‘secret’ game on his iPad. I stepped back from my mark, relaxed, and checked everything before shooting again.

“I was really pleased at having qualified for the finals. A huge weight off my shoulders. In the finals, I was lucky enough to hold my nerves and shoot 10.7 in the last shot when I needed 10.2 to win the bronze medal.

Thanking the government of India for having spent consid-erably on the shooters, the champion said, “Shooting is an expensive game. Not everyone can afford it. With the active involvement of the government we can produce more medal winners.

Praising India’s performance in the ongoing Olympics, he said that there is no reason why the country can’t become a sporting powerhouse.

“It is a gradual process. Sporting culture is needed where marks are given to students for sports in schools, jobs are assured for sportsperson and sponsors are willing to support them through rough times.

“We have picked momentum and are moving in the right di-rection. It began with RVS Rathore’s silver in Athens, Bind-ra’s gold and two bronze in Beijing and four medals here. It is an encouraging sign.”

He felt that the medals should inspire the athletes and they should strive to achieve better results in the future.

Commenting on the impact of sports, he said: “One thing that takes the country forward without war is sports.”

Narang was given a rousing welcome on arrival here.

“Narang begins with a 10.7”

“Narang shoots a 10.6 with third shot”

“Tenth shot, 10.7, Bronze

medal”

“After one shot, Narang is in second place with 608.7. Only behind MOLDOVEANU Alin George. He shot a 10.7.”

“Narang in third place now. He has 629 points. MOLDOVEANU Alin George is in first place with 629.9.”

“Wow. India finally have a medal. It took a bit. Can we some-how get a gold at London 2012? This is a good start. Our shooters have set the ball rolling. We are proud of you Gagan.”

Watch Video

Gagan Narang’s spoils of victory

S hooter Gagan Narang provided the spark to India’s Olympic campaign by clinching the bronze medal in the Men’s 10m air

rifle event on Monday.

By giving the country its first medal in the cur-rent Olympics, 29-year-old Narang lived upto expectations to claim the bronze, the third shooting medal in India’s Olympic history.

As soon as the news broke, Narang was reward-ed by state governements and the sports minis-ter. Surely more rewards will follow.

Here are the rewards that Narang has won:

Andhra Pradesh government rewards him Rs 50 lakh.

Andhra Pradesh government today announced a Rs 50 lakh cash incentive to the Indian shoot-er. The state government had so far given cash incentives to the tune of Rs 1 crore and 91.5 lakh to Narang for winning medals in various international sporting events like Asian Games (2010), Commonwealth Games (2010) etc, a release from the Chief Minister’s Office said.

Haryana Government gives him Rs 1 crore

The Haryana government Monday announced a reward of Rs 1 crore for Narang.

Even though Narang does not belong to Har-yana, he has been given the reward under the category of sportspersons from the state as his family roots are from the northern state.

Ajay Maken offers him top job

Sports Minister Ajay Maken announced that the ace marksman will be offered a job as a Group A employee in the Sports Authority of India, which is equivalent to an IAS officer.

“Had it not been for one shot, Gagan could have won the gold as well. All these Olympians whether they win a medal or not would be pro-vided an officer grade job with the SAI.

“A medal winner will straight away be promoted as Group A employee which is an IAS officer rank. So Gagan can be an IAS officer,” Maken told reporters outside the Royal Artillery Bar-racks where Narang opened India’s account in the medals tally.

Sahara India to give 2 kg of gold

Corporate major, Sahara India will give Narang 2 kg of gold.

Sahara has announced to reward the Indian athletes with gold, who will manage to clinch a medal at the London Olympics. Sahara will be awarding a 5 kg medal of gold to athletes win-ning gold medals, 3 kg to silver medallists and 2 kg to bronze medallists each.

FP Staff, Jul 31, 2012

FP Staff, Jul 30, 2012

Olympics: Gagan Narang wins 10m Air Rifle bronze

G agan Narang has provided India its first medal of the 2012 London Olympics, winning the bronze medal in the 10m

Air Rifle event.

Narang shot 103.1 in a gripping ten-shot finals for an aggregate of 701.1 after scoring 598 in the qualifying round in which also he stood third. Alin George Moldoveanu of Romania won the gold, while Niccolo Campriani of Italy came up with a silver. Moldoveanu shot the same score as Narang – 103.1 – but came first by virtue of finishing first in the qualifying round at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

After a good start when he shot 10.7, Narang was off target with his second shot that fetched him 9.7. But he gathered his wits and steadied his aim to collect 10.6, 10.7, 10.4 and 10.6 in the following four shots to at one stage remain on course for bagging even a silver.

However, he slipped a bit and had to fight for the bronze medal with China’s Wang Tao who finished fourth with 700.4. After returning poor scores of 9.9 and 9.5 in the seventh and eighth attempts, Narang pulled up his socks to seal the bronze with impressive scores of 10.3 and 10.7.

