In the year 1900, India first participated in the Olympic Games. Our lone athlete, Norman Pritchard, won two silver medals. Today, 112 years later, Indian athletes have won a total of 22 medals, mostly in field hockey. The London Olympics has an Indian contingent of 83 members participating in 55 events.
I, as an Indian, am proud that my country puts such an emphasis on participating, because I believe the gift of the Olympics is much more than medals.
Its greatest moments come from training the bodies and minds of our youth to face victory and defeat and “treat those two imposters just the same”. It’s great seeing the sculpted bodies of our athletes in the world media, after years of seeing Indians cast as famine victims. Its most important contribution is the lesson learnt from life’s greatest teachers: failure, pain and disappointment. Indians who have wept when brave Karna was defeated and killed as he struggled with his chariot wheel, stuck in the mud or when 16 years old Abhimanyu died bravely in the Padma Vyuha, know this.
We know that it’s not about winning or losing, but about playing the game. The time has come to strike out for gold.
Kinaesthetic intelligence in kids or the intelligence of body–mind should be identified and trained for victory from a young age. Parents and teachers should stop asking kids “to stop playing and start studying.” And officials should stop driving gold medalists like Shanthi to work in brick kilns to earn a living. However much I believe in re-incarnation, I would like to see an Indian covered in Olympic gold — in this life!