"Global Times In-depth" India is hotly discussing whether it can become a "sports power"
2024-08-16
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[Global Times Special Correspondent in India Cao Chong, Global Times Special Correspondent Bai Yuan, Global Times Reporter Tang Ya] Editor's Note: As the 33rd Summer Olympic Games came to a close in Paris, the Indian delegation's performance of "1 silver and 5 bronze medals" has become the focus of global public opinion. Some Indian media concluded that this is India's "second best performance" in Olympic history. Indian Prime Minister Modi personally praised "all athletes did their best and every Indian is proud of them" on the social platform X, and specially chose India's Independence Day (August 15) to meet with 117 Olympic representatives at his official residence to discuss the "highs and lows" of the Paris Olympics.
On the 15th, Modi also stressed that India will make unremitting efforts to move towards "greater goals" and talked about India's Olympic bid. However, regarding India's "single-digit" medals at the Paris Olympics, many international media have questioned: "Why did the world's most populous country perform significantly below its weight in the Olympics?" There are also voices in India calling for reflection, hoping to explore a way to "make India a sports power."
“Are we really just too busy watching cricket?”
"India is preparing for the biggest sporting event." On the 15th, in his speech on India's Independence Day, Prime Minister Modi reiterated the country's "tremendous efforts" to bid for the 2036 Summer Olympics, and said that India may also bid for the 2030 Summer Youth Olympic Games.
Contrary to the atmosphere in which Modi talks about the "Indian Olympic dream", domestic public opinion in India has recently shown a complex attitude towards the country's performance in previous Olympic Games.
Modi met with the Indian men's hockey team on the 15th. (Photo source: Press Trust of India)
Some Indian media are optimistic, saying that India's Olympics "is not hopeless, but still contains hope." The Times of India published a commentary on the 12th, saying that compared with previous Olympic Games, India's performance in this Paris Olympics is not bad. Although it is not as good as the "historic good results of 1 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze" in the Tokyo Olympics, it is worse than the 1 silver and 1 bronze in the Rio Olympics. India Today emphasized that there are 6 Indian athletes who won the fourth place in this Olympics, but unfortunately did not win a medal.
The Hindu focused on the "Olympic heroes", saying that Indian shooting sports have seen new stars such as Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh, and emphasized that the Indian men's hockey team has been on the Olympic podium twice in a row, and that "Indian national hero" Neeraj Chopra won the silver medal in the javelin event again after winning the gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics. However, The Hindu admitted that India's presence in events such as swimming and gymnastics is almost zero, and that female wrestler Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the finals for being 100 grams overweight, which is a "shadow" that cannot be ignored.
Some critics believe that as the "fifth largest economy in the world", India ranks 71st in the Olympic medal table, even lower than Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania and other countries with smaller populations. Such performance is frustrating and puzzling. "Are we really just too busy watching cricket?" India's Kashmir Reader published a commentary on the 14th, saying that India's record in the Olympics is "very bad", winning 6 medals during the Paris Olympics, including "not a single gold medal". The media questioned: "Is it so difficult to cultivate a champion in a country of our size? Should we laugh at this absurd situation, or mourn the lost potential?"
Some analysts believe that due to the lack of long-term investment, Indian athletes face many obstacles such as insufficient funds and lack of training facilities. Widespread malnutrition also hinders India's "gold dream". Indian sports journalist and author of "A Billion Dreams: India and the Olympics" Boriya Mazmud told CNN: "The proposition that there are only six medals for 1.4 billion people is completely wrong because (in India) there are 1.39 billion people who do not have access to sports facilities."
Deepa Karmakar, the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics in women's gymnastics, told The Independent that when she first started training, she did not receive any infrastructure support, and it was not until 2016 that she got relatively good equipment. For her, it was "a very difficult journey" to stand out in domestic and international competitions under such simple conditions.
Karmakar said that Indian athletes only get 3 to 4 months of resource support if they qualify for the Olympics, "If our athletes had received such resources a year or two ago, our medal count might have increased."
The two 2019 Nobel Prize winners in economics, Indian-American economist Abhijit Banerjee and his wife Esther Duflo, who is also an economist, believe that severe malnutrition is an important reason for India's poor performance in the Olympics. In their book "The Nature of Poverty", they wrote that compared with some African countries, the latter's per capita number of Olympic medals is "10 times that of India".
According to the 2023 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 111th out of 125 countries, falling into the category of "severe hunger". The country's child wasting rate is as high as 18.7%, the highest in the world. According to the report, more than one-third of children under the age of five in India suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition. CNN said that the low social status of Indian women has also limited the country's sports achievements to a certain extent.
“Only by attaching fundamental importance to sports can we achieve breakthroughs in the future”
According to the Global Times' special correspondent in India, the public's reaction to India's mere six medals at the Paris Olympics was relatively flat, with few discussions. In fact, during the Paris Olympics, the Olympic atmosphere in New Delhi was not as enthusiastic as the reporter had expected. In entertainment venues such as coffee shops and bars, only Olympic events in which India might win medals were broadcast, and the rest of the time people were watching other sports events such as the country's cricket matches or European football matches.
