| The albatross around Vasudevan Bhaskaran's neck is something he's both proud of as well as wants to let go of. As captain of the Indian hockey team that won the gold medal at the Moscow Olympics almost 27 years ago, Bhaskaran has ached to let go of that record. He thought | ||
| India had a chance when he coached the hockey team for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, but unfortunately the team didn't manage it. | ||
| Ever since the fortunes of Indian hockey started to decline "" which was back in 1982 when Pakistan walloped us during the Asian Games at home "" expectations of a medal in hockey at the Olympics have been negligible. Neither have the teams or the authorities done anything to rectify that. | ||
| But the sorry state of Indian hockey has had both positive and negative fallouts as far as preparation for the Olympics is concerned, depending on where you are looking at the picture from. Rather than pinning all hopes on the revival of glory in hockey, it has given athletes in individual sports a chance to excel. | ||
| A quick look at the numbers first. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, a 70-member Indian contingent managed to bag a solitary bronze, courtesy Leander Paes's heroics on the tennis courts. Four years later, in Sydney, the 74 Indians, now true to tradition, claimed another bronze, this time | ||
| Karnam Malleswari doing the honours in weightlifting. At Athens, in 2004, the 76-member contingent bettered the record somewhat, with a silver this time and against all odds, thanks to Major Rajyavardhan Rathore in the double trap shooting event. | ||
| Now, with less than a year to go before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and hopes and expectations soaring again, let's take a reality check. So far, 14 athletes have qualified in four disciplines, while quite a few remain within shouting distance to get the coveted berth on the plane to Beijing. | ||
| Of these 14, nine are shooters, three are archers, one is a swimmer, and one an athlete from the track and field. The hockey teams, both men and women, are yet to qualify, and berths for disciplines like athletics, boxing, badminton and table tennis remain up for grabs. | ||
| But then again, every recent Olympics has seen the hopes of India's favourites dashed, with the oddball wild card bringing a medal home. If after his amazing display in 1996, and an enviable partnership with Mahesh Bhupathi, it was Paes who was expected to come back with a medal in 2000, he did not deliver and it was Malleswari who did the country proud. | ||
| In 2004, Anju Bobby George and shooter Anjali Bhagwat were the "best hope" for medals after encouraging performances in the lead-up to Athens. They too came back empty handed, leaving it to Rathore to have the national anthem played at the venue. | ||
| Manisha Malhotra, administrator of Mittal's Champion Trust (which sponsors and trains many sportspersons) takes a practical, if uncharitable, view of India's participation at the Olympics. | ||
| "There are two types of athletes who are a part of the contingent. Those who are just happy to be there, which unfortunately constitutes the majority, and others who are contenders and likely to pose a serious challenge." The contenders this time include shooters, boxers and archers. | ||
| SHOOTING If there is one discipline where there are whispers of a probable medal, it is shooting. The shooters are being tipped to do extremely well, riding on the back of impressive performances at the Commonwealth Games in Australia and continuous improvement thereafter. But will the expectations weigh too much? | ||
| According to Rajyavardhan Rathore, who will return to the Olympics to again test his mettle, "The expectations won't bog us down. You have to go and give your best shot and hope that the gods are smiling on you." And Abhinav Bindra, who at 24 has been to two Olympics, is quietly optimistic. "The expectations," he insists, "will push us to do even better." | ||
| Rathore, who has been in rigorous training for close to two years now to prepare for the Olympics, does not believe it is wrong to pin one's hopes on the shooters. "With the kind of talent we possess, we can give anyone a run for their money," he tosses out. | ||
| But in a sport like shooting, it all comes down to that one day. "You may practice hard but there are a lot of factors beyond your control that could hamper your performance," says Bindra. | ||
| Bindra has been training under a foreign coach both abroad as well as at home, while Manavjit Singh Sandhu has shifted his base to Italy in order to prepare for the Olympics. Samaresh Jung, who has had a record haul of medals at the Commonwealth Games, will also be looking to step up and justify his tag as a favourite. | ||
| On the women's front, Anjali Bhagwat and Avnit Kaur Sidhu have booked their places, with Bhagwat all set to wipe out the disappointing memories of Athens. | ||
| BOXING Here is another discipline where, despite poor media interest, the boxers came close to winning a medal, only to be knocked out in the quarter finals in Athens. | ||
| Vijender Singh is one boxer who is targeting an Olympic berth and is optimistic about his chances. The Arjuna awardee who won a silver at the Commonwealth Games in 2006 knows it's an uphill task. "Once I am there, who knows what might happen," he says with quiet confidence. | ||
| He knows from experience that he can compete and beat the very best "" after all, he came very close to doing that against the reigning Olympics gold medalist from Kazakhstan, and was unlucky to have missed out on a gold in the Asian Games due to some controversial refereeing. | ||
| "It's part of the game," he comments. He's forwarded a request to the Sports Authority of India for undergoing training in the US under a foreign coach to boost his chances and gain more international exposure before he sets his sights on Beijing. "I'm looking forward to being better prepared," he says. | ||
