India’s bid for medals at the Olympic Games has got a big boost with the Olympic Gold Quest, writes Aabhas Sharma
At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, host country China picked up 100 medals (51 golds), the maximum number of medals were won by USA, and even a small country like Belarus managed 19 medals to India’s one gold, and two bronze — its highest tally ever. That little win, far from satiating its appetite, has left sportspeople in the country hungry for more. And if a small group of people has their way, then the quest for medals at the Olympics, as early as 2012, could translate into gains that would have been impossible to imagine even a few years ago.
The Olympic Gold Quest is India’s first major attempt to drive a training programme for handpicked sportsmen to fight all the way to the top for the honour of bagging a gold, or any other medal for the country — even though it has no government support, and is not affiliated to any sports bodies in the country. The brainchild of former badminton champion Prakash Padukone and billiards ace Geet Sethi, its only goal is to lay the foundation for athletes to get on with what they do best — train and play — while they take care of the logistics and funds.
Exactly a year from now, India will plunge headlong into its biggest sporting extravaganza since the 1982 Asian Games. There might be infrastructure problems surrounding it, but the 2010 Commonwealth Games offer the country a chance to issue a statement of intent — that we are ready to throw down the gauntlet and challenge sporting nations with our homegrown champs. No longer will we be content to sit on the sidelines and watch others being crowned champs: We want to reserve that honour for ourselves, at least in some disciplines.
For years, athletes have complained about the lack of support required to cross that extra mile. More exercise was done in pointing fingers at federations and athletes than out in the field. “It was something that irked me,” says Padukone. “Why were we playing the blame game but doing nothing about it.” Between him and Sethi, they decided that the only way to look forward was to do something about it on the ground — and so OGQ, or Olympic Gold Quest, was born with the idea, as Mohammad Ali once famously said, to fulfill a dream. “Champions aren’t made in the gyms,” the world boxing champ had said. “Champions are made from something they have deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision.” When they started out, it was as Ali said, a dream, a desire and a vision.
Padukone and Sethi started by getting in touch with like-minded people from the corporate world who wanted to see India do well at the Olympics. Among them was Niraj Bajaj, a director in the Bajaj Group of companies and Rahul Bajaj’s younger brother. Bajaj was no stranger to sport himself: He had been ranked the country’s number one table-tennis player in the eighties. “I knew we had talent, potential,” he said, “but we still fell short.” Now, thanks to OGQ, he says he is in a position to give something, do something for sports in the country.
The early days of OGQ, says Rakesh Khanna, ex founder of Ambit RSM, investment banking firm, are as yet about testing the waters, sussing out whether it can actually do something, even though R Ramaraj, co-founder of Sify and one of the board members of OGQ, says the very presence of Sethi and Padukone should be an indication of the commitment of the organisation. OGQ’s larger coup was roping in Viren Rasquinha as its chief operating officer. Rasquinha, who is an Olympian and former captain of the Indian hockey team, had packed his hockey sticks for a management degree at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. Khanna was sceptical about Rasquinha joining at the time when the offer was being made. “Can you imagine somebody from the Indian School of Business joining an organisation that was still taking its baby steps?” But it was an easy decision for Rasquinha. “We aren’t in it to gain brownie points,” he says, “by supporting an athlete here and there.”
The foundation supports eight individuals across various disciplines. The most prominent athlete among these is ace shooter Gagan Narang, who holds the world record in the men’s 10-metre air rifle event. Badminton player Guru Sai Dutt, discus thrower Vikas Gowda, boxer Sanjay Kolte and Tintu Luka, a promising women’s 800m runner, are some others. OGQ has also signed an agreement with the P T Usha School of Athletics in Kerala to support 19 of its athletes. The latest to join is world champion boxer M C Mary Kom.
