At last. We have done it. It has taken this long for our country to procure its first individual olympics gold, thanks to Bindra. Winning the top medal in the biggest sporting event in the world is definitely not every sportsman's cup of tea. I really pity these sports people when the media starts cribbing that we not winning enough medals in proportion to our country's gargantuan population count. Seriously, all of us know, contributing to the olympic medal count is much more tougher than contributing to the people count.
Winning an olympics medal requires sheer talent and incessant practice of course, but to win that coveted gold medal, what it takes is perseverance and endurance. We can see the winners breaking up when they win the event or when they are recieving the medal. We can see the emotions flowing out in a rush. Only, the coach and the player himself would know how much he had to sweat to be eligible for the laurels. I personally see at least the highlights of most of the events as possible just to get a glimpse of what authentic sporting talent means. Watching their moments of rejoicing gives me some kind of immense pleasure, dont know why actually.
Actually, i never planned to write all this but just by watching a few videos of the previous Athens '04 Olympics, I was inspired to pen down this post. I am embedding the video of the Gold medal match for Badminton singles, where Taufiq Hidayat of Indonesia emerged as the winner.The other guy, Shon Seung Mo from Korea would have won silver at the worst case. But what is interesting and amazing is that the difference in skill level that separated the two. I consider it to be one of the best sporting videos I have ever watched in my life. Just click on the YouTube link below below and let it stream completely to the system. Then watch it. You will literally bow down to Taufiq's prowess. These are the guys who set standards and benchmarks and Indian sportsmen have a long long way to go so that they can catch up with the likes of these. Whether we will catch up or not is entirely left to us. Bindra has definitely given us a very good start and it would definitely be wonderful if the others start to follow his footsteps.
Well, here are the YouTube links to the video of the Badminton Singles Final. Will promise you, its definitely worth a watch!!
Final Set - Part 1
Final Set - Part 2
And, Lin Dan from China is another hell of a badminton player. Here is a video where he tells Denmark's Peter Gade that he means business.
Dan Vs Gade
And, a bonus! Dan Vs Hidayat
Thats all folks, will try to put up more links if I come across something nice.
Winning an olympics medal requires sheer talent and incessant practice of course, but to win that coveted gold medal, what it takes is perseverance and endurance. We can see the winners breaking up when they win the event or when they are recieving the medal. We can see the emotions flowing out in a rush. Only, the coach and the player himself would know how much he had to sweat to be eligible for the laurels. I personally see at least the highlights of most of the events as possible just to get a glimpse of what authentic sporting talent means. Watching their moments of rejoicing gives me some kind of immense pleasure, dont know why actually.
Actually, i never planned to write all this but just by watching a few videos of the previous Athens '04 Olympics, I was inspired to pen down this post. I am embedding the video of the Gold medal match for Badminton singles, where Taufiq Hidayat of Indonesia emerged as the winner.The other guy, Shon Seung Mo from Korea would have won silver at the worst case. But what is interesting and amazing is that the difference in skill level that separated the two. I consider it to be one of the best sporting videos I have ever watched in my life. Just click on the YouTube link below below and let it stream completely to the system. Then watch it. You will literally bow down to Taufiq's prowess. These are the guys who set standards and benchmarks and Indian sportsmen have a long long way to go so that they can catch up with the likes of these. Whether we will catch up or not is entirely left to us. Bindra has definitely given us a very good start and it would definitely be wonderful if the others start to follow his footsteps.
Well, here are the YouTube links to the video of the Badminton Singles Final. Will promise you, its definitely worth a watch!!
Final Set - Part 1
Final Set - Part 2
And, Lin Dan from China is another hell of a badminton player. Here is a video where he tells Denmark's Peter Gade that he means business.
Dan Vs Gade
And, a bonus! Dan Vs Hidayat
Thats all folks, will try to put up more links if I come across something nice.
