Every few years we’ve asked why India’s performance at international sporting events is so poor (1, 2 for example).
Since independence in 1947, India has won 12 Olympic medals in 14 Summer Games – three fewer than Belarus won in 2004 alone. [Link]
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Diagnosing India’s athletic failings seems to be India’s favorite sport:
Many theories have been proposed to account for India’s failure. Some experts say India has not much in the way of sports culture and few heroes; others blame a “corrupt sporting bureaucracy”. Things have got so bad that in the past, Indian sports ministers have suggested a moratorium on international competition to train athletes who will not be a national embarrassment. [Link]
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p>Recently, two economists argued
that a lack of social mobility is the key culprit:
Anirudh Krishna and Eric Haglund… said that the problem for India is … the number of people who can “effectively participate in sports”.“Ill health and poor nutrition can hamper early childhood development. In addition, lack of information and lack of access can effectively exclude larges swaths of a country’s population. The resulting small percentage of effective participants helps explain more fully why despite such a large population and a large potential talent pool, a country ends up winning very few Olympic medals,” …
Controversially, the paper contends that social mobility is the key to countries’ success at the Olympics. Populations that are better informed and better connected to opportunities, in societies where information and access are widespread “tend to win a higher share of Olympic medals”, they said. [Link]
While they accept that low GDP has something to do with India’s performance, they point out that India underperforms even amongst its peers, arguing that Cuba, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kenya and Uzbekistan have each done far better than India.
Over at Marginal Revolution, Libertarian economist Tyler Cowen places the blame on … a lack of government subsidy. If Tyler’s right, then we should see some changes in the short term, now that Mittal is putting his money behind athletes training for the 2012 Olympics.
The goal is to “put India on the medals grid” in the 2012 London Games by identifying India’s best young athletes and giving them the money to travel the world in search of the best competition and coaches. [Link]
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p>Mittal’s investments may be paying off already. The trust paid for surgery and rehabilitation for potential boxing medalist Akhil Kumar after he hurt his hand:
After suffering a serious injury to his right hand, “my dreams were over,” says the 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medalist. In the past, perhaps they would have been.
But the trust flew him to a specialist in South Africa and paid for two surgeries, as well as the rehabilitation that has followed. “The Mittal Champions Trust gave me new life,” he says. “What Mittal does is beyond expectation…” [Link]
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p>Lastly, the Indian government is talking about establishing a 150-acre national Olympic training center, which would increase the infrastructure for training.
Clearly things will be somewhat better in 2012, as athletes who are already in the pipeline get the assistance they need to compete at an international level. Still, that wont be close the gap right away, and the real test for India will come in the medium term.
p.s. for a counterpoint, see Amit Varma’s argument that China spends too much on sports rather than India spending too little.
The greatness of “our forefathers” was that they put emphasis on education, and we’re seeing fruits of that in our generation. I’m ok if we dont get a single medal until we’ve taken care of poverty and basic necessities for people.
Currently there are 3 Indians in different boxing Quarter Finals (including Akhil Kumar).
sfgirl – see the post immediately below this one :-). In fact, it’s linked from within this one when I discuss Akhil Kumar.
“the paper contends that social mobility is the key to countries’ success at the Olympics. Populations that are better informed and better connected to opportunities, in societies where information and access are widespread “tend to win a higher share of Olympic medals.” Er…did the authors mean societies like that of China’s?
3 · Ennis said
Oops sorry.. I guess my RSS feed did not update properly!
1 · Teri_Maa said
India’s upper middle class founding fathers put an emphasis on being content as virtuous, nonviolent peasants. They defined education as spinning, unmechanized agriculture and dairy livestock. Every succesful Indian scientist or athlete defiles the memory of Gandhiji and disappoints Whole Foods shoppers.
I think it is a matter of priorities and values. Sports or certain sports have value in South Asian society, but overall it is not as high as in other countries. Time spent in sports is time spent away from studying topics that are more likely to earn you a living. Furthermore, popular international sports like swimming or gymnastics or running or soccer are not as popular in South Asia. The population has to be interested in such sports for there to rise a cadre of athletes in those sports. If cricket ever enters the Olympics you’d see South Asian countries winning more medals.
But I think so what if India does not win more medals? Which country has the most medals is a stupid thing for anyone to count. That shouldn’t be what the Olympics is about. What ever sport an Indian athlete is good in, let them compete internationally, and support those guys in all the ways they need to be supported. Otherwise, let it be. Let’s not create athletes for the sake of medals. Don’t attach too much national value on whether India wins a medal or not. Find the appropriate emotional balance.
Ennis, this line alone completely invalidates Amit Varma’s entire article.
