It is shocking that a country with over 125 crore of population is struggling to perform well at Olympics. It comes as a surprise to many that the country with majority of young population has such an ordinary run at biggest sports event.
But as per my understanding it might not be surprising due to following reasons
Firstly, till date Sports is not considered as a career at the preliminary stage in our country. It is merely an extracurricular activity.
In many parts Sports come to people as an option for whose are not good in academics. Education and securing a job through it, is still the priority over sports.
However in last decade things have changed which reflects on our participation and medal tally as well. But still not up to the potential with regards to talent and population.
Second constraint is infrastructure and training facilities. The facilities at ground level are miserable for most of the sports. The conditions in which sport person get trained doesn’t help them when compared to their opponents from other countries. Lack of proper equipment and practice regime makes them less affective on top platforms and also adds to injuries in many cases which reduce the career longitivity of many athletes.
Any Olympic sport in country barely has systematic structure and competent governing bodies that organise and take care of facilities and well-being of these sportsperson.
It is not a hidden fact that all the great sportsperson have started training hard early in their career under the supervision of competent coaching staff and competent environment. We severely miss out on this area.
Third factor is lack of competent match practice and exposure. A few athletes despite all the scarcity of facilities make up to the top. However in absence of proper match training and practice against stronger opponents on regular basis doesn’t get the required exposure. This exposure is very essential to gauge competitor’s potential as well as our own.
However with the introduction of the various national premier leagues in the various sports, the sports persons have been getting exposure to the better competitors on both national and international level.
These are the major factors that hinder the success of our athletes on the largest platform. In addition to this lack of interest by corporates and sponsors adds to miseries of sports. People viewership for any other sport than cricket has always been a concern for authorities.
With emergence of successful followers and sponsorship for sports like tennis, boxing and shooting country has started looking beyond cricket in last decade or so.
Let’s hope for higher participation and wins in coming years.
