The Olympics draws to a close, and wow, what an exhilarating 17 days its been! The buildup before the Opening, the performances and the results - from an Indian perspective probably makes the 2008 version of the Summer Games the best ever.
Some of the images that will remain with me forever are -
* The tricolor going up while our Anthem was played, on the 11th of August, thanks to Abhinav Bindra! I was not in front of a television when it happened, and did not quite believe it had happened when I was told we had won a Gold. This and Vijender and Sushil Kumar's Bronze made it the best ever Olympics for India.
* Waiting with bated breath to see if Michael "The Phenom" Phelps would get his 8th Gold. The 4 X 100 medley was close, but his team mates helped him make it. Stories about the Phelps diet were equally interesting!
* The 90,000 plus spectators in the Bird's Nest and millions of viewers on TV, regardless of which country they were from, cheering Yelena Isinbayeva over the 5.05 meter mark in the women's pole vault.
* Akhil Kumar swearing he was there for the Gold, and would not settle for anything less. Refreshing approach from the Boxer. He lost the Quarter Final bout, but the boys from Bhiwani have triggered off a revolution.
* The most frustrating aspect of the Games? The coverage by our very own DD - Sports. Most of the anchors and the "expert" commentators seemed to have NO idea what they were talking about. The clichéd phrases and the absolute murder of competitors' names made one cringe. Even more infuriating was cutting an event off completely when the last bout or the last lap was on, and moving to an AD break or a totally different sport. Precious LIVE action was lost when in-studio anchors went about discussing insignificant stuff. DD has been covering sports forever now, but just do not seem to be learning.
Over to the London Games now. The bar has gone up by more than a few notches (for our athletes and administrators, not DD Sports). Will the revolution carry us to the double figure medal mark in 2012?
I think it will.
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I dont think it will...not by 2012 or even the next games. India winning medals will stay an aberration rather than becoming a habit. Read the pathetic president of pathetic indian olympic committee a few days back react like a typical shameless sarkari babu to Bindra's columns. His lame comment was that it was 'tough times for officials' too. It would require a lot ... political will, public opinion , infrastructure, media thinking besides cricket (& dhoni!) ... and more...
Not in our life times mate ! Even if the trio of beijing did start something of a revolution...its gonna take decades before we(? our children) hold our heads high.
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