It’s not very easy to ask a champion freestyle wrestler if he bit his opponent during their bout – especially when you are talking to him at the edge of a river, especially if you don’t know how to swim. But Sushil Kumar possesses a disarming, pleasing personality, as if he squeezes out every bit of hostility from his body and mind on the wrestling mat.

The day he won his second Olympic Games medal, a silver, Sushil fought four bouts, winning the first three in three periods of two minutes each. In the last of his wins, against Kazakhstan’s Akzhurek Tanatarov, Sushil was staring at the wrong end of the barrel in the third period – after they’d split the first two periods, the quick Kazakh was up 3-0 with 55 seconds to go. If he defended for 60-odd seconds, he’d reach the final and be certain of the silver at least.

Sushil mounted a difficult, desperate attack on the Kazakh, his last chance to go on to the final to fight for a bronze. He scored one point with a takedown, and then locked his hands around Tanatarov’s forehead – a gutwrench – and turned him around to get two more points. Three points each, 45 seconds to go. And Sushil was going for more points, his hand under the Kazakh’s chin, their heads banging close. He picked up two more points as he turned Tanatarov around – 5-3 up with 37 seconds to go. Sushil’s eyes were on the scoreboard, and then on Tanatarov, who had blood on his right ear and was gesticulating to the referee, apparently complaining that his ear had been bitten.

The referee asked them to fight on. Now it was Tanatarov’s turn to attack with desperation, and Sushil’s turn to defend. In freestyle wrestling, among top wrestlers, the strength of the upper bodies is more or less evenly matched; advantage can be decisively gained by latching on to the opponent’s legs by diving in. This, obviously, is fraught with danger. Tanatarov had to dive in, and Sushil got hold of him around his torso, lifted him and brought him down hard, face down; then he ground the Kazakh’s face to the mat, pressing down at the back of his head. One point for the Indian – 6-3, and four seconds to go.

Tanatarov lay on his back, blood dropping off his right ear, gathering bright on the yellow mat. The referee got it cleaned up, Tanatarov’s ear was looked at by a medic, and they played out the four seconds. Then the bugle went off, Sushil went round the mat with upraised arms, whooping in delight. Tanatarov lay on his back, sobbing, his fists on his eyes.

When Sushil came away from the ring, his lips and teeth seemed to be bloody – but that was too much blood to be still there from someone else’s wound, five minutes later. Sushil is an extremely amiable man, greatly respectful towards you for the very Indian reason that you’re older to him. This emboldens you to ask – so exactly what happened Sushil?

“No, you don’t ever bite... It would be a completely stupid thing to do,” says Sushil.

“See, it’s a tough sport, it’s a contact sport and we’re fighting very close,” he adds. “You are trying very hard to score a point, and no one gives a point away. You struggle with each other, and your bodies are grinding... These things can happen.”

Sushil himself has scratches all over his body, there are shades of purple all over, and his lips are swollen, and his eyes have darkness around them. To win a medal, he’s had to go through a wringer. Sushil says every wrestler understands this. “When we were practising in the US, I was wrestling with a local wrestler and he got unconscious,” he says. “We all know this happens in a sport like wrestling. Tanatarov met me in quite a friendly manner later. All wrestlers know each other, all of them are friendly towards me.”

Tanatarov, interestingly, later had this to say: "It's not polite that half my ear was bitten. I know it was just fixed (bandaged up) but it's rude."

Was he being funny, or did his lack of English conjure up these inexplicable words? Make your own conclusions.

Seven Indians tennis players, some of them petulant prima donnas fired by their egos, went to the Olympic Games, played five matches, won just three – that’s the miserable math of India’s tennis campaign at the 2012 Olympic Games.

In the gloom that descended on the Indians at Wimbledon, was there even the slightest hint of a bright spark? Well, perhaps it was evident only in the promise Vishnu Vardhan showed in the doubles. Along with Leander Paes, Vardhan gave a mighty scare to the strong French pair of Michaël Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in pre-quarterfinals. Serving well and hitting some unbelievable returns and groundstrokes, Vardhan perfectly complemented Paes, who seems to have lost little of his speed of eye and hands at the net. The Indians lost the match in three sets in near darkness, and Paes was moved to tears as he discussed Vardhan’s game and attitude.

Those tears could well have been shed also for the state of Indian tennis, for the sorry infighting and public slanging players had been active in. They could have been caused by regret – despite having two of the best doubles specialists of the era, winners of multiple Grand Slam events, India haven’t won a doubles medal at the Olympics in several attempts. A couple of times since 2000, a medal almost seemed a certainty – but leading up to London 2012, that hope had become a parody of itself.

Mahesh Bhupathi refused to play with Paes. Mahesh Bopanna followed suit. Thus Bhupathi was paired with Bopanna and Paes with Sania Mirza for the mixed doubles. Sania too came up with a public statement at this, quite amazingly portraying herself as a victim of male chauvinism. What next?