Narang, who has done wonders for Indian shooting, knows how difficult it is for an athlete to make it big at the international level. His family had to sell land to buy him a gun and the ammunition to practice. Khanna recalls an incident when he wrote to Narang on his winning the gold at this year’s World Championships. Earlier, OGQ had pitched in with some funds to support Narang. “I told him, in jest, that it was the extra funds that did the trick,” Khanna recalls. Narang responded by saying that it was not so much the money as the fact that there was someone out there supporting sportspeople like him that had made the difference.
But it is about money, say both Bajaj and Ramaraj. “Sometimes the difference between a first position and the fourth is that lack of funds,” points out Bajaj. “At times, athletes fall short because of lack of proper training or international exposure,” agrees Ramaraj. This is where OGQ comes in. Shitin Desai, executive vice president, DSP Meryll Lynch, and a founding member of the foundation, says, “Let’s not make any compromises on anything.” OGQ’s philosophy is simple and clear. It stays away from all clichés about “spotting talent” or “promoting sports at the grassroots level”. Nothing of that sort, says Bajaj. The idea is to help athletes who have shown potential, or have the talent, but have been unable to deliver on their promise.
Nor is raising money a big problem, says Rasquinha. With big names from the corporate world already backing the initiative, Rasquinha is confident about finding athletes who will deliver in 2012. “If not 2012,” Bajaj is willing to take a long-term view of the foundation, “then four years after that.” “Funding is important,” points out Rasquinha. “If you don’t invest in your athletes, how will you create world champions? Only talent doesn’t win you medals. It takes much more.” OGQ will tide over athletes’ worries about the routine last-minute scramble for funds. “We hope that’s not a concern for athletes in the future,” Padukone says.
Apart from the board members, donors include the likes of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. “Everyone wants India to win Olympic medals, therefore everybody is excited about this,” says Rasquniha.
Ramaraj says the foundation shouldn’t remain within the realm of only a few like-minded individuals. “We need to make this a mass movement,” he says. “The entire nation should back an Olympic movement,” Or, as Bajaj says, “Imagine if 10 million people give Rs 10 each, the kind of difference it can make.”
That movement may already have begun. Take the call Sethi received from an unknown gentleman called Ashish Kacholia who asked him penetrating questions about OGQ. Sethi was taken aback but did tell him about OGQ’s vision. A few days later, an email from Kacholia alerted him to a Rs 11 lakh contribution he had made to the cause. “It’s not only corporations or the government that can make a difference,” says Ramaraj, “so can the common man.”
Since it’s a foundation managed by some of the financial world’s big names, athletes don’t get anything for free. A system is in place to monitor their progress. Each athlete is given a benchmark or a goal which must be attained within a stipulated period. “It’s not as if we back out if he doesn’t achieve it,”
Bajaj explains it, “but we have to see the progress.” Nor will the organisation think twice before backing out to support some other athlete, should that promise be belied.
Rasquinha is particularly pleased when such support helps athletes like Narang or Mary Kom. He points to the transparent processes and lack of bureaucracy in running OGQ, even though he remains tight-lipped about the size of the OGQ fund, only pointing out that it’s hardly sufficient to realise the Olympic dream but enough to make people believe that it can come true.
Bajaj is a little more forthcoming. “If an athlete needs Rs 1 crore, we will give it to him,” he says, and whether they win or lose thereafter, at least “there can be no more excuses, no more compromises and certainly no more clamouring for funds”. Yet, the foundation’s mandate is clear: It will not support all sports, or all Olympic disciplines, only those where it sees potential. “There is no point supporting an athlete in the 100m race when the chance of winning a gold is bleak,” says Ramaraj. But an 800m runner, or boxer, or discus thrower with potential stands a better chance of OGQ’s support.
Tintu Luka, all of 18 years old and a product of the Usha School of Athletics, dreams not just of representing India at the Olympics but of actually returning with a gold. Spotted three years ago while running in a village in Kerala, she is now gearing up to take part in international level tournaments. Her quest has just begun but she is determined to succeed, something the people at OGQ can relate to, so it comes as no surprise that Luka is among the athletes they are confident about when it comes to future Olympic Games medalists. As Padukone puts it, “It’s all about thinking along the same lines and working together for the ultimate glory.”
