That’s more like it!!!

From the time I remember each Olympics has started with no hopes and ended with the same. For the first time 2012 Olympics has proved me wrong during the end. With 6 medals from 4 different fields, we have something to build upon. More than the number it is the way we have won them. Be it Saina Nehwal, Mary Kom, Gagan Narang or Sushil Kumar, they all expected to win the medal in their game and they have done it.

Earlier it has never been like that. Leander Paes in 1996, Karnam Malleshwari in 2000, Rajavardhan Singh Rathore in 2004, Abhinav Bhindra and Sushil Kumar in 2008, all were come out of blue and won the medals when it was least expected. Its more like punching above their weight and they never reached such heights in international arena. The only exception was Sushil Kumar who built on that success and become a medal hopeful in this Olympics.

The only hopes I ever had, was on our hockey team and the Tennis doubles pair Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. They never disappointed to disappoint me. And this time too they disappointed me, the only change is I didn’t followed them :). Some things never change.

This year too, I thought similar fate awaits when Deepika Kumari, the top seed in archery crashed out in the first round. I guess there was too much pressure on the 18-year old girl to deliver. But others didn’t succumb to pressure pulling out all their experience to win those medals. Everyone has pushed themselves to their physical limit to earn glory for India. Be it Saina Nehwal who has to fought against the Chinese women, Mark Kom nearing her thirties and fighting in a weight category which she has never fought, Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt who has to fight 3 bouts in an hour to claim the medal, Gagan Narang who has to give a start to us in medal tally and finally Vijay Kumar who hold his nerve to win the silver medal.

Outside the medal tally too we had excellent performers who came close to winning a medal like Joydeep Karmakar (Shooting), Krishna Poonia and Vikas Gowda who qualified for the finals of the field events(First time from India), Irfan Kolothum Thodi who came 10^th in half marathon (Never heard someone from India participates in it 🙂 ) and Devendra who has shown fast and agile to go till Quarterfinals in boxing. They have done well and would have added more. But still I am happy with what they have shown. This is for sure going to inspire many.

All the Indian Olympians who won the medal or narrowly missed it this time trained with the single motive of winning a medal in Olympics and it paid real dividends. Surely this will push our government to act wiser and pump in more money for the training of the athletes. Maybe our parents too will think about Olympics medal as their dream for their kid rather than making them into an Engineer or doctor.

The above thing is best summed up when I seen a poster stating, ‘Start training under the master Hosseini in archery and have a chance to win a medal in 2016 Olympics’. Isn’t it an improvement? Planning for Olympics publicly 4 years before. I have never seen before.

Now some thoughts on the Superstar of the Olympics, Usain Bolt. Till now he has participated in 6 events in Olympics and is yet to be beaten. That’s some record. Watching him run is such a joyful experience with all his actions, celebrations and his jogs towards the finishing line. This time he had tough competition from his countryman Yohan Blake but yet came on top quite easily. What a star!!!

Watch his brilliant runs below:

Info: Technology surely has its advantages. All the Olympic events were uploaded officially in best quality in youtube. You can watch them through the channel olympic. No need to wait for the telecast in television 🙂 This channel also contains some of the events of past Olympics. Enjoy 🙂