Opinion Hysteria over the missing flag

Hyper-patriotism does not win you medals. Clinical, dogged and nerveless preparation, usually does.

February 8, 2014 02:55 AM IST First published on: Feb 8, 2014 at 02:55 AM IST

As heart-wrenching and exquisitely tragic as the TV din makes it sound, Indian athletes walking under IOC’s stock flag with the Olympic rings at Sochi’s Winter Games opening ceremony — and not under the tricolour — might not be the most devastating blow to Indian sport.

Indian athletes, not keeping up to the medals-mark from 2010’s Commonwealth Games and Asian Games later this year, could count as the real bummer, though. Or ought to, for a country in pursuit of going beyond 6 Olympic medals.

Hyper-patriotism does not win you medals. Clinical, dogged and nerveless preparation, usually does. Opening ceremonies are just that — ceremonial. Abhinav Bindra, the country’s only individual gold medallist — did not turn up at Beijing’s opening-night spectacle to walk with the contingent. He checked his nerves — steadying his breath, emotion, et al — to earn himself the lasting legacy of a gold medal three days later.

As the country’s sports administrators continue to bumble in their efforts to get India re-admitted into the Olympic-fold, its athletes — starting with Sochi’s cold games’ skiiers and luger — would do well to not get distracted from their intent and purpose in training, unnerved by all the back-and-forth drivel that will go around in India in the coming months — for them, a crucial home-stretch of preparation.

The challenge of the twin Games is hard enough, without losing sight of preparation-plans by wading into debates on this discontentment and frothing in temper at not being allowed that dash of tricolour on your competing gear.

At the business end of things, Indians will need to medal — and medal big — for the national anthem disc to be even slotted into the player. It’s a golden chance for athletes to show they’re bosses of Indian sport, and not the interchangeable and bumbling bunch of administrators.

Shivani is an assistant editor based in Mumbai.

shivani.naik@expressindia.com