Earlier, Bindra, India’s shooting gold medallist in 2008, failed to make it past the qualifying event for the title he won in Beijing four years ago. He shot a round of 594 in the qualifiers, getting three nines in the sixth and final round which ruined his chances of qualifying.

He has struggled to confirm his supremacy over the past couple years, even slipping to 20th in the world rankings, but there widespread expec-tations that Bindra would defend the time he won on August 11, 2008.

Saina NehwalBronze medal,

Women’s Singles, badminton

“T his medal is yours, Papa.”

“Thank you beta.”

Those five words from Olympics 2012 bronze medallist in badminton women’s singles Saina Nehwal to her father Dr Harvir Singh, marked the realisation of a dream that Saina’s parents had seen 13 years ago. To see their daughter on the podium at the Olympic Games.

Saina’s return home was loud, exuberant and enthusiastic. It deserved to be as well, for in a sport dominated by the Chinese, an Indian

shuttler for the first time had made a mark. Also because in a country that worships only cricket as religion, it is important to acknowl-edge players who are defining a new faith. At Hyderabad airport, students from the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy rubbed shoul-ders with Harvir’s scientist colleagues from the Directorate of Oilseeds Research. And Saina, her coach Pullela Gopichand and fellow shut-tler P Kashyap were taken into the academy in a decorated horse carriage.

The Hyderabad skyline was dotted with hoard-ings welcoming the champion. One of them

Why Saina’s Olympic triumph is just the beginning

Saina is good enough to go for another eight years especially and has age on her side. Which means two more Olympics, two more Asian Games, and many

All Englands and world championships.

TS Sudhir, Aug 7, 2012

from the noodles brand, that Saina endorses, congratulating her for the masaledaarperformance at the Olympics.

“I was a normal girl, today I am a champion. I always wanted to be an Olympic champion. I am proud of myself, that I did what I said. When I was standing on the podium, I started weeping thinking of all the years of hard work that Gopi sir and I put in,” Saina said.

What this medal will do is to inspire a whole lot of youngsters who will seriously look at badminton as a career option. Like G Ruthvika Shivani, who was admitted to the Gopichand Academy on the day the team left for London. Ruthvika, from the Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh, is already the under-15 National champion in singles and doubles and the doubles under-17 national champion. And the prospect of rubbing shoulders with Saina excites her to no end.

“I have never met her but now I will get to see how she prac-tises and I hope she will also guide me and give useful tips,” Ruthvika said.

The 15-year-old who started playing badminton at the age of seven is clear that she wants to be another Saina Nehwal.

However, Saina insists her life won’t change much even after the Olympic victory. “I will take a break for 3-4 days and then it will be back to business on court,” she says. For “changing the colour of the medal next time,” is the diktat of her father.

But perhaps the tougher task starts now. One will be to moti-vate herself for the challenges ahead. The pitfall with almost conquering the Mount Everest of tournaments, is that the player could find the fire in her belly getting extinguished. Two, in a country starved of role models, the media attention and publicity could make it very difficult to stay grounded. All of which could reflect in the performance in the tournaments to follow.

The good thing about Saina is that she has a mature head on her shoulders. She needs to remind herself that she is still a work in progress and there are miles to go before she sleeps. Fortunately in her family and Gopi, she has people who will not let have her head in the clouds.

Gopi has already revised his expectations from Saina. See-ing a player like 33-year-old Tine Baun making it into the quarters at London, Gopi feels Saina is good enough to go for another eight years especially since at 22, she has age on her side. Which means two more Olympics, two more Asian Games, and many All Englands and world championships.

Gopi’s mother Subbaravamma, who manages the Academy’s

“The first point has gone to Saina, she will hope to make the most of a good begin-ning. China chose all it’s players because they had a good record against Saina. This will be a tough battle for her. It’s 2-0 in Saina’s favour.”

“Saina has been giv-ing up easy points. Far too many errors, Wa-ing Xin has just had to keep the shuttle in play and Saina has done the rest. It must be difficult. But think about this… it’s another four years before the next Olympics. Mean-while, Xin seems to have injured an ankle. It seemed to hurt a lot.”

“Xin injury break”

administration, says her son’s task as coach isn’t over.

“He has to produce many more Sainas. I wish for a day when two Indians are playing against each other in the finals of the Olympics,” she said. And in case you think it is wishful think-ing, she adds, “This academy is a lucky place. Whatever I have wished for at this place, it has come true.”

Four years ago, Saina’s spirit was broken when she lost in the quarter-final at the Beijing Olympics and no amount of pep talk by Gopi could cheer her. Finally Gopi told Saina, on their return flight to Hyderabad, “Report for practise tomorrow morning at 6.”

