As the dust settles over the Rio Games, it’s time for India to get down to brass tacks and start preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Athletes from Stanford University won 14 gold medals at the Rio Games, five more than India’s Olympic haul since it first sent a team to Antwerp in 1920.
That comparison becomes more alarming if we consider the number of medals won by athletes from 10 American universities at the Rio Games – 116, including 62 gold. India’s medal tally stands at two – a silver and a bronze.
It’s evident that what the American universities have and India lack is the ecosystem that fosters elite, world-class athletes.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Great Britain finished 36th with only one gold medal and were labelled the ‘Team of Shame’. The embarrassing show made them go in for an overhaul of the existing system. Two decades later in Rio, Britain finished second with 27 gold medals, ahead of mighty China.
Finishing on the podium was also a challenge for the U.S. women’s gymnastics team at the turn of the century, and they placed a disappointing fourth at the 2000 Sydney Games.
Legendary coach Martha Karolyi, who along with her husband had trained the likes of Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton, took over as national team coordinator in 2001 and meticulously went about changing the ecosystem.
Since 2002, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team has always finished first or second in the world championships. At the Rio Games, they won gold beating Russia by a jaw-dropping margin of 8.209 points.
Building the right ecosystem is an exercise that starts from the top. It’s essential to have a sports federation that is committed to doing everything it takes to win Olympic medals.
Second, the federation must hire a team of expert coaches with impeccable credentials and equally good support staff – doctors, physiotherapists, nutritionists and masseurs.
Next come the centers of excellence that provide training programmes, latest equipment, accommodation and nutrition to its elite athletes.
The top U.S. women gymnasts and coaches go every month to Karolyi’s 2,000-acre ranch in Huntsville, Texas, for a week-long training programme. At the camp, techniques are refined to help them secure the maximum competition points. Gymnasts are also trained to be mentally and physically ready to perform at any time – morning, afternoon or night.
India’s own success story lies in badminton. In just eight years, Pullela Gopichand’s training academy has produced two Olympic medals – a silver and a bronze in women’s singles. Other federations either need to replicate this or find their own model.
It’s crucial to identify sports with likely medal winners. Let’s face it, India cannot win a medal in football or fencing at the Tokyo Games. But it stands a good chance in disciplines such as badminton, shooting, hockey and wrestling.
The official bodies of these events must hire top-notch coaches and support staff, bring in equipment to train elite athletes and begin focusing on the Tokyo Games by January.
Athletics, swimming and gymnastics had 279 medals on offer at the Rio Games and the Indian sports ministry should focus on them for the Olympics in 2024 and 2028.
In order to have a broad base of talent, it’s essential to promote sports at grass-roots level. Great Britain has a dedicated organization for it called Sport England and its ‘Backing the Best’ programme identifies and supports young and talented athletes. India’s sports ministry should try and emulate this.
Creating the right ecosystem does take a few years to produce results at the world level. Another option is to encourage Indian athletes to get sports scholarships in American universities. Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu, who won three golds and a silver at Rio, is a student at the University of Southern California. Had Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar and her coach Bisweshwar Nandi trained in the United States for some years, the result at Rio could have been different.
But creating a sports ecosystem needs money. Indian sports federations must learn the art of wooing the corporate world the way the Indian cricket board has to make it the world’s richest cricketing body. Relying completely on government funds is not the answer.
Team Great Britain received about 350 million pounds ($470 million) in support for the Rio Games, including 274 million pounds ($368 million) through a national lottery. UK Sport, which looks after Olympic and Paralympic sports, also provides 28,000 pounds ($37,600) annually to medallists at Olympics and world championships, and 21,500 pounds ($28,860) to top-eight finishers at the Olympics. If that’s not enough, it’s been equipped with programmes and funds for Tokyo Games since November 2015.
Evidently, sporting superpowers prepare extensively for at least four years, with Olympic campaigns fuelled by big bucks. It’s time for India to fast-track its Olympic dreams.
The post Mission 2020: India Readies For Tokyo Olympics And Beyond appeared first on News India Times.