Why can't Indian athletes win medals at Olympics?

30 April, 2012

Indians have never performed satisfactorily at the Olympics. While many people attribute the failure to lack of physical strength but experts reject it as a myth. CJ Ashim Sunam spoke to trainers and sports psychologists to dig out the reasons for pitiable show of Indian athletes at Olympics.

INDIAN OLYMPIC team’s performance at the Olympics has always been dismal and only one or two athletes return with a medal (sometimes not even one medal) – without any exaggeration it seems they were there just as tourists. Though there are many reasons but most people attribute Olympic failure to the weak physical structure of Indian sportspersons.

Sonia Kapur, a sports psychologist does not agree with it and instead considers it a myth. She said, “Researchers have proved it to be a myth. Indians according to me are very hardworking and physically active”. She attributes the failure to the lack of basic infrastructure, training, coaches etc, which she believes ‘is not up to the mark’. KK Singh, a certified fitness trainer agreed with Sonia’s point. He said, “India still follows a traditional form of training, while the world is moving at a fast pace”. Indians in the past have always been slow in picking up new training methods, and here too, they are no different.

There is so much of competition in the present world, where athletes are required to be in fine shape, whatever the form of competition. Mr Singh said, “Indians are required to undergo functional training”. Functional training is a kind of training where the athletes strengthen that particular muscle, which would be helpful in their sport. For instance, sprinters and high jump athletes need to strengthen their quadriceps (front thigh muscle) to enhance their performance.

India does not have a rich culture of sports psychologists. How many names can one recall? Not one. But, sports psychologists play a very important role in a sportsperson’s career and the respective authorities need to take care of it. “We have very few psychologists who accompany athletes”, said Mr Singh. Sports psychologists can help the athlete in understanding various things, which neither the athlete himself nor his coach would be able to figure out. It is at this juncture sports psychologists like Ms kapur would be handy. She said, “Physiological factors have been ruling Indian sports. They lack motivation and are not ambitious enough”.

It is an irony that India houses Asia’s largest Sports institute in Patiala, which is popularly known as NIS, Patiala. In spite of this, we do not produce any quality athlete, who is worthy enough to be called a champion. The institute offers best facilities for athletes. Still, there are no results to bring upon glory to the institute and the country. “Some coaches follow old training methods. There is a serious need for trainers and coaches to upgrade themselves, if they want to win medals in major competitions”, said Mr Singh, who has been in this profession for 10 years.