The medal haul in the Tokyo Olympics ranks as the best ever in India's sporting history and has certainly brought immense pride and happiness to sports lovers all over the country. 7 medals overall with a dip of Gold at the fag end made it all the more momentous and something very special to remember for a lifetime. With a little more luck on the side, the tally could have even touched the double digit mark.
Coming a little back to the period of the Pre-Olympics, things were looking quite somber and withdrawn. First up the really bad news of India's only decorated 2 time Olympic champion Sushil Kumar being put up behind bars setting a bad precedent. On top of that was the fact that many qualifying events didn't even take place due to Covid and hence some of India's medal hopefuls such as Saina Nehwal (bronze medalist at London 2012), Sakshi Malik (bronze medalist in Rio 2016), Dipa Karmakar (the gymnast who came agonizingly close to winning a medal at Rio 2016) didn't even end up participating in these games. This surely set the country back a whole lot considering lack of match practice, expected hopefuls not even qualifying and the plague of the prior Olympics notwithstanding hanging in the balance.
From there on in to ending up winning 7 medals being a feat never achieved before is totally absolutely stupendous. Hearty congratulations to all the winners Neeraj Chopra (Javelin Gold), Ravi Kumar Dahiya (Wrestling Silver), Mirabai Chanu (Weightlifting Silver), Pusarla Sindhu (Badminton Bronze), Lovlina Borgohain (Boxing Bronze), Bajrang Punia (Wrestling Bronze) and the Indian men's hockey team (Hockey Bronze). Also a huge round of applause to few other giant killers who came oh so close to grabbing glory notably Kamalpreet Kaur (Discus), the Indian women's hockey team and Aditi Ashok (Golf). It's hard to use the word commiserations here as they were literally within a whisker and just an incy wincy bit of luck either way could have swayed them to a medal.
The immense positives apart, there were a bit of resentments also. Tennis, a sport which India is usually expected to give a fight at least from the doubles/mixed doubles front fizzled out without a trace. Also on shooting and archery where India actually fielded quite a few world rankers didn't really set the ball rolling.
The excitement and frenzy created by the games were at an awe inspiring level. Perhaps for the first time ever, cricket actually took a back seat paving way for other sports to take over. There was so much interest for sports like Javelin, Discus and even Golf where people hardly know the rules yet wanted to follow and understand simply because of the amazing performances displayed by our stellar sportspersons. Also when you read about the humble backgrounds which most of these Olympians come from it will really make you wonder about the amount of hard work put in and sacrifices undertaken.
This should also aid as a favorable fillip to parents wanting to enroll their children into the sporting arena. Indian parents usually go delirious when their kids achieve and there is really no field greater than sport to realize one's dream and achieve recognition at a national level. No joy can match the feat of winning laurels for the country and nothing like sport unites the entire nation.
Things are suddenly looking rosy pink after this magnificent Tokyo performance but we shouldn't forget that London 2012 games also was a big boost with India garnering 6 medals and when things were expected to get much better, we sank back big time in Rio. Hence hopefully the lessons are learnt this time and there should never be a state of going back retrograde come the next games in Paris which is now only 3 years away in 2024.
The greatest takeaway personally from these Tokyo Games is that though India is still a long way away from being a sporting powerhouse, our Olympic contingent made the world sit up and take notice through their exemplary performances. Hopefully this is a cue going forward and we should strive to win at least a double digit figure of medals going forward.
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