Saina’s reply was unexpected. “Can we start at 7 am instead, Sir?”

(T S Sudhir is the author of `Saina Nehwal : An Inspiration-al Biography’)

“Saina loses first game”

“Saina gets bronze, Wang Xin retires”

“It’s 18-21. Saina was down 14-20 and then fought back to take 4 straight points be-fore the injury to Xin. But upon resumption, Xin hit a superb cross court smash to clinch the game.”

“Saina gets the bronze. Saina was struggling a bit but Xin re-tired due to a knee injury. Not the way you’d want to win a medal, but we’ll take it. India can use all the medals they can win. The score was 18-21, 0-1 when the Chinese player simply collapsed on the court. She couldn’t take the pain anymore. A concerned Saina stood by and watched, before gently walking over to her opponent and consoling her.”

H yderabad: One morning at the acad-emy, in June, after a training session, I asked national coach Pullela Gop-

ichand, if he dreams about the Olympics. He smiled and said “Yes, I dream. While awake, consciously. The thought that the Indian flag is going high and the medal is coming along.”

Who says dreams do not come true.

Gopi’s daydreaming came true at the Wembley Arena when the Indian and the Chinese flags

went up, as his ward Saina Nehwal, bronze me-dalist at the 2012 London Olympics stood with Li Xuerui (gold medallist) and Yihan Wang (sil-ver medallist) on the podium. It also marked the fulfilling of a promise he had made to himself at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when he lost in the pre-quarters. He had told fellow shuttler and national champion Aparna Popat then that one day he would coach someone who would win an Olympic medal.

Who says people do not keep their promise.

London 2012: Saina’s moment but it’s time to salute Gopichand

Saina blossomed into a player of international repute once Gopi took her under his wings and the world-

class infrastructure at his Academy helped. And along with training her, Gopi also instilled in Saina the virtue of keeping her feet firmly on the ground.

TS Sudhir, Aug 5, 2012

Saina may not have won the battle against China but the bronze medal is a tribute to the effort that has gone into creating a hole in the Great Wall of Chinese badminton. Both Saina and Gopi knew they had to get their strategies just right, the fitness perfect and the mind at peace to have a realistic chance of winning a medal in London.

Saina had been plagued with injuries for the better part of 2011. Since the last one year, Saina’s diet regimen was strictly regulated. She ate what Gopi Sir ordered. She was encouraged to practise yoganidhra to ease off pressure. An-other person who played a huge role in ensuring Saina’s fitness is physio Kiran. She lost 5.5 kg in the first three months of this year, to help her move faster on court. Her retrievals in London were proof that the strategy had worked.

Perhaps it helped that after the high of 2010 – the year Saina won five big titles – 2011 saw her form and fitness take a dip. Sports experts often say defeats helps in taking out the arrogance that tends to inadvertently creep into a player if he or she is winning continuously. And that manifests itself in the player’s temperament, body language and attitude towards others.

Today Saina won hearts by walking up to an injured and heartbroken Wang Xin, hugged her and quietly walked out of the court. She knew this was not how she wanted to win an Olympic medal. She knew she had a very good chance to put it past Wang, who is world number 2 and brilliant on court. But Saina on Saturday wasn’t the Saina of Friday against Yihan Wang. Her feet were moving much better and she was engaging Wang Xin in rallies, the only way to score points against the Chinese. Because the moment you let them hit their smashes and

half-smashes, your game is up.

Back home in Hyderabad, Saina’s father found company in his tears of joy. An extremely emo-tional man, he has invested his time, energy, money and emotions in the younger of his two daughters. If Saina had returned empty-hand-ed, it would have broken the heart of this man who borrowed money from his Provident Fund to fund Saina’s badminton dream. As it would have mother Usha Rani’s. Both Harvir and Usha have been badminton players and Saina herself concedes that but for her mother’s push, en-couragement and even slaps, London could not have been conquered.

It is also time to compliment the badminton infrastructure in Hyderabad because Saina is a product of the system. She was first spotted as a talent at the summer coaching camp in 1999 and encouraged by successive badminton coaches. She blossomed into a player of inter-national repute once Gopi took her under his wings and the world-class infrastructure at his Academy helped. And along with training her, Gopi also instilled in Saina the virtue of keeping her feet firmly on the ground.

Today as India celebrates its first Olympic medal in badminton, along with Saina, it is also time to salute Gopichand, the man who made it possible. His name is never mentioned in the chorus for the Bharat Ratna. To my mind, as someone who both excelled in his sport and gave back to the game, Gopi is as deserving if not more than Sachin Tendulkar, Dhyan Chand and Viswanathan Anand.

