Highs and lows at the Olympics (updated)

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Watching the Olympics this past weekend has been equal parts exhilarating and depressing. Seeing the American men win the 4 x 100 m swimming relay last night was un-freaking-real! But it also sent me in to full, early mid-life crisis mode. Am I the only one? I kept thinking how I’m now too old and beat-up to be an Olympian and I was feeling kind of jealous of fellow Wolverine Michael Phelps (would my upper body look like that if I growled in victory poolside?). And then this morning my depression lifted some. Even though I woke to the upsetting news that American Badminton stud Raju Rai had lost to a Finn (read here to understand how hard the environment is), I was quickly informed that Abhinav Bindra of India won the Gold in the 10m Air Rifle! It was Bindra that turned out to be the great brown hope.

So how did Abhinav help me to avert my midlife crisis until another day? Just look at our boy. He looks like and ordinary IT guy or an engineer or friendly grad student. He is now a national hero. A Peter Parker of sorts. He is the great common brown guy hope! Not all of us can have Phelps upper body, but some of us can imagine looking like this (I like paintballing for instance ).

From a virtual non-entity to the country’s hottest property overnight, Abhinav Bindra has struck gold. Not just in Olympics. The Chandigarh shooter who picked up India’s first ever individual gold in Olympics is expected to see his brand value shooting up to a couple of crores, riding not only on his historic feat but also his youthful personality. [Link]

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p>Oh, lighten-up you nationalists! I’m just joking around. A hearty congrats to Abhinav! The dude even has over a 1000 comments on his latest blog entry. A feat unmatched by even…me. Well at least I can go after that record.

And for every hero of the day there is the sad story of the day. Poor Sania. Pulled out because her wrist was hurting. That’s what cortisone injections are for woman!

Raj Bhavsar lives on!!!

Update: Raj sports the bronze. Awesome.

72 thoughts on “Highs and lows at the Olympics (updated)”

  1. He looks like and ordinary IT guy or an engineer

    Well, he does own a joystick company. Although his mothers’ plans (Bindra’s mother, Babli, told the local CNN affiliate that his win “makes him an even more eligible bachelor” than he already was) might mean a new operator for that joystick is in the offing…

  2. Phew!! A gold medal, finally. I hear Saina is doing good in women’s badminton. Can we dream of one more medal?

  3. Poor Sania. Pulled out because her wrist was hurting. That’s what cortisone injections are for woman!

    heh. did i call it or vot! That said – cant be too hard on Sania Begum. I once read an essay on cricinfo on why Sachin tendulkar is the #1 cricketer of all time – it wasnt a hagiography – some australian was commenting on the pressure on the guy to deliver day in and day out. it isnt just the money or the sponsors – it’s the hordes pressing against the walls, the windows, the barricades – entreating, exhorting, cussing, applauding, praying – driving the mind to a numbness and exhaustion. and tendulkar’s seen this since his teens [somebody correct me if i’m wrong], and has carried through this admirably. now… ms mirza’s demons are different. unlike cricket, which is a team sport, the spotlight is squarely on the individual in her sport. wont blame her for feeling … fuck you all losers… i play for me.. and taking the easy way out.

    Just look at our boy. He looks like and ordinary IT guy or an engineer or friendly grad student. He is now a national hero. A Peter Parker of sorts.

    not to be a wet langote, but the boy is hardly an average joginder like Lt Col Rathode. Born into unusual wealth, with access to private resources inaccessible to his compatriots – this isnt the triumph of a society. it is unquestionably a tremendous personal win – but i can not see it as a turning point. a medal for vijender kumar would mean sooo much more.

  4. American men win the 4 x 100 m swimming relay last night was un-freaking-real!

    interestingly, i happened to see a part of it, and was quite chuffed to see Cullen Jones as part of the record breaking team. some of us are old enough to remember the slurs that flew around on internet boards that black men couldnt swim because of flawed physical design. sabir mohammed was the lone ‘aberration’. the point i am making is that despite all the ‘science’ that the pointyheads turn out, sporting excellence is available to all. to me, it is the will of a nation combined with wide access to sporting facility that builds a base. adding in a sniff of myth and a soupcon of good luck… and it’s Aurum aull the way. anyhow… good luck to raj bhavsar, vijender kumar and vidanage. make some myths.

