Dear Olympians,
Lying on my bed, it is a little difficult to appreciate the effort, the sacrifices you had to do through to reach where you are today. But i am trying. So don't get me wrong. But I am confused.
It is true there are lots of other countries with infinitely more resources to match our infinitely larger population. Each one of you has reached where you are after competing with a billion others. That's more people than New Zealand might have given birth to over the last couple of centuries. But tell that to their hockey players whipping us in our national game. A lack of physical fitness, of technique, of talent is understandable. We do not have the resources, what we have are spread too thinly and the rest siphoned off by the corrupt Indian. Even talent can be excused as a lack of proper genetic material. But mental toughness is as much imbibed as born with. Then why do we lack so?
Why does a world number one fail to clear the first round? Why does a shooter placed in the top five until the last few minutes falter and end up eleventh. Why are two excellent tennis players who could have easily dominated the doubles game for a decade still squabbling at the ages of 38 and 39? Where are we going wrong?
Surely lack of sponsorships, poor training facilities, and illiterate associations should have made you stronger, not weaker mentally. Then what is lacking I wonder. Is there something lacking in the Indian diet that fails to nourish that part of the brain? Or is it the climate? Or maybe our culture.
Each one of you represents the best we have. The strengths of a Sachin Tendulkar or a Vishy Anand are in you. A Dhyan Chand is lurking in that Olympic village somewhere. Today an Indian can walk into any sphere of life proud of his identity. Then why do you fail at the biggest stage? After you have surpassed all those obstacles, obstacles athletes from other nations might barely comprehend, why do you give up before your time? Why do not the pressures of success spur you on? Has the effort put into participation fatigues you so much that you can no longer compete? Have you travelled too far to be able to go that extra mile?
The armchair critic tells me you have reached your crescendo of ambition. A medal is just a dream too far. But the Indian refuses to believe. And the Indian will wait. Till the last of you catch the flight back home.
Godspeed.
