Paris Olympics 2024 Discussion Thread

[bharathh]

5 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

We are not elite athletic country to set our expectations high.   We sent 124 athletes. How many of then  figure in our conversations? 10 may be?  

That said, we have multiple prospects for medals nowadays. In previous Olympics we used to hope for the odd medal. Here we are disappointed that ppl are not winning - that is progress I suppose. However, after the euphoria of Tokyo and our Asian Games performances this has been a bitter pill to swallow. We still lack winners.

[deepdynamo]

Our Eight high priority sports backed by Sports Authority of India.

 

Hockey, Badminton and Shooting are the only three Olympic sports in the country now with solid infrastructure, support and coaches. That means we will always going to be world class standard in these sports. 

 

Wrestling should have joined the above sports but the internal politics of the federation has messed up this sport. After success in previous Olympics, there should have been mass opening of academies right throughout the country and then also increased participation in Greeko Roman as well. The key to any sport is maximum participation in one sport even if its to give experience to future athlete.

 

Boxing is done as of now. No new promising boxers except for Nishant. Rest are either old or not good enough.

 

Weightlifting is done. Again, missed huge opportunity to make this sport popular in the entire country after Chanu silver. The situation is that bad that an over the hill Chanu has to participate again. No new emerging weightlifters.

 

Archery: Bhajan and Bomerdevva is good and should carry the flag. 

 

Athletic: Neeraj Chopra could be done by the next Olympic. But again Athletic in India is always about individual brilliance. We are not brimming with talent.
 

[Gollum]

3 minutes ago, bharathh said:

She is woefully unprepared with all her politicking.

Was the story last year, where she used the protests excuse to qualify to Asian Games denying younger wrestlers. 

[maniac]

4 minutes ago, bharathh said:

That is true as well. Padukone is a leech. 

Padukone comes across as a typical become famous enough to hang with Bollywoodiyas and live in a bubble.

 

Gooichand seems more like SRk in Swades who sacrificed a lot as a coach despite all the offers he could have had.

Edited August 5, 2024 by maniac

[vvvslaxman]

Just now, bharathh said:

Only when you demand excellence will you get it. 

I don't question their sincerity one bit as much as I question cricketers. Olympic chances won't improve dramatically if we demand more.  Just because I demand an Indian to win 100 meter race , he won't win in a million years. There are some niche events we can compete. We can encourage them. We follow them only during Olympics. 

[bharathh]

Just now, Gollum said:

Was the story last year, where she used the protests excuse to qualify to Asian Games denying younger wrestlers. 

Not just that she kept denying the younger wrestlers for her to find the right weight category as well. Don't like her. Definition of the word overhyped and over funded. 

[Gollum]

4 minutes ago, maniac said:

Was she in the protests?

Yes.

 

And she does drama in every Olympics. Once she didn't train with other Indian wrestlers, once she brought in her own coaches, misbehaved with juniors. Demanded quota without participating in trials. Most pampered Indian wrestler.  

[Gollum]

1 minute ago, bharathh said:

Not just that she kept denying the younger wrestlers for her to find the right weight category as well. Don't like her. Definition of the word overhyped and over funded. 

Federation may have many faults but they always bent to her whims. Funded her to the maximum, tolerated her when she snubbed her mates and decided to train with Hungarians. 

[coffee_rules]

27 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Injuries are common, must fight the pain, deal with it.

 

Wrestling is the toughest sport for a reason.

 

Anyway I am done with this topic, on to the next event. 

You should coach the India Olympics team for LA. karo ya maro attitude.  I know so much disappointment makes you cynical. Dheeraj rakho bhai. 

[Ultimate_Game]

3 minutes ago, Kron said:

Bloody china never plays any physically demanding team sport. Haha. They do their own thing to win medals in lesser known sports. Although with their advanced doping tech they do well in Olympic lifting, wrestling in some categories and they have a great boxer in heavyweight too. Not in Olympics but pro boxing. Great fighter. 

 

They've focused on sports which have max no. of medals - Swimming and Gymnastics. These sports along with ones like Table Tennis, Badminton etc. give them enough to be the table toppers. And in swimming they've taken doping to new levels. 30 of their swimmers tested positive but it was brushed aside saying they ingested the material accidentally. Never knew "accidental ingestion" is a valid excuse 
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/world/asia/chinese-swimmers-doping-olympics.html

 

There was big hue and cry about Chinese figure skaters being underage at Winter olympics...

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figure-skating/ages-of-chinese-figure-skaters-in-question-1.1008899

 

And China has been aggressive in getting Chinese diaspora across the globe to play for them. Even though they're not "Chinese" but they play under Chinese flag...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/11/china/eileen-gu-zhu-yi-nathan-chen-comparison-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/eileen-gu-and-zhu-yi-both-american-born-athletes-competing-for-china-in-the-olympics-polarize-chinese-social-media

 

 

The key point is China is doing everything possible by hook and crook to win medals - be it cheating or getting athletes from abroad. If India is serious about winning Olympics medals and want to prioritize winning in Olympics, they can probably do the same. But it'll need investment of billions of dollars which our politicians and babus won't make or siphon the money for themselves.