  6. Raj and the Americans are in second place right now sticking all their landings! Keep your fingers crossed and we might have the first Indian American Olympic [the end of this sentence was omitted to prevent jinxing].

  9. Born into unusual wealth, with access to private resources inaccessible to his compatriots – this isnt the triumph of a society. it is unquestionably a tremendous personal win – but i can not see it as a turning point.

    It could be a turning point. I hope media will report about Bindra’s impressive work ethic, I hope media will report about senior Bindra’s dedication to his son’s desire to excel in a SPORT.

    If unsual wealth could ensure Gold medals then Ambanis and Mittals would have scrounged a few already.

  11. 8 · khoofia said

    nope… old frooti. the honor of being the first goes to alexi singh grewal.

    he wasn’t Indian he was American of desi origin. This is the first Gold for an Indian representing india. Though per the Wiki article Grewal could never fully escape his heritage as he raced for the 7-11 Team (no joke).

  12. LouieLouie… i was referencing Comment # six when linking to alexi’s wiki.

    Keep your fingers crossed and we might have the first Indian American Olympic [the end of this sentence was omitted to prevent jinxing].
  13. Though per the Wiki article Grewal could never fully escape his heritage as he raced for the 7-11 Team (no joke).

    What’s more, he was dropped for spitting.

  14. of all sports we conquered SHOOTING?

    Din’t India have the second largest gun arsenal in private hands.

    not to be a wet langote, but the boy is hardly an average joginder like Lt Col Rathode. Born into unusual wealth, with access to private resources inaccessible to his compatriots – this isnt the triumph of a society. it is unquestionably a tremendous personal win – but i can not see it as a turning point. a medal for vijender kumar would mean sooo much more.

    True, the guy had his own private shooting range at home and a father who is planning a Rs 200 crore investment. So I doubt you will have people take up shooting or any other Olympic sport.

    At present the only sport in India that provides amazing upward mobility is Cricket. Amongst the current contracted team you have players who have come from poor families for instance two sons of a muezzin (Irfan Pathan & Yusuf Pathan), a bus drivers son (Wasim Jaffer), a farmer son (Munaf Patel), a paanwalah (Joginder Sharma).

  16. 14 · Samir said

    Din’t India have the second largest gun arsenal in private hands.

    Yeah and the largest gold hoard in the world too! But this one is special and I hope the first of many more to come in the decades ahead. Decades, I mean, I am realistic.

  19. hey!

    came to ur blog really liked what i found.

    As for Mr. Bindra am so very glad that he won the gold and it was beautiful to have the national anthem play at the Olympics especially in CHINA. But I too wonder if without his dad’s riches would he have reached where he has this soon, if at all.

  20. The reason he landed gold is because of his extraordinary work ethic. Yes, the fact that his family is wealthy helped but till a couple of years back he could not even lift a rifle because of back problems. The dude beat that to win an Olympic gold. How many rich folks, whose kids are interested in sports, can boast of a similar work ethic and claim to have made a mark on the international stage. Abhinav Bindra is the real deal!!!!

  23. At the risk of starting a never ending debate may I say Raj Bhavsar is a Gujarati-American ! Congrats.

  24. IOA announces withdrawal of India’s IOC membership after Abhinav Bindra wins gold at Beijing

    In an unprecedented move, Suresh Kalmadi, President of the IOA since 1996, announced that the Indian Olympic Association would be withdrawing from its membership of the International Olympic Committee.

    Mr. Kalmadi’s announcement came in Beijing, shortly after Abhinav Bindra won India its first ever individual gold medal at the Olympics. Mr. Kalmadi was quoted as saying

    We won a bronze in 1996 through Leander Paes and in 2000 through Karnam Malleswari. In 2004, we won a silver, thanks to Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. Now, we have won gold. The progress is fairly obvious.