(T S Sudhir is the author of `Saina Nehwal : An Inspirational Biography’)

Gopichand’s belief: Want a champion, forget democracy

In order to match the best, Gopichand has adopted the same philosophy of strict regimentation the

Chinese, Koreans or the Japanese follow. The results have just started to show.

Abhijeet Kulkarni, Aug 6, 2012

A few years ago, the trainees of the Pul-lela Gopichand academy at Gachibowli had the tendency of calling the training

complex a three-star jail since none of the play-ers were allowed to walk out of the premises for even a general stroll or shopping without the permission of the coaches and a gate pass.

Some of the players even had to surrender their cell phones after the morning training session and it was difficult for many to fathom the logic of all these rules. Slowly but surely they under-stood that it was coach Gopichand’s way to en-

sure that the players utilised their rest time only to recover from the strenuous training sessions and not waste their time and energy indulging themselves in unnecessary activities.

The Gopichand Academy, which gave India its first Olympic medal when Saina Nehwal won the bronze in London last week, has now be-come a cradle for badminton talent in India and the man who dreamt of making India a super-power in world badminton one day, rules it with an iron fist.

“If you want to produce champions, there is no place for democracy,” Gopichand had told the writer way back in 2009. The conversation about India’s future in badminton had then wa-vered towards the 2001 All England champion’s strict control over his wards and Gopichand had responded saying he needs to know everything that his player does every minute of the day.

Gopichand has firmly believed the progress of any player depends as much on what he or she does on the court but also outside the court as it can physically and emotionally affects their overall development.

The Indian Oil employee was very clear in his mind that the Indians were second to none in skills but lacked the fitness levels to match the best in the world. A fan of the Chinese training regime which puts tremendous emphasis on fitness and agility, Gopichand’s went about the task of building the fitness levels of his players with extensive training and strict diet control.

“Not one of my trainee will lose a match because he or she is unfit,” a statement Gopichand today makes with pride anytime he is asked about the players at his academy.

But that was not an easy task. When in Hydera-bad, Gopichand is at the academy at 4.30 in the morning preparing the daily training schedule of the 30-odd trainees and explaining his as-sistant coaches what they are supposed to do for the day. The elite shuttlers are put through three sessions each day with the physical train-ing and gym sessions customised to every indi-viduals needs.

“During breakfast time, Gopi sir would stand behind some of us, even weigh the amount of food intake we had because we used to hate eat-ing the protein rich food,” Prajakta Sawant, now the women’s doubles national champion, had told me once.

The rules were even stricter for Saina. Even when she was on a break and attending promo-tional functions, she would excuse herself and go to her room once it was time for her to sleep and I have personally witnessed how Gopichand would remind her about the time if Saina did miss the deadline.

Once Saina became a star and the entire nation began following her progress, the most popular ward were given certain liberties but Gopichand was never willing to compromise on certain issues and that became a bone of contention between the two last year.

But Saina soon understood the importance of the strict regimentation that Gopichand had prepared for her considering her body’s tenden-cy to quickly gain weight, something that slowed her down on the court.

In the run up to the Olympics, Saina’s public appearances were restricted and there was a rationing on even the amount of time she can spend talking on phone.

The results of the regimentation are for eve-ryone to see. Saina won the country’s maiden bronze in badminton and her academy mate P Kashyap became the first Indian male shuttler to reach the quarterfinals at the Olympics.

There is a battery of youngsters who have the potential to carry the baton from these two and have already started showing the spark on the international stage. P Sindhu is already the junior Asian champion, Sameer Verma has been a finalist in the junior Asian meet and HS Pran-noy won silver in the inaugural Youth Olympics.

In order to match the best, Gopichand has adopted the same philosophy of strict regimen-tation the Chinese, Koreans or the Japanese follow. The results have just started to show.

How Saina overcame her shortcomings to win an Olympic medal

Badminton pundits and Saina by her own admission, feel that a lot of other players have better technique.

And to blunt this advantage that others may have, over the years Saina worked really hard at fitness to outlast

and outclass her opponents.

Aparna Popat, Aug 6, 2012

T he crowds were cheering her during the rallies at the historical Wembley Arena. A billion hearts rooting for her. Even the

gods I suspect were watching.

Our very own Saina Nehwal created history to become the first badminton Olympic medallist.

She was a medal favourite going into the tour-

nament yet there was the looming threat from her opponents from across the border — the Chinese.

I suspect the winning formula lay right within the problem — ‘Chi’nese.

Chi is the mental energy and physical energy of a person combined. Saina knew that that if one

had to beat the Chinese they had to have Chi completely in control.

So along with her high levels of physical fitness, she used the Yoganidra technique — one of the deepest forms of meditation to control the Chi. With the weight of expectations, performance pressure and formidability of the Chinese, this was another arrow in her quiver.

This is just one of the finer points in the path to that Olympic medal. But let me take you back in time a bit.

