Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Performance of India in Olympics 2008

Finally Indians have settled with 1 Gold and 2 Bronze. Abhinav Bindra who won First Individual Gold for the country has become( now just after a month I should rather say became) the sparkle of the eye.

Some analysists had predicted that India will win 6 medals in these games. People might say that just three medals to a country of 1.2 Billion plus population is a shame but I think it is a lot better than the previous Games in Athens(2004) where we got 1 Silver(Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore) or in Sydney(2000) where we got 1 Bronze(Karnam Malleshwari).

This time India got a medal each in Shooting, Boxing and Wrestling. I would like to stress the contribution of Mittals Champions Trust set up by Laxmi Mittal who sponsored Abhinav Bindra and some other athletes. But the stage is set for a lot better prformance in 2012 London Games where the actual results of the trust will pour in. Also Bindra's Gold has given a much needed thrust to Indian Sports.

I am writing this post almost a month after the Beijing Olympics 2008 ended. I especially wanted to see as to what response do these Olympic Heroes get from the cricket savvy nation of ours. But ALAS!!!