Breaking point

The objectives of those who make up the official delegation of India at events such as the Olympics or the Asian Games are varied — all athletes want to perform, most officials want to party. Mediapersons have often encountered officials who were completely sozzled — the booze is free, the hospitality is magnificent. The athletes, however, are stressed and under pressure because these are the events they have trained all their lives for.

When athletes win medals, the officials create a melee and break the security protocol in order to become the first to greet the medallist. At the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018, after an Indian wrestler won a gold, a top wrestling association official was pushed out by security persons as he was entering an area he was not entitled to enter.

When athletes fail, it’s these very officials who demand an explanation.

Wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who has suffered heartbreak at two consecutive Olympics, has been barred by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for ‘indiscipline’ — not training and staying with the other Indian wrestlers in Tokyo.

Vinesh has revealed that she had been struck by Covid-19 at the Asian Championships in Almaty in April and was stressed. She kept her distance from other Indian wrestlers because they had been tested everyday for seven days because they had flown in from India; she had not been tested everyday before reaching Tokyo as she had flown in from Europe, not India — she stayed away from them to ensure they were safe from any danger of infection from her, she said.

Getting hit by Covid-19 twice in less than 12 months left her weak and unable to digest protein. There was only one physio for the seven Indian wrestlers (four female, three male) in Tokyo. She was then assigned a physio from the shooting staff, who was of no use to her.

“We celebrate Simone Biles as she said that I am not mentally prepared to perform at the Olympics and did not do her event. Try just saying that in India. Forget pulling out of wrestling, just try saying that you are not ready,” Vinesh said.

Officials won’t understand this. WFI’s top brass — adept at politicking that keeps them in power — have handed Vinesh a temporary suspension. They want to make her bow down before them. She does not seem to be in a mood to relent. For the sake of Indian sport, we can only hope this will end well — Vinesh is the greatest female wrestler India has produced and there is much she can achieve in the future.

Pressure Games

Archer Deepika Kumari went to Tokyo ranked as the world No. 1 in women’s recurve format. That’s slightly misleading, because the world’s top archery nation, South Korea, had been absent from this year’s Archery World Cup due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, and there was no World Cup in 2020.

Deepika could not perform to her ranking level, losing to South Korea’s world No. 5 An San 6-0 in the quarterfinals. Deepika finished ninth. She had lost 6-0 in the pre-quarterfinals in Rio 2016, and in the first round in London 2012. From her comments and demeanour, it is clear that despite being a 27-year-old veteran of three Olympics, she finds it difficult to handle the pressure of expectations. Deepika’s physio Arvind Yadav confirmed this.

“Deepika played the entire Olympics under pressure,” said Yadav, who has been working with the Indian archers since 2013. “They (Deepika and her husband Atanu Das, who reached pre-quarters in Tokyo) need to work on their weakness and come back stronger for future events and Olympics.”

“I think if there was a psychologist maybe I could have dealt with the pressure well. It could have made all the difference,” Das himself said, and pointed out that top teams such as South Korea “always travels with 10 support staff including a psychologist”.

“We all know the Olympics is the biggest event, so somehow pressure gets into you. Maybe I took the match more seriously the other day,” Das said.

Shooting blanks

The most spectacular burnout of Indian hopes happened on the shooting ranges. The 15-member shooting squad was India’s biggest ever at the Olympics. It included several shooters who were ranked the best in the world, such as Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Singh Deswal (both world No. 1 in 10m air pistol), and world No. 2 Divyansh Singh Panwar and world No. 1 Elavenil Valarivan in 10m air rifle. Hopes were especially high in the mixed pair shooting events: Panwar and Elavenil were expected to get a medal in the 10m air rifle event and Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker were considered a medal certainty — even gold certainty — in the 10m air pistol event.

However, India reached the final in only one of 16 events contested; the sole finalist, Chaudhary in the individual 10m air pistol class, finished seventh. That was India’s best finish in the Tokyo Olympics.

What went wrong? Former shooters and insiders are unanimous in their opinion that the shooting association (NRAI) did its best to support the shooters in their training. The role of the coaches is being examined closely, and top officials have said there would be big changes.

Another factor is that it was a young team — only four of 15 shooters had been to the Olympics before. Former India coach Sunny Thomas said the pressure at the Olympics can break the best. “The pressure is immense… It’s easy to criticise them from the outside. Nobody can imagine what they go through before every shot. Most of them are youngsters. So we have to be patient with them,” he said.

“Saurabh did really well. Manu, in her individual match, was a bit unlucky, but she fought back. She didn’t fight back (in the mixed team). For that, she can’t give an excuse,” said Heena Sidhu, former world No. 1 pistol shooter. “She can’t give any reason. In simple words, she couldn’t handle the pressure. She was able to do Qualification 1, but she couldn’t do well in Qualification 2. The training has to change.”

Also a must change is the attitude of dictatorial officials, many of whom behave like feudal lords. — TNS