I first heard about Saina in the badminton circles around 2001. While traveling for one of the nationals, I asked Gopi about this young-ster who was now training in his hometown, Hyderabad. He excitedly told me that the girl was very strong physically. Coming from Gopi, that was high praise and it certainly piqued my interest in this upcoming youngster.

I first played Saina at the Senior Nationals in 2004, when she was 14 years old. While I real-ised that what Gopi said about her strength was true, what really stood out for me was her nev-er-say-die approach that was evident even then. She really toiled through the match never giving up on hope even though I was the top seed and by then national champion six times over.

Badminton pundits and Saina by her own ad-mission, feel that a lot of other players have bet-ter technique. And to blunt this advantage that others may have, over the years Saina worked really hard at fitness to outlast and outclass her opponents.

While, I believe fitness is an outcome of dedica-tion and discipline, at the highest level of com-petition in badminton, more is demanded of the champions. Finesse and technique had to be learnt if she wanted to score points of her oppo-nents. But learning that was tricky. Enter Gopi. This is where her coach and former All-England champion P Gopi Chand has been exceptionally helpful.

They say when a student is ready, the coach ap-pears. And Saina was ready to learn and to work harder than anybody else.

I believe Gopi was the right guru for Saina. With meticulous planning and innovation he has brought out the best in her slowly but surely.

I last played her at my penultimate National Championship in 2006. Though I won the match, I could see dramatic improvement in her speed, variety and accuracy of strokes and con-fidence. Her motivation was as powerful as ever. Here was a worthy successor to past badminton champions — ready to take Indian badminton to the next level.

As each year went by, I could see Saina growing and glowing in glory as she worked to conquer her fears and overcome her weaknesses one by one. She was ever ready to put in that extra effort to reach the very top. And she certainly loved to win.

Fast forward back to the present, Saina has became our heroine No 1 — first Indian badmin-ton player to win the World Junior Champion-ships, 1st Indian woman to win a Super Series title, 1st Indian woman to achieve a world rank-ing as high as No 2, and now 1st Indian to win a badminton Olympic medal. No wonder she has become the most sought after non-cricketing sportsperson in India.

I have seldom come across someone so commit-ted in any field of life. So persevering to prove themselves, so determined to win. Her unfor-tunate loss in the quarterfinals of the Beijing Games spurred her on to prepare 100 percent for London 2012.

Today I feel immensely happy and proud that Saina has achieved her dream of an Olympic medal because I don’t think I can think of any-one who deserves it more.

Mary KomBronze medal,

Women’s boxing (51kg)

Educating Indians: There’s something about Mary Kom

It perhaps takes an occasional Olympic hero to impart a few home truths to us. What Mary Kom,

the pint-sized pugilist, teaches us...

Venky Vembu, Aug 7, 2012

M ark Twain said, only half in jest, that Americans learnt geography through the wars their country waged.

In India, it appears, it takes an occasional Olym-pic hero – like the pint-sized pugilist Mary Kom – to impart a similar lesson in the geography of places that exist outside of our normal range of vision.

On Twitter on Monday, @tonytongbram used the upsurge in national interest in the sporting fortunes of Mary to conduct a pop quiz – and elevate the cartographic awareness of many In-dians. On a map of India’s northeastern region, he asked Mary Kom’s many fans to try and iden-

tify Manipur, the State from which she hails.

Many of those who responded said they didn’t earlier know where Manipur was, but now they did. That, he said, was his “humble goal”.

The northeastern States are endearingly re-ferred to as the “seven sisters”, but the familial collective also masks a failing in many of us “on the mainland”: an inability to tell all the ‘sisters’ apart on a map – and a deeper incuriosity about the region. Amitabh Bachchan may not be guilty of any of these, but he too erred momentarily, while saluting Mary Kom, in referring to her as being from Assam. And although he quickly rectified his error of geography, he illustrated a

common-enough mental lapse.

Manipur is, of course, a State that, like much of the north-eastern region, has fallen off the map of our collective con-sciousness – to the point where even the periodic economic blockades (which compels Mary Kom to cook on woodstoves) and Irom Sharmila’s hunger strike of 11-plus years don’t make it to media headlines.

So, if it takes a Mary Kom to advance the frontiers of our un-derstanding, it’s a consummation devoutly to be desired.

But Mary Kom isn’t just teaching us to mark places on a map. Typical of someone who punches above her weight, she also subconsciously holds up a mirror to another duplicitous side of our mental make-up. The effusive readiness with which many Indians have embraced Mary Kom contrasts sharply – and hypocritically – with the racist stupidity and ethnic stere-otyping that is inflicted on many of those from the northeast-ern States in the big cities in “the mainland”.

