The Challenges faced by the Indian Athletes
- In
- 12:09 PM, Aug 12, 2016
- Ekita Parmar
Olympics - the biggest International multi-sports event is running currently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. More than 11000 athletes from 206 countries across the world are participating this year. India has also sent it’s the biggest ever contingent of 118 Players. We started with a ‘Billion Cheers’ for our team but as the games are progressing, we are finding out that our athletes are not able to win as many medals as we would want. The reactions to this have been varied. Should we start bashing and mocking our Athletes? Let’s pause for a moment and think, is it all Athletes fault really??
We have a wrong belief that people from the Western Countries are physically stronger than us and hence they succeed in Athletics but lately China has started winning more Medals than any other country in the world.
There are several reasons that in spite of the abundance of Talent and potential in India, Indians fail to succeed as much as they should in Sports.
- Financial Support
- Lack of Sporting Infrastructure
- Corruption
Financial Support
Except Cricketers, Athletes in our country are very poorly paid and Professional Athletes have a limited shelf life which often gets shortened due to Injury so, less people choose Sports as Career.
Families want a financially lucrative career for their kids so they discourage their kids to pursue Sports professionally and keep it as a hobby.
Lack of Sporting Infrastructure
This is the biggest reason for poor performance of Indian Athletes in International Sport Events. Compared to other countries our Sports Infrastructure is extremely poor.
The Sports Authority of India is responsible for Sports Infrastructure in India. It has 56 training Centers, 12 centers for specialized training and 5 stadiums. Sportspersons often complain of Inadequate and outdated Sports equipment in these centers. It takes time for our athletes to get used to modern equipment in International tournaments as they have practiced on old equipment at home. Not just in terms of equipment but they often fail to provide basic facilities like beds and bathrooms.
Moreover, these centers are in cities which are quite far away from home for most athletes. There is no grassroots program to groom potential athletes at young age from high schools or colleges. According to the 8th All India School Education Survey half of the primary Schools in many states don't even have playgrounds. China has built 850,000 gyms and 3000 specialized Sports facilities across the country so kids and youngsters can get an advantage of having Sports facilities near home.
Another major problem is coaching. Our coaches fail to provide finer technical nuances which makes all the difference. It would be wise to employ foreign Coaches where we lack world-Class coaching expertise.
Corruption:
Corruption has penetrated immensely in the system and has corrupted it at every level which makes it extremely difficult for rookies to look at this as a career. Nepotism and Favoritism is rampant. There are more politicians in the selection committees than retired sportspersons. The government is allocating more than 1000 crores per year for Sports development since last few years but we are yet to see its optimum use.
There are reports of corruption even in an athlete's Food Budget. It has been complained that food provided for athletes is inadequate and of substandard quality. How can athletes achieve physical strength of International standards without proper nutrition??
Cricket is sometimes made responsible for everything that is wrong with other Sports. We often hear that India only loves Cricket. Cricket is successful because it is well-funded and well-managed. Cricketers are groomed by BCCI from young age with
Under-14, under-15 like tournaments and they get world class facilities for training.
In spite of all these problems our athletes driven by their passion manage to qualify in the Olympics. That itself is a big achievement. But level of competition in the Olympics is higher than what our athletes are trained for. So let's think before blaming our athletes when they can't win as many medals as USA or China.
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