Non-violence has nothing to do with being a doormat. It is about speaking up for your rights and not stopping until you get them – just without bloodshed or other forms of violence.
The spinning wheel motif was about economic independence. Colonialism grossly distorted the colonized countries economy to serve the colonizing country’s economy. It was not about free trade and it certainly was not fair trade. Countries like India and China were economic powerhouses for centuries. What we are seeing now is a re-emergence.
I think the “sports problem” in India is not only related to the points mentioned in Ennis’s post (social mobility, poor nutrition, small ‘effective’ population) but a whole host of other bottlenecks…lack of space for fields, lack of basic equipment, lack of coaches/phys ed teachers, and lack of a real sporting tradition or culture in much of the country (at least international sports).
I would have added genetics (which might still have some truth to it) but the SM thread about Somdev Devvarman leads me to believe that the raw talent could be out there if the other problems were fixed.
I do happen to think that nationalistic pride over Olympic medals is a valid thing, and I hope to see India with some bigger and better contingents in future Olympic competitions.
I wonder about facility resources, and genetics and race in sports. In swimming very few non-white athletes and all of them are physically huge. In running, not as many whites. In the amazing race that Usain “lightneing” Bolt ran, there was not one runner not of African ancestry. To be honest, I doubt to see an Indian or a Chinese win a medal there. Soccer seems to be one of the sports that is the most racially mixed. All financial and physical resources being equal, where would an Indian athlete succeed?
Plus keep in mind, countries like the US have people from all over the world so they are able to have all types of athletes in a wide variety of sports. Plus there are countries whose athletes are not originally from that country but are competing for that country to have a chance at the Olympics. Or there are athletes raised and trained in places like the US but compete for the country of their parents. So maybe India should also think about recruiting NRIs training in developed countries to compete for them in the Olympics as another option to consider in addition to developing sports within India.
Our forefathers emphasized casteism, untouchability, abhorrence for physical activity, restricting education to brahmins. You sure are seeing the pitiful fruits of that.
In case you didnt know, India has a lower literacy rate than the great majority of nations, below even Congo and Rwanda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate
Sania Mirza’s Mom kicked up a fuss this time and wangled herself a ticket to Beijing 2008 in the capacity of “manager” of the tennis team! Suresh Kalmadi was honoured with an award for his “contribution” to the Olympic movement! In March this year, The NRA of India threatened to walk out of the Olympic contingent after repeated requests for the last 4 years failed to swing them an import duty waiver for buying foreing ammo – and in protest India’s shooters “trained” with blanks! As always Greatbong Arnab has the details on this farce!
I don’t know about other countries, but in America the infrastructure for sports is tied in so deeply with the public education system that an elite athlete can train, often at state of the art facilities, without giving up their education. That’s not the case as far as I know in India. Establishing inter-high school and inter-collegiate sports in India and giving them decent funding would go a long way towards training Indian olympic athletes. Having said all that though, I’m co-signing Teri Maa… I’d rather see the Indian government and Indian billionaires use their money to eradicate poverty and improve the public education system even if it means we don’t excel in the Olympics.
as someone who actually was blessed by god with some gifts … the above causes me major heartburn. anyhow… let’s focus on some olympic sized facts.
pamela rai, an indo-(polish)-canadian won a bronze in the 4×100 swim at the LA olympics. sabir mohammed is an afam swim star from the turn of the century. oussama mellouli, a tunisian, just won the gold (albeit tainted) and is phelps’ training buddy. the chinese team just won the swim bronze in the relay. ide, a japanese, finished a creditable fifth in the women’s tri. liu xiang pulled out at the beijing oly’s but he was the defending champ in the 110m hurdles. where does this come from? are you so fucking beaten up that you defeat yourself before getting to the starting line?
I don’t really give a damn about what the “forefathers” had in mind. Thing is, India has CURRENT problems, huge problems in education, poverty and hunger and Olympic medals are fairly low priority at the moment. But I’m not OK with the first comment i.e. hold off the medal race until the other stuff is resolved.
There’s a better way. Let the corporations and MBAs figure out a model for this to work. If a dozen megacorps can dream up a billion dollar treacle machine (IPL) then surely they can do this.
The IOL, Indian Olympic League. The corporations (not the invariably corrupt ministry) pick the athletes with the highest potential and put them on auction. The Indian public gets to invest, and track these guys as they make their way through national, regional, continent-wide and international games (think about it as a different kind of Indian Idol). Guy does well, his stock goes up, and a thousand of his investors earn rewards for their trust; guy tanks, the investors redistribute their shares to other guys.