Mary herself knows what it is to be mocked in Delhi’s mean streets. In a recent expansive profile of Mary Kom in Intelli-gent Life, Rahul Bhattacharya writes:

“When (Mary Kom) walks the streets of Delhi with her fel-low north-eastern athletes, they are sometimes mistaken for Nepali domestic help. ‘I tell them we are not Nepali, we are Manipuri, so don’t speak like that, this is very bad manners.’ At other times they are taunted with the gibberish dispensed to those with oriental features: ‘Something ching ching ching ching they start speaking, I don’t know what. Even they don’t know what! We are feeling bad. We are Indian.Ya, the face is different. But heart is Indian.’”

On occasion, the latent racism goes too far, as some recent tragic instances involving students from northeastern States – Richard Loitam (in Bangalore),Ramchanphy Hongray (in New Delhi), and Dana Sangma (in Gurgaon) – illustrate.But even when it is not lethal, expressions of racism, whether directed at one of our own or of foreign extraction, shame us all.

For instance, during Saina Nehwal’s matches with Chinese players at the Olympics, The Hindu’s China correspondent Ananth Krishnan observed a stream of racist public outpour-ings from Indians directed at the Chinese (A couple of cringe-worthy samples: here and here UPDATE: Both have since been deleted; in Ananth Krishnan’s case, he was forced to

“Almost time for Mary Kom vs Maroua Rahali. The bout begins at 6.30 PM. The Indian is short but she has the experi-ence. Her one-two punch-es worked well in the first bout and she will look to do that again. She gives up quite a few inches in height but she has the quick hands to make sure her opposition stays on the back foot.”

“The gameplan”

“Mary Kom wins third round 6-1”“Wow. This is amazing stuff. Mary completed dominated her opponent. Dodging and weaving and landing the perfect punches. Her lead is an impressive 11-4. If she doesn’t get knocked out, she is into the semis. Surely.”

delete his Retweet after he received a succession of abusive tweets, including from some people who fell into the error of assuming they were his words: as I have made clear, they were not: he was merely calling out the racist rants of some others.)

Such racist name-calling was again shamefully in evidence during a recent visit to China by an Indian youth delegation made up of youth representatives from various political par-ties. Media accounts of their indecorous conduct (here and here) recall that the male members of the youth delegation “made lewd remarks of the dressing style of some Chinese girls and called them ‘chinkis’.” Subsequently, they picked on girls from northeastern India who were part of their own delegation as well.

As Ananth Krishnan observed, “For people who love to play victim abroad, we unashamedly tolerate racism to Asians and Africans.”

Perhaps someone needs to put the fear of Mary Kom into those who would resort to such racist name-calling. As this blogger observed: “Next time you use insulting slang for people of North East, remember… Mary Kom, the Olympian boxer, is from Manipur. She’ll whack you :) ”

From filling the gaps in our geographic and cultural under-standing of the northeast to ‘fixing’ the moral compass of some of our deviants… it appears that there’s nothing that a left-hook from Mary can’t fix.

“What an easy win! Mary showed the value of ex-perience in this bout. She started off slowly, gaug-ing her opponent and then slowly dominated the proceedings. By the end, she was in complete charge. She won the bout 15-6 and the fourth round 4-2.”

“Mary Kom wins fourth round 4-2,

into semis”

“Now for a gold!”“Mary Kom is assured of a bronze now. But surely, she’s look-ing to get a gold. Her opponent is Nicola Adams - who beat her in the World Championships in May. Nicola is a three-time World Championship runner-up. It won’t be easy.”

The inclusion of women’s boxing brings to an end the last all-male sport at the summer games.

Reuters, Aug 5, 2012

Olympics: It’s finally Mary Kom’s day to shine

A fter judging controversies marred the first week of fights at the London’s Games, boxing’s governing body will

play its trump card on Sunday when they allow women to compete on an Olympic stage for the first time.

The inclusion of women’s boxing, rejected in the past because of a limited global appeal that saw them only sanctioned to fight in the 2012 host country 15 years ago, brings to an end the last all-male sport at the summer games.

Competing in just three categories and with smaller fields than their male counterparts, the women have had to wait over a week to make their bow, watching on as two officials were sent home and another referee suspended.

For one day at least, those controversies will be forgotten.

“It means a lot to me, we never really got our recognition. I think that it’s right, and that we’re going to be able to showcase the best of women’s boxing,” 17-year-old American middle-weight Claressa Shields told Reuters.

“We’ve got really good women here. When they see the best, they’re going to be like ‘yeah, women can box’.”

The International Boxing Association’s (AIBA) president said last week that he hopes more women will box at the Games in four years time and that he would press the International Ol-ympic Committee (IOC) to increase its quota of competitors to allow it to do so.