I had a frank discussion with the IOC board about instituting Diamond and Platinum medals for higher achievements, but the IOA's request was rebuffed. Having won gold, there're no more challenges. Since there is now nothing more left for India to achieve, we do not see any point in participating in the Olympics henceforth. However, all athletes who have been picked for the current games in Beijing will get to compete. Thanks to Abhinav Bindra, there's so much less pressure on them now to win more medals!

I congratulate the honorary officials of the Indian Olympic Association, our Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs, the MLAs from all the states, the National Rifle Association of India and the various officials of the Olympic contingent in Beijing for this achievement. Since our various sports federations and committees have proved that we can produce Olympic gold medallists, I am pleased to announce that the elections to all federations have been postponed by 25 years.

    http://jagadish.blogspot.com/2008/08/ioa-announces-withdrawal-of-indias-ioc.html

  25. At the risk of starting a never ending debate may I say Raj Bhavsar is a Gujarati-American ! Congrats.

    thats why he won only the bronze – if he was from any other part of india he would have won gold 🙂

  26. You know what they say: All that glitters is not gold. Besides Bronze is more tanned and “Sepia” than gold anyway 🙂

  27. There’s been some discussion on IndiaMike.com on A Bindra’s father’s statement that his son shot a bottle (balloon?) off his maids head when Abhinav was 7 years old: Congratulations, Abhinav!

    The father said it may have been fatal, but oh, hey, it wasn’t.

    http://www.indiamike.com/india/sports-in-india-f111/gold-medal-for-india-t59940/

    Throwing it open to SM for comment – in a nation with such huge disparities of income, the father’s comment was something else

  28. Bindra’s family wealth may have been a contributing factor, but not the decisive one. India has many wealthy families that can indulge their members hobbies and sports – it does not meant they will be any good at it. It takes practice, and competing against the best. Given India’s size, it is not always necessary to venture abroad to find people to compete against, but again, you are not necessarily competing against the best in the world.

    Second, you have to take into account the unintended effect of endorsement money. In a nation with an ever expanding middle class, it is easier for an average sports star to make much more money selling soda and jeans than being the top player in their field. Look at the poor performance of India’s cricket team in the last world cup – among the best paid players in the world were beaten by a scrappy but motivated team from Bangladesh.

    The same thing happened in the NBA – American players got soft, and were trounced in 2004. Now, they want to prove that they are the best again.

  29. 28,

    The comment by the father about shooting something on the head of the maid may be a little bit of a fantasy (or artistic licence:-) )added by a proud father. But not compeletly unthinkable in India.

  30. And BTW, how great it is for Raj Bhavsar to not only represent the US this year in the Olympics but also get a medal and get himself into the books.

  31. 27 · TheFoolOnTheHill said

    There’s been some discussion on IndiaMike.com on A Bindra’s father’s statement that his son shot a bottle (balloon?) off his maids head when Abhinav was 7 years old: Congratulations, Abhinav! The father said it may have been fatal, but oh, hey, it wasn’t. http://www.indiamike.com/india/sports-in-india-f111/gold-medal-for-india-t59940/ Throwing it open to SM for comment – in a nation with such huge disparities of income, the father’s comment was something else

    That’s sick. But sadly believable. Rich Indians should hire PR people to keep them from saying cringeworthy stuff to the media.

  32. At present the only sport in India that provides amazing upward mobility is Cricket. Amongst the current contracted team you have players who have come from poor families for instance two sons of a muezzin (Irfan Pathan & Yusuf Pathan), a bus drivers son (Wasim Jaffer), a farmer son (Munaf Patel), a paanwalah (Joginder Sharma).

    Holy Shit! What about happened to nepotism, inside contacts etc. for playing in the Indian Cricket Team?

  33. abhi – I like how you highlight the important parts of your post for dullards like me 🙂

    I wish whining or procrastination were Olympic events. I’d have a shot at the US Team, that’s for sure.

    Hey, these Olympics are fun! Now I want to visit China, which I will never do, because I hate travel. I know that makes no sense. I don’t get it either.

  34. Am I the only one? I kept thinking how I’m now too old and beat-up to be an Olympian and I was feeling kind of jealous of fellow Wolverine Michael Phelps (would my upper body look like that if I growled in victory poolside?)

