India At Rio Olympics: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

PV Sindhu won a silver in women’s Badminton and Sakshi Malik won a bronze in women’s Wrestling. Statistically, the rest returned empty handed...

- Niji Ng

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part.”

– Pierre de Coubertin

Pierre de Coubertin, in case you do not know, is the architect of modern Olympics Games. The French man is now a forgotten figure even in the Olympic world. Only one country seems to respect his ideals. That is India. Or you check India’s performance at Rio 2016. The stats tell a tale of their own. India participated in 118 events. PV Sindhu won a silver in women’s badminton and Sakshi Malik won a bronze in women’s wrestling. Statistically, the rest returned empty handed.

As in all sports, in Olympics too there is something that stats do not reveal. In reality, there are many things that lie between mere participation and actual winning. A near miss or a heart-breaking fourth-place finish must be celebrated just like a medal. It is like a cricketer getting out on 99. It is true that he did not score a century, but there is no shame. However, there are things in Rio 2016 for which Indians should be shameful about – not from the athletes, mind you. We must all respect the sports persons who participated in the Olympics. The mere act of qualifying for the Olympics in itself is an achievement. All those shameful activities came from the part of officials.

Here we analyze India’s performance at Rio 2016. We celebrate the good performance first, criticize the bad performance respectfully then and condemn the shameful ugly performance last.

THE GOOD