Posts
8 comments:
Dont you see it? Unless you have a godfather to sponsor you, its almost impossible to make yourself competent at the international level.. You should see the plight of our athletes going to compete in the national games - travelling in unreserved compartments and living in dingy rooms. Sometimes make me feel that we should be ruled by communists :-(
@VK: Exactly. Selections for games like cricket are entirely based on dirty politics. I am sure there are quite a lot of talented people in the country who have been denied a chance due to these reasons. But, possessing enough talent to bag a gold is different thing right? What I am trying to convey is that, the indian sportsmen right now are in a level much below those when compared to China or the US. So, unless they work hard, Olympic medals will just be a dream for us.
I just don't see it that way. To me, Indians are no less talented than American, Russians or the Chinese. Just that our talents are not groomed the way they are out there. These guys need individual trainers, financial support for themselves and their families (most of them have to work for a living and sports cannot be taken at a fully professional level) and security. If you can check out PT Usha biography and the pains she underwent.. Then you'll know what I'm talking about. She's past her athletic days and has opened a training school with her hubby. She still has to cut through all the red tape of the bureaucracy for doing even that... It heart rending man if you see it.. Its just pathetic.
@VK: Yeah actually. I agree with you. The lack of support must be the reason why the Indians are not able to perform to their level best. Except cricket, I do not see any other sportmen being supported or encouraged. Very sad actually.
Hi Kitts,
Abhinav's Gold adds the much needed boost to our spirits. The shooters have made some definite progress than those in any other event. We had a Silver at Athens and now, a Gold to boast off. We do have the talent to accomplish much more, it's perhaps just the matter of time. There were no realistic hopes of any medal whatsoever at Sydney or Atlanta. But now, things have started changing if not completely improved. London holds lots of expectations from the likes of Abhinav, Saina and our pugilists, who, till now have made some inroads too. [:)]
If I've read the reports right, Bindra owns land worth 150 crore... his company rakes in $75 million in revenue. Gosh! and look @ the various state govts showering tax payers hard earned money on him. $@$&@#%&
n yeah, just to add masala... women athletes from USSR were forced to have sex with their boyfriends a day b4 their event. If boyfriends were not available for the "natural hormone therapy" then coach would end up as the lucky guy. ;-)
Perhaps the Omniscient kitta already knew about the russian roulette with olympic flavor. the girl gets "shot" anyway... :-D ;-)
btw my joinin dates(infy) have not come yet...
@Rith - I too share your hopes man. As of now, we still got some chance in Boxing with the Kumar duo who have amazingly punched their way through the initial rounds. I want to see at least one bronze coming out of this. Man, those two guys do look confident and cheerful!
@The Chaos Monger - Kudos for that Roulette comment. (LMAO!) Bindra is the CEO of his own computer gaming company man and his dad is a 'Karodpati' industrialist and whatever the government grants him would be literally peanuts. India is one weird country. I would appreciate if the same money was used to establish some kind of training facility for sportspeople of the country. Because, the country does not even bother about these sportspeople before the olympics, does not give a damn whether they have been undergoing proper training or whether they have access to the required amenities. After these guys make to some quarter final or pre-quarter final round, we suddenly wake up and declare a prize of 25 lakh or the post of a DYSP in the police force if the guy bags the medal. The sportsman who was doing really good is now kinda distracted by this new 'offer' and he ultimately screws it up. At least this was what I inferred.
Damn.We definitely need to change how the sports work in this nation. Perhaps its time for us to learn from our good old neighbour China when it comes to that. So far they have done a great job, be it hosting the event or by scalping the medals.
Actually I don't see why we should be worried if we don't get medals.
The thing we should be worried about is that there are no playing grounds for people to play. They are all acquired by land sharks. If every person after a day's work in the office or a child after coming back from school plays football/cricket/any other sport for an hour, that should be enough. We don't need medals. We need daily entertainment, exercise and bliss.
I heard in US, they have these huge sports complexes where you can go and just play. You need to have an ID thats all. It's that simple. Such a thing should be replicated in India as well. It is tough to do that in Bangalore, but in smaller cities it is certainly possible.
Post a Comment