Tokyo 2020 is different. Not just because of the restrictions at venues. Covid-19 has also resulted in many athletes going into the world’s biggest sporting event without sufficient competitions or test events. For Team India, too, the lockdowns were tough; training, even more so. But, for 17 days, the athletes will strive to shift the focus of the nation from the grim to the glorious.
The 228-member contingent—117 athletes and 111 officials—is looking to better the two medals won at Rio 2016. But the real target is to match or better the six-medal haul at London 2012. While shooting is expected to deliver the most medals, there are expectations in other disciplines, too—men’s hockey, badminton, boxing, wrestling, javelin throw, and, perhaps most notably, weightlifting.
The hopes of a weightlifting medal are shouldered by the 4’11” frame of Saikhom Mirabai Chanu. At Rio 2016, a 21-year-old Chanu failed to lift any of her three attempts in clean and jerk in the 48kg category. But, five years on, she is wiser, fitter, an Asian Games and Commonwealth Games (2018) medallist, a world champion and a world record holder.
A lower back issue in 2018, plus the lockdown in 2020 seemed to have derailed her preparation for Tokyo, but the postponement of the Olympics helped. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Target Olympic Podium Scheme facilitated a stint in the US for her to work on strength and conditioning. She went from not being able to lift two days in a row to lifting twice a day.
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William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI