Why can't India get more medals in Olympics?

One does not have to look too far to discover the reason for India's dismal performances in most sports events (except cricket). It is not that we do not have talent. In fact, at the junior levels India probably has more than the sports superpowers do. But our system of spotting talent and nurturing it is completely amateurish, haphazard, and doomed from the start. Our methods have neither the Government support like some countries have nor are they ruthlessly efficient like China and Japan. What we have is typically Indian “jugaad” methods which sometimes work partially, but more often do not work at all.

Let me give a few examples of the way sport is handled. These are incidents which have not been reported in the papers. When I was a journalist I was often asked by readers – why don't you report such things always? I used to tell them that these things happen so frequently that if we had to report each and every incident of apathy and inefficiency, there would be no space left in the newspaper to report the actual sport. 

This was how a senior national championship was being conducted. So we can guess how much worse things are at lower levels. And yet, these very people claim that they are highly dedicated and disciplined. They leave no stone unturned to promote sport, develop talent, encourage youngsters and so on. Clearly, they have no idea what dedication and discipline mean. And the example they are setting for the youth whose sports careers they control is obviously a very poor and uninspiring one.

Little by little she began nearing the target. Finally, at about 10.30pm she cleared the required height, qualified for the London Olympics and also broke a long-standing national record. By that time the entire stadium was pitch dark. Except for a small patch of light near the high jump area where she was performing. The only people present were the few judges who were recording the proceedings and a handful of us journalists who had to wait till the end so that we could report it in our respective newspapers. 

At that point, her Russian coach made a comment which I will never forget. He looked at the darkened stadium and the lifeless galleries and said, “Sahana Kumari is breaking records, but India is sleeping.” How true. We Indians are truly sleeping. We don't care about our players and we don't encourage them when they are young and need a boost. That is when they need funds, good equipment, and specialised coaching. Our sports system kills talent and grinds the dreams and ambitions of our youth into the dust. We only wake up at the time of the Olympics and expect them to bring us a bagful of medals.