Indians at the Olympics

As the Indian participation in this Olympics came to an end today, everyone is going ga ga over the Indian performance in the Olympics. We have managed one Gold, and two Bronze medals - the best ever by any Indian contingent in the history of the Olympics. Already crores of rupees has been promised to these guys as gifts or prize for getting an Olympic medal. We, as a nation, are very emotional and show this outburst of generosity whenever someone from our country achieves something in the international arena. After all, we saw the same frenzy when the young Indian cricket team won the T20 World Cup. Being emotional is good, at least in some situations, but unfortunately, not in this case. We tend to reward those who achieves something despite the system, where we should really develop the system so that future athletes achieves due to the system.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem in these champion sportsmen getting money or accolades, they deserve it. It's just that I think if only a fraction of that money was spent in development of infrastructure and other aspects of sports, we would have much better chance of achieving something in sports in future.

And there is no better time to say these hard words than now: when the nation is overjoyed and celebrating, before we stop forgetting about them. Otherwise, before the next Asian games, Commonwealth games, or Olympics we will suddenly wake up and start finding medal prospects.