Posted on 08/15/2016 10:25:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
With only six days remaining in the Rio Olympic Games, India's chances of winning a medal look bleak.
For the last 10 days, India has waited for its first medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics but its athletes have failed to finish on the podium. Many have come agonisingly close to winning one and many have had shock exits from early stages. With each passing day, the news is become more depressing.
India now has only six day left to win that elusive medal from these Games, otherwise, for the first time since 1992, it will return medal-less. The high of London four years ago is turning into disaster in Rio de Janeiro.
The biggest disappointment was the shooters returning without a medal with Abhinav Bindra managing the best position among all – fourth. Jitu Rai, a big medal hope, failed to finish on the podium in 10m air pistol while he failed to qualify for the final of 50m air pistol, his pet event.
Saina Nehwal’s exit from the group stages came as the biggest shock and while hockey was not considered a medal hope, a semi-final finish was realistic. The Rio Games can be called a failure for India.
Now India have a few athletes left to compete and though the medal hopes are still alive, they are very bleak. Kidambi Srikanth will play the quarter-final of men’s singles in badminton but he faces Lin Dan, the two-time defending champion.
India’s last medal hopes lie on the wrestler with Yogeshwar Dutt leading the charge. With him is the controversy ridden Narsingh Yadav and a dark horse in 57kg Sandeep Tomar will also be in medal contention. In the women’s category, India’s three wrestler, Vinesh Phogat, Babita Kumari and Sakshi Malik will open their campaign two days from Tuesday. A medal from them will be a pleasant surprise, though the Indian expectations have not come true.
In athletics, we have a few athletes left but none has the class to medal at the Olympics. The women’s and men’s 4x100m relay team will take part on the second last day of Olympics.
In the men’s 50km walk, we have two participants but it would be a great achievement if they can manage a top-10 finish. In men’s marathon, India have three participants who will look to make a mark.
Wrestling remains the biggest medal hope for India and while badminton women’s singles player PV Sindhu stayed alive with the win in the pre-quarters, it can’t be said with surety of what will come of her.
But it is too late to guess the medal contenders. What was thought of the largest ever contingent could not be executed and this Olympics has to be a big disappointment for India. A medal or not, this should not have happened.
During my college days in India, I had access to several outdoor tennis and indoor/outdoor badminton courts. My house even had a badminton court in the backyard. However my priorities were academic and not sports. After my bachelor’s degree, I came to US for Master’s in engineering. Again my priorities were academic and not sports, although I did win an intramural badminton tournament at the university. The student competition in US was much less severe than in India. The one sport I really like now is golf, and spent many fun years as a member at Royal Oaks country club in Vancouver, WA. It is the best golf course in southern Washington state.
Guess Cricket isn’t an Olympic sport. Actually having Cricket in the Olympics makes a lot more sense than a lot of the events they have now.
Cricket is popular only in former British colonies such as India, South Africa, West Indies, Australia, etc. Therefore it can not be considered a worldwide sport.
Lots of Olympic sports are not worldwide.
1/3 of all scientists and engineers in the world are Indians. In United States, the ethnic group with highest income is the Indians. So I guess Indians have different priorities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjB_Tf7Cy3A&feature=related
Which Olympic sports are not worldwide? For example baseball and American football are played in more than just the USA but are not Olympic sports. Soccer, Badminton, Tennis, Ping Pong, field hockey, etc are played on all 5 continents.
Cricket is played around the world too. With the Indians moving to this country, I expect over time the US to start fielding competitive teams.
What’s funny is that they say Soccer is the world’s most popular game, yet the three most populous countries: India and China and the US don’t do particularly well at it.
The one thing the Indian community does not talk about is that the parent don’t allow their daughters to participate in sports that are outdoors because they don’t want their daughters to get “dark” by playing in the sun.
Cricket has been reformed quite a bit since my college days. In those days so called test matches between countries took 5 days, and 6 hours each days! It was a game for the rich people with much leisure time on hands. Now it has been made shorter, but I understand the match play still encompasses multiple days of play. Not suitable for Olympics unless they change the rules much more!
Cricket has been reformed quite a bit since my college days. In those days so called test matches between countries took 5 days, and 6 hours each days! It was a game for the rich people with much leisure time on hands. Now it has been made shorter, but I understand the match play still encompasses multiple days of play. Not suitable for Olympics unless they change the rules much more!
Wait another few generations, and everything will even out. Look at how the Indian community in Canada and England perform. They are at average.
Lot of truth in that, lighter complexions are a much valued commodity in Indian culture. That is also true in most South-East Asian countries.
I agree.
Watch any Bollywood movie and that becomes crystal clear.
What I also notice is, it's the same in Mexico. Watch the telenovelas, everyone is European-looking.
I know why soccer is not big in India. Cricket popularity overwhelms soccer there. Somewhat true in US also, where Football & baseball are much more popular than soccer.
I guess in China, it’s Ping-Pong.
It is the same in every Asian country (China, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand etc and probably South America as well. On the other hand, European origin people with light complexions are constantly trying to get a sun-tan and curl their hair!
If poop in the water was an Olympic event, Rio would not even reach the podium, but India’s Ganges would take the gold!
I got a call this week from Indians purporting to be from the IRS who wanted me to go to the supermarket, buy $2000 in iTunes gift cards in $500 increments, and somehow send/wire the money to them or they would have me arrested immediately.
They even played scanner noise in the background to scare me that the cops were on the way, and when I balked they said that they suspended my DL right then and there.
Filthy Indians!
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