That is provided they perform well, AIBA presi-dent Wu Ching-kuo said, something India’s Mary Kom and Ireland’s Katie Taylor, sporting heroes in their countries who hold nine world titles between them, fully intend doing.

Like Shields, Taylor has received a bye into the quarter-finals and have to wait until Monday to join the action, leaving it to 24 fly, light and middleweight fighters to blaze the trail on Sun-day.

When North Korea’s Hye Song Kim and Elena Savelyeva of Russia take to the ring at 1230 GMT, the world will be watching.

L ondon: India’s medal aspirant M C Mary Kom said her first round bout against Poland’s Karolina Michalczuk in the Ol-

ympic Games was an “emotional” one as it was the fifth birthday of her twins Rechungvar and Khupneivarand.

“It is an emotional moment for me as today is my sons’ fifth birthday. I am not there to cel-ebrate because I am fighting in the ring. I am looking forward to being with them as this is important,” she said after her bout against the Polish opponent which she won 19-14.

Mary Kom had great respect for her opponent

and rated her as “very strong” but said she used her experience to prevail over her.

“The Polish girl is very strong, but she is a little bit weak technically. If she was good technically no-one could beat her. I beat her because of my experience. I can move back and slip a little bit,” she explained.

On being at the London 2012 Olympic Games, she said,”The Olympics are very special. Every athlete works to play at the Olympic Games. This is my 12th year of fighting and I came back out of retirement and changed my weight be-cause I had to take part in the Olympic Games.

Emotional win for me as it is my twins’ birthday: Mary Kom

The inclusion of women’s boxing brings to an end the last all-male sport at the summer games.

PTI, Aug 6, 2012

Luckily, I qualified and today I won.”

India’s coach Gurbakhsh Singh Sandhu said Mary boxed intelligently and with good foot-work.

“It is a very big day for Indian boxing. She boxed intelligently with good footwork and was scoring and moving.”

“I think she demonstrated all the moves. She comes from the north-east of India and I think this has been a very big lift for her and for women’s boxing,” Sandhu said.

On whether more women’s weights should be included at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, he said “Changing weight was the only way Mary could get a chance (at the Olympics). She is still more like 48kg (light flyweight). I think they should not cut down the number of men’s weights but add more for women.”

Karolina said it was a great experience to take part in the Olympics but she was not lucky enough to proceed any further.

“I am very happy and it was a great honour to be one of the first women boxers (in the Olym-pic Games). I worked very hard to get here but I

wasn’t lucky,” she said.

On what she would change in the bout, she said “I would probably change the referee. I don’t feel beaten. I don’t feel like I lost and it was unfair.”

On women’s boxing being at the Olympic Games, she said “It is a good thing and it will mean a great development in the sport. And the standard in the future will be higher.”

Asked whether she planned to take part in the next Olympics in Rio de janeiro, she said “I will finish studying. I am 33 now so I will not be able to go to Rio.”

Karolina’s coach Leszek Piotrowski resigned as the coach, saying that there was no boxing atmosphere in his country.

“There is a very poor atmosphere in the Polish camp and team and I am resigning. There is a split in the Polish boxing federation. For me it is a part-time (job). I am not in it for the money. I am in it for the medals and achievements. Boxing is not my profession, it is my hobby,” he said.

Of Mary Kom, Manipur, Olympics and curiosity

‘M ary Kom puts Manipur on the map’, scream a hundred headlines.

Manipur was always on the map – but you didn’t know where it was and you didn’t care.

What Mary Kom has done, by her heroism, especially her feat at the Olympics, is to make you care, make you curious, make you want to know. Know more about her and where she comes from.

That’s what great feats and events do for places.

When you hear of the heroics of the Battle of Plassey, you want to know where Plassey was or is (it’s in West Bengal; actually Palashi; 150 km north of Kolkata).

When you hear of the heroism and the logistics of the Normandy Landings, you wonder where Normandy is (it’s in France).

When you hear about Napoleon’s Waterloo, you ask, “Where is Waterloo?” It’s in Belgium.

Robin Hood makes one think of Sherwood For-est, which is in Nottinghamshire in England.

It needs the achievement by a person or persons to make us curious about where they hailed from or where they achieved their greatness.

That’s why the rights to conduct of the FIFA World Cup, the Olympics and, to a lesser de-gree, the Commonwealth Games are so fiercely fought. The city or country which wins the right immediately sees an increase in curiosity – and these cities or countries are ‘on the map’.

Mary Kom of Manipur has piqued our interest – and we want to know where Manipur is on the map. We want to know more about the land she was born in and lives in. We want to know what is in and around the village she lives in, the food she eats, the flora and fauna around her.

And then, perhaps, fascinated by all we’ve learnt, we want to go to Manipur, and we want to know if there is an airport near Manipur…

Yes, there is: Imphal.

