Small Victories

Although the Olympics have been around since 776 BC, India only took part for the first

time, in the 1900 Paris Olympics. This Olympics was unique, as India had only one athlete

representing the country. It was an anglo-Indian named Norman Pritchard; he won India's

first medals, with two silver medals in athletics. We have come a long way, even getting

independence in the process and today, India has participated in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

A hundred and twenty-one years have passed and we have seen the vast development of

India into an economic powerhouse. On the other hand, athletics and other such Olympic

sports haven't been growing at the same rate, with India's 7 medals this year being their highest tally achieved by India in a single Olympics, ever. This isn't really a good look for a

nation with a population of 1.38 billion, as at times, even individual athletes of other

countries have won more medals than our whole nation combined. Our nation hasn't really

performed the best as even smaller countries such as Hungary and Cuba have done miles

better, amassing 20 medals each. Despite this India have always supported athletes

relentlessly in the Olympics.

Every medal that Indian athletes win in the Olympics, are valued highly, as out of a two

hundred and eight member contingent, only seven managed to win medals, and the largest

success being the gold medal. The small victories for us come in the winning of a gold

medal, which for India is a rarity. This is because, in the past twenty years India has only

managed to win two gold medals, one from Abhinav Bindra in 2008 and one from Neeraj

Chopra in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Along with the gold medals, we also got to see India

winning two silver medals and four bronze medals, each medal representing the progress of

sports in India. Even the initial thought of India is of studies and intelligence or how

competitive India is and that's because most of the people aren't encouraged to do sports. They are instead are made to focus on studies, only a few sports have a strong base in India such as cricket and the newly introduced sport of football.

Most other sports are massively overshadowed by these two sports and therefore aren’t

allowed any room to grow, but every achievement in one of the smaller sports sparks the

beginning of a new era. An era of athletes who want to participate in a smaller sport. Neeraj

Chopra's victory for example influenced many children to take up javelin as a sport and

made javelin popular across India. This is what helps our country progress and improve

every year in the Olympics. It wasn't just Neeraj Chopra's medal, but every one of the seven

Olympic medallists who, by winning medals, have inspired parts of the population to take

the bold leap into the field of sports. What's most important is that these people would now

try and get into various other sports just so they could get a chance to win a medal for their

country, instead of all trying one sport which majority of the population play, like cricket or

football.

At one point in time, field hockey used to be that sport. India used to be one of the most

dominant teams in the world. Their dominance can be seen by the fact that out of India's

ten gold medals in Olympic history, the men's hockey team won eight of those. The first of

those was in 1928, in the Amsterdam Olympics. This was the first Olympic game that one of

India's greatest ever sportsmen, Dhyan Chand, played. He went on to win the following two

Olympics and got India three gold medals in three consecutive Olympics. In the process, the

Indian team also had triumphant victories over countries such as the USA and Japan, with

scores of 24-1 and 11-1 respectively, which showed their dominance. Besides this, the

Indian hockey team won a further five more medals, with their last gold medal in the 1980

Moscow Olympics.

The eight medals won in the span of fifty-two years, shows how dominant the hockey team

was. Presently, ever since the last gold medal by the men's hockey team in 1980, India have

won only two gold medals in the last forty years. Although this may not seem like a good

sign, it makes Indians more united and patriotic. It also allows people from small parts of

India to make a name for themselves and also allows underprivileged athletes to make a

living. This has led to multiple success stories, such as that of Mirabai Chanu, who won a

silver in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. These success stories are another reason for the growth

of sports in India, as people from smaller villages, who are taught to believe that studies are

the only way to progress, are given a chance to play a sport they love and show their talent.

For a country with such a large population, this is only good news if more people compete.

It allows for more people to show their talent and potentially become India's next gold

medallist in the Olympics. Each and every medal won shows the progress of India, as it

strives to become better and better and achieve more in the next Olympics. The youth and

ambition India has, coupled with the growing interest in sports, improvement of sports

facilities and encouragement from the government, all show signs of progress and this

progress will only go on to bear fruit. Therefore, I think the room for improvement is

immense and India will only get better and better and potentially one day compete with the

likes of USA and China, in getting not one, but hundreds of gold medals in a single Olympic

game.