Some Indian people told the Global Times special correspondent that India is far from being a "sports power" and even seriously lacks a "sports atmosphere". However, some people believe that India has potential in certain specific events and is expected to achieve breakthrough results in the next one or two Olympic Games.
At Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, many sports enthusiasts with higher education backgrounds told reporters that India is seriously lacking in physical education in general. It is not only a problem that it cannot train high-level athletes, but also that it needs to attach importance to the development of sports at the basic education stage and comprehensively improve the sports level of the people. They believe that only by fundamentally improving the importance of sports in India can it achieve breakthroughs in the future.
The Indian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports stated on the 5th of this month that the main responsibility for developing sports and physical education lies with the states, and the federal government only plays a supplementary role. Due to the low interest of state governments in investing in sports, there is a serious shortage of sports facilities across India.
An Indian sports enthusiast told reporters that many areas in India lack professional training venues and equipment: it is difficult to find public basketball courts or football fields in economically poor areas; and in New Delhi or Mumbai, public sports venues are difficult to build due to high land prices or difficulties in demolition. In addition, compared with other fields, the Indian government's financial investment in sports is "too little", and the sports talent training system is not perfect.
The Hindu newspaper once published an article saying that compared with China and other countries, India's investment in sports is too little. According to the report, the budget allocation for the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has increased from 4.66 billion rupees (100 million rupees is about 8.5 million yuan) in the 2004-2005 fiscal year to 33.97 billion rupees in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, but this amount is a drop in the bucket when compared with the total population of India. The Hindu newspaper said that India's financial investment in sports is too low, resulting in the country's training of athletes being far from the Olympic standards. India has nearly 70 national sports associations, each of which received an average of 20 million rupees in funding in the 2022-2023 fiscal year. In the past five years, only 1,254 athletes have trained abroad through official programs.
Li Xiao, a sports practitioner who has lived and worked in India before, told the Global Times that India generally does not attach importance to physical education. Most families want their children to be doctors or engineers, and believe that sports are not a reliable and good career choice. In addition, Li Xiao believes that many Indians advocate fatalism and the tradition of vegetarianism, which is not conducive to the training of professional athletes.
"If India's Olympic bid is successful, it will be a historic moment"
India Today reported on the 15th that in his Independence Day speech, Modi reiterated India's "Olympic dream". "India has hosted the G20 Leaders' Summit and more than 200 events across the country, which proves that India has the ability to organize large-scale events. Now, hosting the 2036 Olympics is India's dream." The report said that India plans to first win the right to host the 2030 Summer Youth Olympic Games and then use this to support its own Olympic application.
The Times of India reported that on the afternoon of the 15th, when Modi received 117 Indian Olympic representatives at his official residence, the Indian men's hockey team presented him with a jersey and a stick signed by all the players of the team. When presenting the equipment, shooting star Manu Bhaker also explained to Modi the working principle of the air pistol. Both of them smiled during the conversation.
Some analysts believe that India's Olympic performance has always been poor, but this year the Indian media is so concerned about the number of Olympic medals and calls for more attention to sports, which is related to Modi's "Olympic dream". According to reports, on the eve of this year's Indian general election, the Bharatiya Janata Party led by Modi included the Olympic bid in its campaign promises.
The Times of India analyzed on the 13th that although India has never hosted the Olympic Games, the Modi government believes that it is in a favorable position, "If India can successfully bid for the Olympics, it will be a historic moment." The media admitted that India faces fierce competition from other countries that have hosted international events.
Qian Feng, a researcher at the National Institute of Strategic Studies at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that Modi's reiteration of India's bid for the Olympics on Independence Day was more out of political considerations. Qian Feng said that in recent years, as India's overall economic strength has continued to rise and has been favored by all parties, the Indian government has been constantly promoting the country's "leading position in the second tier of global economies in terms of gross domestic product (GDP)." Modi needs to transfer economic achievements to the field of sports, thereby highlighting India's "great power status" in order to win more votes for the BJP.
Qian Feng said that the last time India hosted a major sporting event was the 2010 Commonwealth Games, when the government forced demolitions to build stadiums, which was met with strong protests from the public, and these stadiums were not fully built until the last minute. The outside world is worried that India's enthusiasm for bidding may put the International Olympic Committee in a dilemma: on the one hand, India is a populous country and has never hosted the Olympics. From the perspective of covering all mankind, everyone may psychologically "vote for India"; on the other hand, for "Indian efficiency", it is inevitable to worry that the Commonwealth Games venues will be "difficult to build" again.
There is a great deal of disagreement in Indian public opinion on whether to bid for the Olympics. Last year, the Indian newspaper Mint published a commentary that bidding for the 2036 Olympics could promote economic and tourism development, improve India's urban and sports infrastructure, and increase Indians' interest in sports. However, the newspaper also published an article in July this year saying: "Hosting the Olympics is very expensive. Is it worth it for India?"
In response to the voices that India should not bid for the Olympics, the Indian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports previously responded that India will benefit from hosting the Olympics and believes that "India is fully prepared."
