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Bring home some medals folks..!!

Fuwa - Beijing Olympics Mascot

With the olympics fever full on, recently a local newspaper The Himalayan Times put up a topic for discussion. The topic read….
Olympics is around the corner and the event was initially started to promote the bonds of friendship and unity among sportspersons of different countries. Do you think the feeling of universal brotherhood is promoted by such events or do you think it is more of forcing one nations’s supremacy over another albeit under a guise?

I made up my views and replied with the following answer (which is still awaiting a print (i hope :P ) )

Inception of modern Olympics marked the beginning of brotherhood among nations on the grounds of sports. Ever since, it is regarded as a matter of participation more than of winning. In the recent times, however, the very ethos of the game has been overlooked on many occasions. Extreme competition and increasing pressure of performance are the primary factors and this is something IOC has to take into account and strive to make the game better.

As far as the question of dominance by a few countries is concerned, I feel it to be a cover for disguising the inability to outperform the opponents. An instrument used to hide from the truth of being a loser. It is time now, to elevate the overall status of players and to bring about a revolutionary change to the existing system. As a matter of fact, performance now-a-days is more dependent on technological intervention and scientific training than on individual endurance and perseverance. The so called dominating nations are much concerned and continuously seeking to surmount the standards and so, the position they get in such events is not unworthy. Consequently, we as a nation lag and fall behind in the race and feel dominated. I regard this as a case of administrative indifference towards sports as a whole and a matter of national shame originating from the lack of seriousness of concerned lot.

Financial inequality is of course a criterion which dictates the affordability of investment in this field; however, I believe with true volition, affordability can be positively compromised. As long as the disparity in the behavior of national authorities towards sports remains, this apparent dominance will prevail.

I dont know how many would agree with my view, but i strongly feel an exceptional change is required in the sports arena. And the change for good.

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This entry was posted on August 10, 2008 at 1:13 pm and is filed under sports with tags , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Bring home some medals folks..!!”

  1. bipul Says:
    August 10, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    The winners are always in minority, and the majority of non-winners (not losers) is driven by their natural tendency to complain, which in not necessarily an opposition to the system of winning or against the nations that do, but a motivation in a way.
    For a country like ours where 8 participants are accopanied by 28 delegates, its a shame to even complain (http://www.mysansar.com/?p=2969). Perhaps its more important to revise oneself and be better competent than to think of competitions as a way to show off a nation’s supermacy.

  2. dikchya Says:
    August 11, 2008 at 8:21 am

    “As a matter of fact, performance now-a-days is more dependent on technological intervention and scientific training than on individual endurance.”
    Very true!!! This line hits the nail right on the head! :)

    Such events no longer celebrate their true mottos. Its all about who wins how many gold, how grand the inaugral ceremony was….etc.,etc. And behind it all, there are those strong nations backing up their players while country like ours are there, just participating and happy that they got to visit a foreign land!!!

  4. Abhishek Gurung Says:
    August 11, 2008 at 4:52 pm

    The fact is we need to WIN whether it’s in sports(Olympics), business or any other field rather then complain, if we need ourselves to be heard irrespective of whether we are correct in our thinking/ideologies or not.I agree that the ’spirit of participation’ was the motto of the olympics but today other issues have taken priority & hogged the limelight. The olympics of ‘84 & ‘88 during the height of cold-war was one such example, to the extend that China was ready to get the games to Beijing at ANY cost to projhect its soft-power status to the world & to throw the I-Have-Arrived tag around as part of their superpower ambitions. The world is programmed to listen to the powerful & the dominant entity! I understand that overall development of a society needs sports as part of the everyday lifestyle but then again we should not expect too much from the govt. of a LDC to promote sports, of all the things, even though they have done liitle for the nation as a whole but still, it may be too much too ask. A bright shinning beacon of hope could be the Serbian/Russian tennis stars, who were born in very humble circumstances but they had the will to be the best so everyone of them including Sharapova, Ivanovic, Jankovic et al, migrated to US & western europe to avail the encouragingly sporting atmosphere & today they are not only winners of grand slams but as I would call them, they are CHAMPIONS truely & deservingly. They have defied all odds & shown that irrespective of their country’s so-called domination vendetta at the games, individually they have truely proved the human spirit to excel, prevails against all odds. Godspeed to all the participants.

  5. nikhil Says:
    August 12, 2008 at 6:00 am

    Congratulations ! that your reply finally got printed.
    BTW, you did not mention that this post is pertaining to Nepal.. :)

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