[bharathh]

Just now, vvvslaxman said:

I don't question their sincerity one bit as much as I question cricketers. Olympic chances won't improve dramatically if we demand more.  Just because I demand an Indian to win 100 meter race , he won't win in a million years. There are some niche events we can compete. We can encourage them. We follow them only during Olympics. 

 

True - but now I agree with some folks that we need to stop hyping these 4th place finishes and call them chokes/losses. Other than Nisha and perhaps the Skeet medal a lot of our losses by Nikhat, Lovlina, Satwik/Chirag, etc. were all down to pathetic play or just not being good enough. 

 

All these folks are well funded and well paid. I am sure the ppl that beat them hardly get any of the publicity or money they do. We need more from these folks. Vinesh Phogat is another case 

[maniac]

1 minute ago, Gollum said:

Yes.

 

And she does drama in every Olympics. Once she didn't train with other Indian wrestlers, once she brought in her own coaches, misbehaved with juniors. Demanded quota without participating in trials. Most pampered Indian wrestler.  

Only Indian I won’t  be disappointed if she loses: dont expect a gold anyways. Her upside max is a bronze.

 

will revisit my opinion if she actually pulls of a gold which I don’t see happening 

[putrevus]

12 minutes ago, maniac said:

Was she in the protests?

She was there and she is correct also. That criminal Brijbhushan should be nowhere near any position of authority.

Edited August 5, 2024 by putrevus

[bharathh]

1 minute ago, maniac said:

Only Indian I won’t  be disappointed if she loses: dont expect a gold anyways. Her upside max is a bronze.

 

will revisit my opinion if she actually pulls of a gold which I don’t see happening 

No way she gets even a bronze. I will be shocked if she does.

[Gollum]

Just now, maniac said:

Only Indian I won’t  be disappointed if she loses: dont expect a gold anyways. Her upside max is a bronze.

 

will revisit my opinion if she actually pulls of a gold which I don’t see happening 

Either win a medal or get out in first round, no almost missed drama. Otherwise she will milk that and deny youngsters their rightful places in LA.

 

She seems interested in politics, she has the right traits.

[Ultimate_Game]

10 minutes ago, Number said:

Prakash Padukone blaming players directly. Saying in our times we got nothing from govt or federations, now players get everything, they need to step up on the occasion and win.

 

I don't recall Prakash Padukone winning  an Olympics medal

[Gollum]

Just now, putrevus said:

She was there and she correct also. That criminal Brijbhushan should be nowhere near any position of authority.

Only Sakshi Malik was there with right niyat. Bajrang and Vinesh wanted to skip trials and get direct entry to Asian Games, that is an irrefutable fact. Sakshi too called them out later, especially Vinesh. 

[vvvslaxman]

Djokovich wins a gold after 5 failed attempts.  Our players don't belong to that caliber. Leander Paes is probably the best example for do or die attitude in Indian sports history. Over my dead body attitude.  He will.throw everything on the line for each point.  He is a rare breed. Won bronze at Atlanta.

Edited August 5, 2024 by vvvslaxman

[Teengunalagaan]

2 minutes ago, Ultimate_Game said:

 

They've focused on sports which have max no. of medals - Swimming and Gymnastics. These sports along with ones like Table Tennis, Badminton etc. give them enough to be the table toppers. And in swimming they've taken doping to new levels. 30 of their swimmers tested positive but it was brushed aside saying they ingested the material accidentally. Never knew "accidental ingestion" is a valid excuse 
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/world/asia/chinese-swimmers-doping-olympics.html

 

There was big hue and cry about Chinese figure skaters being underage at Winter olympics...

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figure-skating/ages-of-chinese-figure-skaters-in-question-1.1008899

 

And China has been aggressive in getting Chinese diaspora across the globe to play for them. Even though they're not "Chinese" but they play under Chinese flag...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/11/china/eileen-gu-zhu-yi-nathan-chen-comparison-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/eileen-gu-and-zhu-yi-both-american-born-athletes-competing-for-china-in-the-olympics-polarize-chinese-social-media

 

 

The key point is China is doing everything possible by hook and crook to win medals - be it cheating or getting athletes from abroad. If India is serious about winning Olympics medals and want to prioritize winning in Olympics, they can probably do the same. But it'll need investment of billions of dollars which our politicians and babus won't make or siphon the money for themselves.

But what's the point, I understand promoting sports helps your athletes, helps the society.

 

But just to win medals at the Olympics by any means, how does it help, what's the point, like I don't understand there has to be some other benefit.

[rkt.india]

13 minutes ago, Number said:

Prakash Padukone blaming players directly. Saying in our times we got nothing from govt or federations, now players get everything, they need to step up on the occasion and win.

If only money was everything we would have won more icc trophies in last ten years. You need talent too.