    Michael Phelps might be the greatest Olympian of all time. He smashed another world record in the 200m last night. Also the 4×100 gold and the destruction of the trash talking Frenchies was beyond sweet.

  35. On a completely different note, does anyone know which hindi song was played post competition just after “We are the champions” and just before “She bangs”? Totally killed the spirit of the celebrations.

  36. Am I the only one? I kept thinking how I’m now too old and beat-up to be an Olympian and

    no man. the oldest olympic medal winner [more than just a participant] was a 72 year old. you got a few good years in you yet. what’s your STD?

  37. First Jesus, Mary, Joseph are Indians and now We are kicking Kundi in China.. Total World Domination isn’t too far away!!

  38. Michael Phelps is getting boring. I mean the guy eats, sleeps , and swims. For all the TV time he has got, he has not made one entertaining quote.

  39. …i just read the NYT about the fake singing, and the TOI piece about the missing foreign visitors. This Olympics had better get going. Not once did NBC pan to the audience during the gymnastics. Why??

  40. I saw Raj only during one of the team events – (Pommel horse?). He didnt cost the team the lead like Kevin Tam did. But he did not do well during his turn. Still, he got the bronze. So making the team was an achievement in itself.

  41. MD @ 33. Even if you hate travel, make an exception and go to China. I was there exactly three years ago presenting few technical papers (of course the Boss at home was with me)and visited all the places they show on TV these days, except the Bird’s Nest, Water Cube and few other Olympic Venues. Heck we even climbed (a small portion) of the Great Wall. It is ironic that the wall was built over thousands of years to keep them (Mongols like Shah Rukh Khan Changhez Khan) “Barbarians” out of China. Lo and behold, China currently is entertaining all sort of “Barbarians” from all over the world. Times have changed!!;-)

  42. Also the 4×100 gold and the destruction of the trash talking Frenchies was beyond sweet.

    Destruction?? Oh come on! The US team won by the smallest of margins possible, thats not destruction, thats squeeking through!! When Phelps won by over a body length in the next race ( 200m freestyle), THAT was destruction…….

  43. Destruction?? Oh come on! The US team won by the smallest of margins possible

    Yeah, but Lezak pipping the frenchie after being more than half a body length behind, at the start of the last 50, counts for some shock & awe.

  45. and what is your beef with gujjus? Be proud that member of the the indian-american acheived something this great instead pin pointing. That is the problems with indians-they never stick together. Proof in case!

  47. Michael Phelps might be the greatest Olympian of all time. He smashed another world record in the 200m last night. Also the 4×100 gold and the destruction of the trash talking Frenchies was beyond sweet.

    Lezak’s final leg in the 4×100 was AMAZING, in no short part because he OWNED Bernard (not by the margin of victory, but by the speed of his leg and the amount of space he made up). Seriously, it is emblazoned in my memory like Kerri Strug’s second vault in the 1996 Olympics. Truly amazing. I wonder, how much, though, the design of the Olympic pool in the Water Cube + the new Speedo suits factor into this whole equation.

    Re: Raj Bhavsar, I think we all knew the Americans were not really gold-eligible in the Olympics (just not enough difficulty in their routines), but he has such a great story. On the alternate list for two Olympics and finally called up to compete at the 11th hour because of a team injury. He is consistent and, in my opinion, did a very respectable job in stabilizing the team. Effectively he was keeping them from “bottoming out” of a medal.

    I really didn’t think I’d be as excited as I am for the Olympics this year, but it has been wicked fun.

  48. Holy **it!! Imagine my shock when I opened SM and saw my passport pic on the screen! Man, Abhinav Bindra (in this pic. at least) looks so much like me, it is creepy. I am a doctor though… Is karma trying to tell me something?

  49. 46 · LandBeyond7Zs said

    Capri Pants for men are fashion in India? 47 · Camille on August 12, 2008 04:48 PM · Direct link · “Quote”(?)

    ahem, they are called “Man-Pris” and they were very much in fashion at this year’s Wimbledon (Nadal).

  50. He looks like and ordinary IT guy or an engineer or friendly grad student.

    Or.. Bhutto’s son. Billawal