Three Kumars, how many medals?

Posted on by

Right now, three of India’s five boxers are advancing to the quarter-finals in Beijing, putting them each just one win away from a medal: Akhil Kumar (bantamweight), his cousin Jitender Kumar (flyweight), and Vijender Kumar (middleweight).

Part time model, police inspector, and possibly India’s first professional boxer.

Given India’s poor showing in track and field, where all the athletes were eliminated in the qualification rounds, and the decision to pull India’s sole weightlifter after (what turned out to be a false) positive on a doping test, there is a lot riding on the performance of the three Kumars.

On the positive side, it’s a historic opportunity for India. Abinav Bindra’s gold medal was India’s first ever individual gold at the Olympics, if any of these three make it to the top, the country will celebrate as if Michael Phelps was their very own.

The fights promise to be exciting as well. Jitender, who is the only novice Olympian of the three, will next face off against three-time European champion Russian Georgy Balakshin in a rematch of their 2007 World Championship fight, where Balakshin prevailed by a single point. (clips from first round, via UB)

All three boxers (plus teamate Dinesh Kumar who got lost in the first round) come from a single boxing club – the Bhiwani Boxing Club in the village city of Bhiwani, Haryana, a place known as India’s “little Cuba”. This is the heartland of Indian boxing:

The place spawns hundreds of young fighters who spar every evening at the five local boxing schools. Here, learning to box is a passport to a secure government job and an opportunity to do something meaningful in life. [Link]

Up till now, boxing has received little popular recognition in India, something that might change after this Olympics:

It is not easy becoming a boxer in a cricket-crazy country. “People here think boxers are violent or mad” … “My blood boils when everybody goes gaga over cricket” says Vijender. [Link]

As a result, Vijender (the middleweight and possibly the most promising of the three) supplements the money that the government awarded him for victories in the Commonwealth and Asian Games with part time work modelling, and a job as a police inspector, all the time dreaming of becoming India’s first professional boxer:

“A promoter like Don King, a ring inside Madison Square Garden, and millions of dollars per bout. That is my dream, that is where I want to be,” [Link]

<

p>

<

p>

Who knows, he might just be a contender.

Update: And then there were two. Akhil Kumar lost to Veaceslav Gojan in the quarter-finals of the men’s 54 kg bantamweight category. Given that he narrowly defeated current world champion Sergey Vodopyanov on Indian independence day, this is must be a disappointment. (Video) (HT: Dhoni)

55 thoughts on “Three Kumars, how many medals?”

  5. …..if any of these three make it to the top, the country will celebrate as if Michael Phelps was their very own.

    What’s the big deal about Phelps winning eight gold medals? I wouldn’t care if he won twenty as long as they were all in swimming. I mean if you had people compete in variations of the same sport several times there’s much chance the same team or individual will win multiple golds. If Phelps had for example divided his golds among say swimming, boxing, track, shooting, pole vault, water polo ( I’ll give him that one ) it’d have been deserving of all the current hungama. People don’t think. They’ll just buy what Costas on NBC has to hype. The most gold medals in the history of modern olympics my ass.

    Clearly very few people in this world must share my acute thinking power. It’s so frustrating to be so smart but so alone.

  6. 3 · Ennis said

    I dunno. Are Indians really the boxing type? 🙂 Not Gujjus, clearly 😉

    Gujjus do much better at Capitalism Olympiad.

  8. 6 · DesiInNJ said

    3 · Ennis said
    I dunno. Are Indians really the boxing type? :)Not Gujjus, clearly 😉
    Gujjus do much better at Capitalism Olympiad.

    Will the desi Don King be Gujju?

  9. the scoring in boxing has been horrendous. The US boxers have especially been victims of the poor scoring. Plus Sacramone was also robbed off the bronze by some crazy judging.

  10. The US boxers have especially been victims of the poor scoring. Plus Sacramone was also robbed off the bronze by some crazy judging.

    Old frootie, I posted some deep thots on the subject here

    but i would have trouble believing there was a deep plan or conspiracy around this. the way it works is that for a score to count, a majority of refs should have voted the same way in a fixed amount of time after the flurry of punches. so … the scoring may be incorrect, but i think it is cleaner today than it has ever been.
  11. The most gold medals in the history of modern olympics my ass.

    Phelps has won the most gold medals and may be the greatest swimmer ever, but he’s not the greatest Olympian ever, IMHO. That honor belongs to Abhinav Bindra. Just kidding … It belongs to Jesse Owens or Carl Lewis.

  15. Does anyone know…are Kumars from Haryana supposed to be Jats? And Akhil and Jitender are not Jat’s. Seems like they both are brahmins from Eastern UP.

    OMG, guys, can’t we celebrate the boxers’ awesomeness without worrying about their caste or sub-national-ethnicity? You make me want to puke. I’m not kidding.

  17. He’s gorgeous– the guy in the photo. Now if he had been a she, all the 16 posts above would have pointed this and only this out.

  18. Seems like they both are brahmins from Eastern UP

    Brahmin boxers? No way Jose. Are you a comedian?

  21. 20 · Niro said

    1 · Abhi said
    I dunno. Are Indians really the boxing type? 🙂
    Well this desi is.

    His family is from Pakistan

  25. The Bhiwani Boxing Club shows how much a single club, its ethos, ways, and traditions can contribute to possible Olympic glory.