Everyone wins. The athletes get money for equipment, training, exposure (to world class matches) and preparation. The public invests, watches and keeps the selection and development process straight aka pickes the best guys. The corporations get investments and returns. And, most of all, the country gets the medal/s it so dearly desires.
The trick is to realize that whining/blogging/slamming the sports ministry will simply not work. The Indian public does great things in Retail, and IPL is a living example. Use that concept to float the boat. The rest will follow. It has to; it is the only thing that can.
$T
6 · louiecypher said
If this is your understanding of “spinning your own cloth”, then you’re totally not getting the point that Gandhi was making.
A few ppl are missing the following facts : 1. You cant just grow/make Olympic athletes overnight. If the country starts investing in it now (infrastructure,culture etc), you’ll have to wait a generation or two to see positive results. 2. A lot of the medals that are won by USA are by Immigrants who chose to move to America (or were invited), like Russian and East-European gymnasts or track-and-field athletes from African countries.
If you want quick results, get people to immigrate to India. 😛 But then again, will they really be representing “India” at the Olympics ?
Or, lets take the previous suggestion by Straight Talk. Lets list all the players as stock on the market and lets buy and sell them. There are a lot of men who will want a share in/of Sania Mirza and will look forward to her IPO.
Also, anthropology plays a part. People settled in the indian sub-continent found a good thing and stuck with it. When “man” isnt worrying about hunting for food and being hunted, he builds communities and culture and makes strides in literature and arts. When raging war isnt his priority, he lives and thrives.
Europeans are taller and have a larger bone structure for a reason. And we all know that Africans have been running from lions, so they gotta have good legs to survive. 🙂
Aur beta, Olympic medal le kar tu kya subji banayega ?
The odds of winning a medal, or even being selected to go to the Olympics as an Indian are slim to none. With a failure rate like that, which maa will push her kids to take up such dreams ?
Dactar ya Engeneer hi theek hai.
Unfortunately the only people desperate enough to immigrate to India are the Bangladeshis. No olympic prospects there 🙁
19
Southern Europeans are short–some as short as the Chinese. And they still wins lots of medals. In Italy and France at 5’4″ nothing I’m taller than lots of gals AND lots of guys.
Rajputs and Sikhs are bigger and stronger than most of these guys.
India has got the next commonwealth games, so I think they would step up because as host nation they would want to make a good showing.
12 · Shazam said
Prema=Valmiki=Shazam=Unhinged
Even the least “literate” parts of India are better off than Congo and Rwanda. And how many billionaires do these nations have? Ahem!
Our ancestors emphasised material prosperity as the basis for righteousness and comfort. That is why India experienced the prosperity drive population surge about a 1000 years before the same happened in the Western world. Our ancestors also advocated a vigoorous phyical lifestyle and defence of our material possession till some deluded peaceniks like Siddhartha Gautama came on the scene and advocated ahimsa and “lie back and play dead”. An Ashoka who by all rights should have gone on to build an empire instead became a weak-kneed bleeding heart liberal! India assembled the world’s largest volunteer army during WW2 – over 2 million. You shd get your facts right before you jump the sharrk
India also had to Asian games in 1982 but nothing came of it. I agree with Amitabh about multiple factors being at play. There are sports like Badminton where we have had padukone, gopichand etc but have failed to capitalize. I have a friend who won a silver in commonwealth games in doubles badminton but nothing at Olympic level, then we have hockey, our national sport and failed to qualify for the current games. There is something fundamentally wrong and the sooner we realize that rather than looking for explanations and excuses the faster we can improve.
amitabh:
In a country of 1 billion people, “genetics” is a total cop-out. The country encompasses a significant portion of the world’s population, and also of its genetic diversity.
The raw talent is most assuredly out there, in much the same way that it is in China. But the two countries have very different ways of approaching the problem, and the problem isn’t completely parallel owing to the drastically different natures of the Chinese and Indian governments, economies, and macro / microcultures.
Nutrition is a huge part of why Indians are so poorly equipped to compete athletically. Processed flour is a key ingrediant in giving you a doughy fat body and processed flour is a key ingredient in most indian food. You cant eat anything without it.
You really think hungry people are “better off” than those who have more to eat?
Repeating the same lies ad nauseam will not make it true. Buddhism certainly did not weaken or impoverish nations like Japan and Thailand. India was overrun by invaders after brahminism had replaced buddhism as the majority religion. Blame brahminism for India’s defeats.
Asoka did build an empire. There is a reason why historians consider him Ashoka the Great. Besides his large kingdom in the subcontinent he laid the foundation of an Empire of the Spirit that covered most of the world’s population.
So much pride in serving as cannon fodder in the wars of a foreign colonial master who treated Indians like dirt. How pathetic is that?
