Tokyo Olympic 2020 is about to finish and world’s second most populated country India is happy with the number of medals that has not even crossed double digits.
We are happy expressing our joy with the only gold fetched by Neeraj Chopra in javelin and in the success story of both the Hockey teams (men and women). And then as it has been the trend, after Olympics we all will switch to cricket again and forget that the Olympians are not made in a day . It demands years of sweating and training on the part of the player. And live that time sportsperson requires a constant financial and moral support.
A lot has already been written and also being written on what we could have done to get better medal talley at Tokyo Olympics. Many are busy writing on who failed India.
Many even fighting for credits for whatever little success we have achieved.
I would like to look forward and suggest something that may change our position in Paris Olympic 2024.
If we look in the sports map of India, we can easily find that some states are doing exceptionally well in sports and that too in a special one. Haryana in wrestling, Andhrapradesh & Telangana in Badminton, Punjab in Men’s Hockey, Odisha/Jharkhand in Women’s hockey.
If we can assign one or two sports to a particular state to develop world class infrastructure then resources will definitely be better utilized.
We can have system of nation wide selection of players at young age and then these selected one can get residential coaching, training in these state specific infrastructures.
The states working on all sports is leading them to become jack of all. Giving one or two sports to each state may channelize their resources to become master of one.
All allocated money, human resources can be directed towards achieving one goal ( or gold!!). Central government may contribute accordingly.
We have success stories of Haryana, Odisha and Telengana in wrestling, hockey and badminton respectively.
If planning and perseverance builds a player, let’s do it from now!