Nothing good was going to come out of all this. Sania reluctantly agreed to partner Paes and, realistically, that was India’s best tennis hope for a medal at London 2012. Two wins and they’d be in the semifinals, in touching distance of a medal.

Sania and Paes did beat Ana Ivanovic and Nenad Zimonjic in the first round, straight sets. Hopes were raised, but they next faced Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi, the first a leading singles player, the second a veteran doubles star. The Indians fought but couldn’t match the Belarussians, losing 5-7, 6-7. The Indians did go a break up off the third game of the second set, but were immediately broken back, and there were no comebacks.

For the record, Bhupathi and Bopanna were beaten by Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet in the second round; Sania and Rushmi Chakaravarthy lost in the first round of women's doubles. In men’s singles, Somdev Devvarman was dismissed in the first round. The same fate befell Vishnu Vardhan, who had got into the singles draw after the late withdrawal of Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. Taking a divided team to London, India were hoping for something from nothing. They got exactly what they deserved – nothing.

Patiala, August 14
Though India put up its best show ever at the Olympics and Haryana is basking in the glory, Punjab, particularly the sports fraternity, is feeling disheartened with no participant from Punjab managing a podium finish. The land of legendary players, including Milkha Singh, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa and dozens of hockey wizards, is struggling for its existence in sporting arenas.

From the time India started competing in the Olympic Games and till the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, more than 60 per cent of the players competing were from Punjab and for a period of 44 years from 1956 to 2000, the captain of the Indian hockey team was from Punjab.

In the 1954 Asian Games, Indian men won four medals in Athletics, and all four of them were from Punjab and similarly in the 1958 Asian Games, all five medals won by India were by the Punjab players.

Also, the first Arjuna Award was bagged by a Punjabi - Gurbachan Singh Randhawa - who received this honour in 1961 and for the next one decade, more than 70 per cent players who received the Arjuna award were from Punjab.

But even Randhawa says, “Despite getting the first Arjuna Award of the country, I was never awarded Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award, which is the top state sports honour. It is really painful that the country recognizes your contribution but our very own State does not," adds Randhawa.

He further goes on, "Though Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal (who also holds the sports portfolio) is trying to revive sports, but formulating a sports policy is not enough. What is important is that it should be properly implemented. Then only we can get desired results."

Indian hockey, which has always had strong representation from Punjab, finished last in London and failed to win a single match. The tug-of-war between the two warring bodies for controlling the sport and the fitness issues surrounding players, has done enough damage to the game and the recent performance speaks volumes about that.

Meanwhile in the state, politics still rules supreme.

Sample this: In the past two years the sports department spent a majority of its finances in the Malwa belt alone. The government decided to lay three hockey turfs in the region, in addition to a synthetic athletic track, leaving the rest of the State with just one astro turf. The venues chosen for the hockey surface are Government Rajindra College Bathinda, Sports School Village Ghudda, Bathinda, Government Barjinder College, Faridkot, and Sports Complex, Mohali. Meanwhile, the lone athletic track coming up is at Sports School village Ghudda, district Bathinda.

"Most of our students come from economically poor backgrounds, it is very difficult for them to continue with the game for long as the family pressures to earn is always on their shoulders", claimed a retired Punjab sports department coach.

"A few years back we had three times national boxing champion Kuldip Singh, who worked hard in the ring and later in the fields to continue boxing. It was only after media highlighted the issue he got a job with Railways, after Punjab failed to even recruit him as a constable in the police", said a boxer training at NIS.

Talking to The Tribune, former chief coach of the Indian wrestling squad PR Sondhi says, "The Punjab government rather than promoting world sports is indulging in populism politics. Sukhbir Badal is talking about getting circle kabaddi included in Olympics but one should ask him how he plans to do it when it is not yet recognized at the national level. Moreover, he always talks about revival of traditional games like mud kabaddi but I want to ask him whether he is working towards making Punjab a better sporting State or ruin it altogether. Our players, just for some easy bucks are going towards these games and have actually drifted from their goal of making it big at national and international arena."

Punjab shooter Ronjan Sodhi's failure dashed the hopes of not only Punjab, but also of the entire shooting fraternity.

In athletics, Punjab has always had small time wonders, who do well at junior tournaments but fail to produce consistent results. The entire system in school sports and the huge budgets spent year after year organizing school games have failed to produce even a single champion, who could be groomed at the national circuit.

On top of that, poor recruitments in the sports department where regular coaches are missing and many others are still fighting to be permanently recruited have further affected results.

The recent outburst of a former MLA against Sukhbir Badal for his failure to revive the sporting culture in the state, could be seen as a political outcry but there is a lot of self introspection that needs to be done.