Cool it, you guys. Keep the discussion focused on the Olympics, that way you can work through your positions. This sort of broad argument moves quickly into hurt feelings and name calling. You’ve both got important points, why don’t you make them concretely and constructively?
India actually has a pretty decent sports infrastructure, compared to Pakistan and Bangladesh; a world class athlete (say a school kid who ran close to even 10.2 seconds in the 100m would definitely be noticed); but no such athletes have been forthcoming. In the 2006 Asian Games, India’s medal tally was 51, much less than China (294), Korea (181), or Japan(191). On a per capita basis, Pakistan (3) and Bangladesh (1) are much lower and are far behind India (it is possible!). The problem is that being somewhat competitive in the Asian Games (with a lot of scope for improvement)does not translate into olympics medals. It is far more realistic to target the Asian Games and say improve to (around) 100 medals and this should translate into a few more medals (maybe less than 10 total) at the Olympics. Events in which Indians are competitive or have been in the past (middle distance running, boxing, wrestling, shooting, racket sports)or really obscure sports that are less competitive (example: many womens events are less competitive, china does exceedingly well in women’s events). China has used pretty extreme methods (genetically breeding a Yao Ming by getting the tallest chinese national basketballers to marry each other) and assigning people to sports based on hard data and even using drugs in the 90s that boosted the performance of their women runners. The results reflect that and one has to give the Chinese credit for the effectiveness of their methods.
I think making arguements based on genetics is a huge cop out. An exceptional athlete works just as hard on his/her craft as a doctor does on his.
Definitely since 10.2s would be a new national record. [link] What stands out the most in that list is how old some of those records are — 800m (1976), Pole Vault (1987), 500m (1992), 3000m steeplechase (1981), Javelin (1998), Marathon (1978). It is hard to argue that infrastructure has worsened since those days.
Why? Many things in Indian education have worsened since the 1970s.
Because Milkha says so 🙂
[link]
A little exaggerated and focuses on passion and nationalism instead of cold hard risk-reward analysis, but there’s some truth in it. Argument from authority aside, if you track the career of athletes like Milkha Singh, Sriram Singh, G S Randhawa, two constants were army and NIS (Patiala) and those two are powerful institutions even today. Surendra Singh, who only a couple of months ago broke 16-year old national record of Bahadur Prasad in 3000m, is from Garwhal Rifles. I have no inside knowledge, but it is difficult to imagine that Indian army and post-SAI NIS have fewer resources and worse facilities today than they had 20-30 years ago. Performances overall have been very underwhelming though. A lot of the old records are still standing and the improvements in the ones that have been broken are marginal.
Incentives matter. With economic growth, for the “effective” Indian population, the opportunity costs of dedication to Olympic sports — in reality, any sports except Cricket, and perhaps Golf and Tennis — have increased significantly, which is not a bad thing at all. The rewards in terms of marketing potential have not caught up yet, but they will.
The reason is pretty simple to me….genetics.
For whatever myriad reasons, (existence of advanced civilization for several millenia, lack of strong need to hunt and gather) the various gene pools of the Indian subcontinent lack “athletic” genes. This could be characterized by lack of certain anatomical characteristics (height, muscle tone and build, ratio of fast twitch muscle fibers to slow twitch muscle fibers etc).
Yet the subcontinent has one of the most diverse genetic pools around, and a history of centuries of warfare. Contrast that to China which is far more homogeneous and was at peace for far longer stretches of time. The genetic argument just doesn’t make sense. Even if you were right, out of over a billion people there should be the handful who are good at sports, just by chance alone, no matter what the mean tendency is.
I think most of all it is interest. Even more than resources. Heck there was a news report of Afghan bodybuilding. With hardly any resources they are devoting a lot of time and effort into body building. Google it. It has become a fashion. For them they see it as a part of re-building their country starting with themselves and their bodies. Overall most of the Olympic sports you can find some group of South Asians who have the body to compete if India wants to develop Indian athletes and not do what other countries do and allow non-natives to compete on behalf of their country. Below is the list from the IOC. How many South Asians resources and genetics aside are genuinely interested enough to passionately train for years and compete in the sports below? There needs to be enough of an interest for there to be a large enough group domestically, of which most will never win any medals either at home or abroad. Genetics and resources I don’t think are the major problems, though more support and resources could only be a positive change for Indian athletes. It is enough interest in the general population.
Summer sports: Aquatics Archery Athletics Badminton Baseball Basketball Boxing Canoe / kayak Cycling Equestrian Fencing Football Gymnastics Handball Hockey Judo Modern pentathlon Rowing Sailing Shooting Softball Table tennis Taekwondo Tennis Triathlon Volleyball Weightlifting Wrestling