Brewed In The Oven Of Giving
A youth dedicated to sports #OlympicFever
Prepping India Olympic hopefuls to win big in Paris 2024
The Tokyo Olympic Games has made India witness the stellar performances of Indian athletes, netizens are hailing these ‘New Legends’ and also bowling over by knowing the background and hardships of these athletes. Even the athletes who didn’t win the medals have received immense love and encouragement for their compassion and willingness to make the country proud.
Still one of the most google trending questions is: Why does India have fewer medals in the Olympics? And does it matter?
We have an answer that will sound less like nagging and more like a strategy to prepare the whole nation together for more gold in Paris 2024; Paris 2024 For Hopeful — that’s what we call it.
We are the world’s largest democracy and still not even closer to the smaller countries like Italy, Sweden, Germany and Hungary in terms of Olympic performance, UK, US and China are beyond the question. It might hurt our pride and what we are going to say might cause more burns.
But it’s worth it!
Brace yourself!
Old wives’ tale
The first theory is based on the overhyped expression “Kheloge kudoge banoge kharaab , padhoge likho banoge nawab” which means that if you will dedicate your life to sports, you’ll be ruined for sure but if you’ll study or perform well in academics you will be a king. We are still living with a mentality that says science students are up above commerce and commerce students are up above the art students, sports don’t even stand a chance on the chart of this baseless hierarchy. In India, sports colleges are fewer than 100 and sports classes are usually treated as a free period. Parents are reluctant to support their children to take sports as a career, especially the unpopular ones.
But this myth has recently been debugged by athletes like Mirabai Channu, Neeraj Chopra, Ravi Kumar Dhaiya, Lovlina Borgohain and more who proved that the sure-shot plan of succeeding cannot be taught in any textbook. According to the survey of Local Circles, the hype of the Tokyo Olympics has increased to 71% where parents say if a child in the family was interested in a sport outside cricket, they would support them taking it as a career. But the Olympics happens once every four years and except cricket, other sports are only introduced to the natives during such mega-sport events. This leads us to our second reason.
It’s not just a game
In the 2008 Olympics, China came up with an unique strategy to procure more gold by targeting soft games. This year in the Tokyo Olympics they sent the largest-ever delegation to get more gold but that’s not it. China’s ambition is to become a sporting power by 2035. They are driving economic growth, job creation, market and national spirit altogether through sports. Shares of sneakers and other sports company’s have jumped in Beijing.
China’s sports industry is aiming to make sustainable development by boosting the sports economy and it’s totally working for them in 2021. Coming back to the point, China’s focus on primarily 7 sports is bringing 70% of the gold -Table tennis, diving, weightlifting, gymnastics, badminton, shooting and swimming.
India has also made progress by sending 119 athletes to the Tokyo Olympics, that’s our largest number by far. Fouaad Mirza is the first Indian in 20 years and the third Indian to take part in equestrian events at the Olympics. This year we have got our first Indian fencer to qualify in the Olympics; Bhavani Devi. Not only this Nethra Kumanan participation in the laser radial event has made her the first Indian woman in history to participate in this sports category.
More for TOP
TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) is a flagship program of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports which aims to provide top-quality assistance to India’s top athletes. The Scheme looks to add a premium to the preparations of these athletes so that they can win medals in the Olympics. Currently, the TOP is supporting 104 core group athletes across 13 sports disciplines & Hockey (Men and Women) teams and also 269 TOPS Development Group athletes across 12 sports disciplines. This number needs to increase further not just in terms of athletes but also in the terms of categories we are covering.
Paris 2024 for hopeful
The Tokyo Olympics have shown a way forward for Indian Sports with a broader perspective of improving the national tally for Paris 2024. Covid-19 has already proved that ‘Padhoge-likhoge’ (performing well in academics) can also not guarantee a bright future and the way Olympics has helped the market to flourish again in the ongoing chaos of Covid-19 is exactly what we Indians need to boost our morale.
The government might need some more time to get financial stability for our athletes but through crowdfunding and sports fundraisers we can support our hopefuls for 2024. To raise awareness and encourage Indian youth towards the sports and to strike more golds in Paris Olympics 2024, the Crowdera foundation is very soon going to launch Paris 2024 for Hopeful.
Stay tuned to know more!