Mary Kom has not put Manipur on the map. She’s made us search for it on the map, she’s made all of us curious about Manipur.

That’s what great achievers like Manipur do – make the world curious about everything to do with them.

What Mary Kom has done, by her heroism, especially her feat at the Olympics, is to make you care, make

you curious, make you want to know.

Anant Rangaswami, Aug 9, 2012

There’s something patronising about all this “Never mind, we still love you, Mary Kom” gush. India,

thou over-compensateth too much as if to say Hail Mary, full of grace, grant us forgiveness

for all those chinky jokes.

Sandip Roy, Aug 9, 2012

India (hearts) Mary Kom. But do we deserve her?

T here is indeed something about Mary.

But the “oh never mind, we still love you, Mary” adulation that is sloshing around the me-dia after Mary Kom lost her Olympics semi-final says something more about the rest of us than it does about Magnificent Mary.

It says that as a country we know full well that we have treated the seven sisters of the north-east abysmally. But we are hoping our new-found ardour for Mary Kom will grant us abso-lution.

From hardly knowing who Mary Kom was a few months ago, now we have swung to the other

extreme of over-compensation. Mary Kom is everywhere as if to prove hum kissise Kom na-hin.

In her, India has finally found a story about Ma-nipur in particular, and the north east in gen-eral, that is not about insurgency, HIV, drugs, floods or AFSPA. Her own state’s Irom Sharmila really came into the national spotlight because Anna Hazare was fasting in Jantar Mantar though Sharmila has been refusing food for over a decade. Even now I’d bet most of us have only the vaguest idea why she fasts.

But India has seized on the Mary Kom story with enormous relief because there is guilt

about the fact that most of us don’t know where Manipur is relative to Mizoram on the map. In her pluck we find a feel-good story that lets us off the hook.

Hail Mary, full of grace, grant us forgiveness for all those chinky jokes. Forgive us, because though now you are all over the covers of maga-zines, and your sister and sister-in-law are having microphones thrust in their faces, and newspaper correspondents are trekking over to your house in Manipur to watch the match with your family, a few months ago we didn’t really care anything about you or your against-all-odds boxing career.

In the insightful profile Rahul Bhattacharya did about her for Intelligent Life, Kom says simply, “We are Indian. Ya, the face is differ-ent. But heart is Indian.” But until this shining Olympic moment her country didn’t think the same. They just saw the face and dismissed it as “other”.

And sadly, I’d wager that’s how it will be de-spite this medal. Mary Kom’s victory might inspire other girls to take up boxing. Her box-ing school might be flooded with applicants. But the Mizo shopgirl in a mall in Gurgaon will still suffer her share of “chinky” jokes and girls who look like Mary Kom won’t have an easier time renting flats. “It is not correct to say that students of northeast states are more vulnerable as compared to students from other regions,” P Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha. But his fellow UPA minister Agatha Sangma retorted, “South is very different from North, but no south Indian in Delhi would be made to feel he does not look Indian.”

Mary Kom’s victory will not mean Manipur or its sister states will get better treatment from New Delhi. It will probably not even mean more electricity for a state where Kom’s family had to get a generator to make sure they would be able to watch her big match. As CNN-IBN correspondent Arijit Sen tweeted after the big electricity blackout: I’ve been asked to check if

Manipur’s power situation is normal. Yes at 1 hour of electricity every day it’s getting its nor-mal quota.

The rise of Mary Kom and Devendro Singh will lead to colourful stories about what’s it about Manipuris and boxing. 1998 Asian Games hero Dingko Singh told The Telegraph “That’s be-cause, by nature, we’re aggressive… gussa aa jata hai.” He was joking but Manipur has plenty of reasons to be pissed about.

The medal of Mary Kom could have been a way to talk about all of this. But instead it becomes the fig-leaf that covers it all up, so we don’t have to talk about anything else other than patronis-ingly pat her on the back and say, “Well done, Mary, mother of twins. We know how hard it is to be super Mom and super boxer. Aren’t those kids cute! ”

Her medal is being embraced as a triumph for India. “I join the nation in congratulating boxer Mary Kom for winning the Olympic bronze medal in the 51kg women’s boxing event. She showed great discipline and determination and has done India proud,” Manmohan Singh Singh said in a statement. “But India will have nothing to do with her victory,” writes blogger Priyanka Nandy.

On the contrary, she writes:

If, however, she had quit the ring after the first year of boxing on a rice-and-vegetable diet, without proper shoes, clothes, equipment or coaches, India would have had everything to with it. The Indian state compels Mary to live a difficult life in a difficult terrain, without elec-tricity, much personal security or enough food on the table, but with a surfeit of armed person-nel who frequently use the locals as their per-sonal entertainment.”

Mary Kom deserves her medal many times over.

But does India deserve Mary Kom?

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