Almost exactly a year ago, I was lamenting the bleak prospects of Indian athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games, which would have been, if not for the raging global Covid-19 pandemic, underway now.
But with varying forms of Lockdowns being imposed in various parts of the world since January 2020 and an otherwise averseness towards gatherings and congregations, the quadrennial grand celebration of Sport has been postponed by a year, a huge decision by the International Olympic Council (IOC), a rarity in itself (only the fourth time it has been done) in the 124 years of glorious Olympic History. Eventually the correct one, one has to say.
Now more than six months since it was first detected in Wuhan, China, the pandemic continues to ravage lives and livelihood around the world, albeit in very few nations on a large enough scale. Sports and athletes were an obvious casualty in all of this. No Olympics! No Wimbledon! No Champions League! That in itself says a lot. But spare a thought for India's top athletes. The pandemic has been and will continue to be far tougher on them. Here is why.
India imposed one of the most brutal nationwide lockdowns on March 24, 2020, with about 500+ cases recorded all across the country at the time. Though intentions were to break the chain of transmission and shore up medical infrastructure, they did not prove enough, with the result that the entire country of close to 1.4 billion people have been in various forms of Lockdown (now called Unlock) for nearly five months now.
With severe restrictions on inter/intra-state travel and movement, as also the need to stay safe, India's top athletes have been majorly limited to doing training routines from their homes and/or accessing personally or locally available sporting infrastructure, as best and as much they can. Even a college sophomore would tell you that that simply would not be enough for them to get back their competitive edge in international sport.
On the other hand, their global competition has a head-start. There is a Cricket Test series now into its third Test, going on in England, the world's leading golfers including Tiger Woods have already teed off on the PGA and European Tours, major Football leagues in Europe are in full-swing and even top level Tennis has had more than a couple of Tournaments played. Ok, if you want to get specific about Football, leagues all across Asia in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Syria, Japan etc. are also in full-swing.
Even though most international competition in every other major Olympic sport is not scheduled to resume before September, elite athletes of most top African, Asian, European and South American, nations have resumed training in full-swing and in some cases competitions as well. Hardly do people in India know that there was a competition called the Impossible Games in Oslo in June where top athletes from even Kenya, besides Europe, were able to compete in long-distance races. Or that our very own Shraboni Nanda (who is based there) competed in the Velocity Fest athletics championships in Jamaica along with the best sprinters of the world. Or even that athletic competitions have already happened or are currently on in places like Austria, The Netherlands etc.
Some Governments have gone the extra mile. Colombia, for example, have already packed-off 150 of their Tokyo 2020 bound athletes to Spain for training and competitions. Brazil, as hard hit by the pandemic as India, also has a similar plan finalized for 200 of its top athletes.
International sport in the best of times is a tough tough grind. And if you find yourself in it as the most rusty and lacking in competitive edge, it could mean the proverbial mountain to climb and the results disastrous.
There was a video recently doing the rounds posted by India's top paddler Sharath Kamal, where he appears like schoolboy talent making inexplicable errors, having resumed sparring after almost four months. If this is the state of India's best paddler and one of its most experienced international athletes, you can imagine what it would be for the rest of the crowd.
But with varying forms of Lockdowns being imposed in various parts of the world since January 2020 and an otherwise averseness towards gatherings and congregations, the quadrennial grand celebration of Sport has been postponed by a year, a huge decision by the International Olympic Council (IOC), a rarity in itself (only the fourth time it has been done) in the 124 years of glorious Olympic History. Eventually the correct one, one has to say.
Now more than six months since it was first detected in Wuhan, China, the pandemic continues to ravage lives and livelihood around the world, albeit in very few nations on a large enough scale. Sports and athletes were an obvious casualty in all of this. No Olympics! No Wimbledon! No Champions League! That in itself says a lot. But spare a thought for India's top athletes. The pandemic has been and will continue to be far tougher on them. Here is why.
India imposed one of the most brutal nationwide lockdowns on March 24, 2020, with about 500+ cases recorded all across the country at the time. Though intentions were to break the chain of transmission and shore up medical infrastructure, they did not prove enough, with the result that the entire country of close to 1.4 billion people have been in various forms of Lockdown (now called Unlock) for nearly five months now.
With severe restrictions on inter/intra-state travel and movement, as also the need to stay safe, India's top athletes have been majorly limited to doing training routines from their homes and/or accessing personally or locally available sporting infrastructure, as best and as much they can. Even a college sophomore would tell you that that simply would not be enough for them to get back their competitive edge in international sport.
On the other hand, their global competition has a head-start. There is a Cricket Test series now into its third Test, going on in England, the world's leading golfers including Tiger Woods have already teed off on the PGA and European Tours, major Football leagues in Europe are in full-swing and even top level Tennis has had more than a couple of Tournaments played. Ok, if you want to get specific about Football, leagues all across Asia in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Syria, Japan etc. are also in full-swing.
Even though most international competition in every other major Olympic sport is not scheduled to resume before September, elite athletes of most top African, Asian, European and South American, nations have resumed training in full-swing and in some cases competitions as well. Hardly do people in India know that there was a competition called the Impossible Games in Oslo in June where top athletes from even Kenya, besides Europe, were able to compete in long-distance races. Or that our very own Shraboni Nanda (who is based there) competed in the Velocity Fest athletics championships in Jamaica along with the best sprinters of the world. Or even that athletic competitions have already happened or are currently on in places like Austria, The Netherlands etc.
Some Governments have gone the extra mile. Colombia, for example, have already packed-off 150 of their Tokyo 2020 bound athletes to Spain for training and competitions. Brazil, as hard hit by the pandemic as India, also has a similar plan finalized for 200 of its top athletes.
International sport in the best of times is a tough tough grind. And if you find yourself in it as the most rusty and lacking in competitive edge, it could mean the proverbial mountain to climb and the results disastrous.
There was a video recently doing the rounds posted by India's top paddler Sharath Kamal, where he appears like schoolboy talent making inexplicable errors, having resumed sparring after almost four months. If this is the state of India's best paddler and one of its most experienced international athletes, you can imagine what it would be for the rest of the crowd.
No comments:
Post a Comment