| Besides Singh, India's boxing hopes at the Olympics include Akhil Kumar (currently nursing a broken arm), Jitender Singh and Manoj Kumar. | ||
| ARCHERY Considering that one never reads or hears much about Indian archers, it might come as a surprise to know that hopes are being pinned on them to be among the contenders for a medal, even ahead of sports like tennis or hockey. | ||
| India's women archers have been doing well consistently, and three among them "" Dola Banerjee, Chekravolu Swuro and Bombayala Devi "" have already secured a berth for Beijing. They're hoping to prove themselves at the Asian Championships to be held in Xian in November. | ||
| Says Swuro, who is from Nagaland and is considered the brightest prospect in archery, "We aren't going there as tourists and hope to leave a good impression which should convert into medals." Swuro is content to be away from the limelight, saying the lack of pressure should spur them on. | ||
| "Not many people will be backing us, which could be the perfect tonic." Swuro has had considerable international exposure in terms of medals, after winning a bronze at the Asian Archery Championships and a silver at the European Archery Grand Prix event. | ||
| The men have disappointed in archery, having failed to qualify for the team event at Beijing, which was a blow considering archers such as Jayanta Taludkar and Tarun Rai were riding high on impressive performances. They still have a chance to make the cut in individual events though. | ||
| TENNIS Probably the only discipline where we have star names "" if Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi can keep their personal egos and differences aside, they could be more than a force to reckon with. | ||
| Qualifications are a mere formality as the National Olympic Committees can enter up to four men and four women in singles events and two pairs in each of the double events, so Lee-Hesh would be among the top names in doubles and on the women's front. Sania Mirza is likely to be the solitary contender. | ||
| In spite of doing well recently, it is Mirza's inconsistency that could thwart medal hopes. As a result, the spotlight is once again on our most successful doubles pair, who came close to winning a bronze in Athens, that remain one of the brightest hopes. | ||
| According to former Olympian and Indian tennis player Gaurav Natekar, it is the draw which remains crucial. "At the Olympics, it's all about national pride and most of the so-called smaller nations are pumped up, so there are no favourites on paper. But if you get a favourable draw, you never know what might happen." And that might well be the case both with the doubles pair and Mirza. | ||
| SWIMMING "Pinning hopes on a 16-year-old would be way too much," exclaims Hakim S H, who manages Indian swimming prodigy Virdhawal Vikram Khade. For a normal teenager, true, but if you are the fastest in the world among your age group, those hopes might well be justified. Khade stunned the entire world when he clocked the fastest timing of 1:52:41 seconds at the National Games. | ||
| Ever since, he has been training extremely hard, and Hakim agrees that a realistic target might well be "attaining a semi-final berth". Just before the Olympics is the World Youth Championships in Mexico, where Khade's mettle will be tested with Hakim saying he has a good enough chance to do well there. | ||
| His coach Nihar Ameen too is hopeful of a decent performance. "Vikram is an extremely talented boy and I expect him to do well, but expecting a medal may be too much." Watch out. | ||
| ATHLETICS So far, only one athlete who has made the cut for Beijing "" triple jumper Renjith Maheshwary, who achieved a career-high world ranking of 24 last month. While track and field events is one discipline where we have always flattered to deceive, things don't look too good this time around. | ||
| Apart from Maheshwary, long jumper Anju Bobby George is hopeful of making it to Beijing, and others such as Chitra Soman in 400 metres and Sinimol Paulose in 1,500 metres provide a glimmer of hope. | ||
| BADMINTON While Anup Sridhar might be claiming headlines for beating top-ranked players in the World Championship, he will have to repeat his heroics at the Yonex Sunrise Open in Hyderabad in September. | ||
| Sridhar, along with Chetan Anand, remains hopeful of clinching a place in Beijing on the men's side, while it is Saina Nehwal on the women's side who is confident of making it to Beijing. | ||
| Nehwal, who in an earlier interview to Business Standard had said her burning desire was "to bring back the Olympic gold", remains a favourite to qualify. Playing the qualification tournament on home turf would be the ideal place for the shuttlers to ensure that they maintain their good form and make it to Beijing. | ||
| HOCKEY What had been a sure-shot medal hope in the past is now sadly one sport where no hopes at all are being pinned on a win. "And rightly so," says Bhaskaran. | ||
| "We have had a poor run at the Olympics for quite some time and it needs to be rectified." While Bhaskaran says that the team is improving, they would need to be on the top of their game if they manage to reach Beijing. | ||
| Hockey coach Joachim Carvallho remains confident of leading the team to Beijing but might just have to wait till April. The team will have to win one of the three qualifying tournaments, which will take place sometime during February and April. | ||
| The same applies for the women's hockey team, who are yet to qualify. "I am hopeful of qualifying, but considering the performance at past Olympics, won't speak too highly of a medal chance," says Bhaskaran. | ||
| LESSONS FROM history teach us to be wary of the past and to learn from its mistakes. For sports fans, history doesn't flatter to deceive with huge expectations. But for sportsmen, there is no bigger challenge than to overcome these odds and rewrite history. Will it happen at Beijing? The head says no, but the heart says yes.
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