  26. OMG, guys, can’t we celebrate the boxers’ awesomeness without worrying about their caste or sub-national-ethnicity?

    It makes a difference…you’re much more likely to find a Jat boxer than a Baniya boxer. For physical and for cultural reasons. It’s just the way it is.

  27. 26 · Amitabh said

    It makes a difference…you’re much more likely to find a Jat boxer than a Baniya boxer. For physical and for cultural reasons. It’s just the way it is.

    and! the balance of the earth is restored. i was just about to fetch the cranial calipers myself to measure the hominids’ ability to process thought.

  28. It makes a difference…you’re much more likely to find a Jat boxer than a Baniya boxer. For physical and for cultural reasons. It’s just the way it is

    Are you auditioning for writing op-ed pieces for VDARE?

  29. 8 · louiecypher said

    6 · DesiInNJ said 3 · Ennis said I dunno. Are Indians really the boxing type? :)Not Gujjus, clearly 😉 Gujjus do much better at Capitalism Olympiad. Will the desi Don King be Gujju?

    In my non-politically correct imaginary World, Don King would be a Punjabi Singh, the Gujju would be the real-estate owner of the boxing ring…and the one doing the books, security will be marathi, numbers will be run by southies, tickets would be sold by bhaiyas, the bengalis would throw up bureaucracy everywhere and the marwadis will make the most money. Luckily this World is imaginary and I did not offend anyone.

  30. 26 · Amitabh said

    It makes a difference…you’re much more likely to find a Jat boxer than a Baniya boxer. For physical and for cultural reasons. It’s just the way it is.

    and hence it is important to make this issue front and center anybody from india does anything. excellent.

  31. 21 · rudie_c said

    20 · Niro said
    1 · Abhi said
    I dunno. Are Indians really the boxing type? 🙂
    Well this desi is. His family is from Pakistan

    Well, that’s why I said desi. Plus he’s Rajput..he could’ve as easily been from north india. Ethnically he’s no different from a lot of Indians.

  32. Can’t believe we are still having this discussion if Indians are the “boxing type”. Upper middle class desi families where people injure their backs sleeping, probably not. But don’t project your softness on Indians as a whole.

  33. The remark about Indians being the “boxing type” and Ennis’ reply about Gujaratis was an inside joke. You see, Abhi boxes.

  40. That’s awesome for India! But I’m still trying to find anything on Vijendar – if anyone can post that would be great.

  41. Sushil Kumar’s bronze medal performance in wrestling is on MSNBC right now.

  43. You guys are faster than the newsmen. I can’t find the news anywhere.

    Was watching it Live with Eye Of the Tiger on repeat in the background. Me and Vijender, we’re a team, and we did it. Vijender is into the semis, so, he actually has a chance to do better than a Bronze Medal; Fingers crossed!

  44. Vijender, whose Grecian looks have attracted international fashion magazines

    Do people know how tarded they are when they sh*t like this? Ever see an Onassis family portrait minus Jackie O? Looks like a hobbit village. His looks are from the desh

  45. For those following along at home, Akhil and Jitender Kumar are out, but Vijender (in the photo) has advanced to the semis and so is guaranteed at least a Bronze. This means that India will have at least 3 medals (a gold in shooting, a bronze in wrestling, and at least a bronze in boxing) for the first time ever.

  46. I saw the news today and its great that Vijender has made it through the semis. This proves my theory that the number of medals are directly proportional to the per capita GDP of a nation. In the last 12 years we can notice the trend. in 2000 no medals, in 2004 1 medal and it 2008 3 medals. The graph of medal tally is going in the right direction.

  47. Vijender won by a big margin, 9-1.

    Jitender’s bout was much closer. They had about the same points in the first two rounds, but his defending was terrible in the third round (I blame the coach and Akhil, who were advising him but weren’t very helpful) making a comeback in the final round impossible.

  48. I agree with you, Moti Lal.

    5 · Moti Lal said

    …..if any of these three make it to the top, the country will celebrate as if Michael Phelps was their very own.
    What’s the big deal about Phelps winning eight gold medals? I wouldn’t care if he won twenty as long as they were all in swimming. I mean if you had people compete in variations of the same sport several times there’s much chance the same team or individual will win multiple golds. If Phelps had for example divided his golds among say swimming, boxing, track, shooting, pole vault, water polo ( I’ll give him that one ) it’d have been deserving of all the current hungama. People don’t think. They’ll just buy what Costas on NBC has to hype. The most gold medals in the history of modern olympics my ass. Clearly very few people in this world must share my acute thinking power. It’s so frustrating to be so smart but so alone.
  49. If Phelps had for example divided his golds among say swimming, boxing, track, shooting, pole vault, water polo ( I’ll give him that one ) it’d have been deserving of all the current hungama.

    One would think that the modern pentathlon (epee fencing, pistol shooting, 200 m freestyle swimming, a show jumping course on horseback, and a 3 km cross-country run) would be the Olympic event that would produce the best known all-around stars. But oddly there does not seem to be much interest, even though most of the individual events that comprise the pentathlon produce media/sports stars. In fact it is in danger of being scrapped as an Olympic event altogether. General George S. Patton competed in the first modern pentathlon in Stockholm in 1912.