Losing the dream

When Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis in the 100m final, clocking 9.79 seconds for a new world record, I had to grudgingly admire him. He was stripped of the medal later, but my clearest memory of that, perhaps any, Olympics will remain his raised hand as he crossed the finish line with such audacity that I felt cool while being deliberately obnoxious on the squash courts over the next four days.

Two decades ago, propaganda was just a word we learnt in history class in relation to Nazi Germany. And hype was just something abstract, one of the degrees of exaggeration, not a word I was to get accustomed to with the emergence of TV channels and newspapers that suddenly wanted to 8220;package8221; news for advertisers rather than readers.

So now, on 08/08/08, a date that has been hyped beyond reason for it marks the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing, I wonder if today8217;s urban teens 8212; used to sports being associated with national and club pride rather than an expression of human achievement 8212; are getting the opportunity to connect with the Olympics like we had while we were growing up.

Just as familiarity can breed contempt, being bombarded with too much information can cause boredom. While everything is just the click of a button away these days, an event like the Olympics is fast losing its relevance in a country where first, we have no sporting heroes of our own, and second, 60-day-long countdowns by the media create a consciousness of what is to follow but kill the excitement, because of the vague and haphazard nature of their presentation.

It8217;s Usain Bolt vs Asafa Powell in the 100m final. But does either of those athletes 8212; they8217;re the current and former world-record holders involved in a huge slanging match even as we speak 8212; inspire the awe that Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis did before Seoul? Is the story of our lone medal winner from Athens, Rajyavardhan Rathore 8212; in a new, stylish avatar with a designer beard and designer brands 8212; as important as P.T. Usha8217;s was in the 8217;80s? There are too many other things to think about, even for kids, to allow the Olympic Games to exclusively capture their mind-space for a two-week period, especially at a time when everything is built up equally.

The Olympics was once sacrosanct because of how it was treated. There were Wimbledons, Masters, Formula One races, cricket series, football leagues, but there was a clear divide between the Olympics, the football World Cup, the cricket World Cup and the rest. Today, the build-up for all of them, even something comparatively mundane such as the IPL, is exactly the same. The truly big events have been robbed of their special status.

That cricket and football World Cups still manage to turn some eyeballs is because the new breed of young fans is in constant touch with both those sports on TV. But the Olympic sports, because of the low marketability of athletics Grand Prix and swimming world championships, are only remembered once every four years, even by newspapers. With no involvement, naturally, there can be no love.

Then, the live coverage on DD Sports is so random that 8212; in an era where we8217;re used to watching everything live from a million camera angles 8212; the frequent loss of pictures and errors of judgment from the producers on what to show turns off even the most ardent, hardened multi-discipline fans of yesteryear.

Growing up in India is so different from what it once was. Of the things we8217;re slowly losing 8212; public places to hang out, the 8220;uncle8221; at the grocery shop round the corner 8212; it8217;s losing the romance of the Olympics that rankles me the most.

kunal.pradhanexpressindia.com