By Neeraj Chopra
I would have loved to be the reason for the National Anthem to ring around the Stade de France, but I am immensely proud I won silver with a throw that was better that my gold-winning effort from Tokyo three years ago. Yes, the time has come for me to seek improvements after I sit with my team and decide on how to manage the injury.
Before heading to the rest of my competitive season, I will soak in the emotions sparked by my second successive Olympic Games medal. I am grateful for the overwhelming support that I have received from each one of you. The motivation and wishes that Hon’ble PM extended to me and my teammates, was the icing of the cake.
However, I want to also celebrate many of my teammates who delivered strong performances. I believe we must not use the medal tally as the only yardstick to assess India’s performance in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In fact, I would urge you to look at how hard our athletes trained and competed intensely. Just spare a moment to understand how many of our athletes gave their everything but missed out on podium finishes by a whisker. Even then, as many as 21 of the 117-member contingent, including the 16-member hockey team, will return home with medals from Paris 2024.
India’s improved show is reflected by as many as 6 fourth place finishes and 1 heartbreaking disqualification, a medal that was assured, along with six medals. Back in the time when legends like Milkha Singh ji and PT Usha Ma’am got 4th place, Milkha ji in the 1960 Olympics and Usha Ma’am in 1984, both made history for India and became national role models. Today, in one Olympics, we have 7 such athletes who could have won a medal and 15 athletes who made it to the quarter finals. This is in comparison to just 2 fourth place finishes in Tokyo. This shows that as a nation, our sporting prowess has significantly evolved. As a nation that has just started to invest heavily in sports – providing world-class facilities to athletes – in the last decade, we must be patient to see these fourth places convert to medals and I am sure in the next Olympics, many of these athletes and newer ones will bag medals for India. Arjun Babuta, Ankita Bhakat, B Dhiraj, Maheshwari Chauhan, Anant Jeet Singh, Manu’s 3rd medal miss and of course Vinesh, these are athletes whose achievements should be celebrated.
It is only a matter of time that these will transform to top 10 finishes and earn medals for India. It is imperative that we sustain the intensity with which we back the training and competition plans of our athletes across disciplines.
Change will come only with such improved performances across disciplines. My confidence stems from our athletes’ changed mindset and approach and the efforts being made by all stakeholders, including the government, to provide support that was unheard of till a decade ago. I have myself trained in six countries for 310 days in the last 3 years.
All the athletes who participated are part of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme which provides multiple foreign training to athletes, personal coaches, foreign experts… it is a rather long list.