India finished Olympics ranked 48. How to win more medals | OPINION

By Rajdeep Sardesai: My smile is broad this week as it is of many Indians because this has been a week to celebrate, a week to celebrate the Olympic maha-kumbh and the achievements of our sportspersons - the kind of 'wow!' moments that we only see every four years when the Olympics come. But this time in Tokyo, the Olympic Games have been a little bit extra special because new sports stars have emerged.

Did you really know of Ravi Kumar Dahiya, the wrestler who staged that magnificent comeback to win a silver medal? We, of course, knew about PV Sindhu but her remarkable ability in big matches is still something to admire, the way she out played the Chinese girl to win a bronze medal. And, weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, who we knew had the capacity to win a medal for us and she did exactly that, with élan.

Then the boxer Lovlina Borgohain, did you know her name? Be honest, if you were not a true sports fan, had you heard of Lovlina or know indeed of Aditi Ashok playing with the best in the world in women's golf? And then, of course, there was the ultimate dream moment in Indian Olympic history when Neeraj Chopra achieved what no track and field athlete had managed for the country since 1947 - win not just a medal but making it a glittering gold.

And then there was the revival of my pehla pyaar (first love) hockey - a sport which I grew to love when I was growing up in the 1970s, a sport which I guess a generation had almost given up on, a sport which has taken us through a roller coaster of emotions.

We were winning a hockey medal for the first time since way back in 1980 in Moscow. It was incredible this time to see the Indian men's hockey team on the podium and those wonderful, spirited women and the manner in which they performed and reached the semi-finals having finished last in the Rio Olympics in 2016.

New heroes were added to the country's proud hockey history - the Rani Rampals and Savita Punias, for example, in women's hockey . And, of course, the brilliant men's hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who told me that the 'goalpost is like my home. I have a special relationship with the goalpost'.

The team's performances have brought great joy and yet, in the Straight Bat, we must say things as we see them, because while some things are clearly changing for the better, some things have still not changed: in particular, the manner in which our netas and their supporters tend to try and take credit for the achievements of our sportspersons.

I remember my late father Dilip Sardesai telling me that in 1971, after the historic victory when they defeated England in England for the first time, the Air India flight was at the last moment diverted to Delhi. Why? Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wanted to have a reception for the players. Some would say all she wanted was a photo-op.

But it was Mrs Gandhi who wanted to be seen around the winners. And the cricket team at the time was a team of winners. Now, of course, we have Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is promising to invite all our Olympian stars to the Independence Day functions, which I think is a great idea. Why not celebrate August 15th with our Olympic stars?

This is not new. For the longest time, world leaders have tended to bask in the reflected glory of sporting heroes.

Sporting heroes are the purest of heroes in a way, the champions who reach where they are based on merit and skill, not on any nepotism, not because of being someone's son and daughter. I keep saying that I am a living example of the fact that sports do not run in the genes, talent does. So, my father could play for India, I couldn't.

It's wonderful when our politicians recognise our sports stars with cash awards and honours. Where I have a problem is when the politicians and their supporters seem to believe that it is the leader who is bringing in the medals for the country and not the athletes.

Recall the ridiculous posters which came up just before the Olympics in Guwahati where you have Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wishing good luck to the 'pride of Assam' boxer Lovlina Borgohain.

The only problem is that the posters did not have a picture of Lovlina. Instead, they had a life-size picture of Himanta Biswa Sarma. It was some sycophant of the chief minister who apparently put up the posters. It required a public outcry before the posters were removed. Lovlina is the champion, Himanta Biswa Sarma is the chief minister of Assam who is a master election strategist, but he is not going to win you an Olympic medal in the boxing ring.

Similarly, you had Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh who was celebrating, it appeared from his tweets at least, only the hockey players who hailed from Punjab. When the fact is that hockey is a team game, so why not hail all the 11 players. Not just those from your home state.

Then, after the medal-winning performance of the hockey players, there was a hashtag that suddenly was running on social media saying, "Thank You Modi". But why 'thank you Modi' for the performance of the hockey players?
I can understand when you say 'thank you', let's say, to the former sports minister, Kiren Rijiju who, along with his predecessor Col Rajyavardhan Rathore, himself an Olympic silver medalist, did play a role in encouraging and incentivising Olympic sports in the last few years while he was the sports minister.

But why link the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to each and every Olympic winning moment? Do we really need to compare the six medals won in London 2012 when the UPA was in power to the seven now won when the NDA is in office? This constant attempt to build a personality cult around a Supreme Leader smacks of unalloyed hero worship. It's political propaganda of a kind we saw during the Olympics when the erstwhile communist regimes linked the 'success' of their political system to Olympic medals . When Russia, East Germany and Cuba were winning medals in the 1970s and 80s, the athletes would dedicate their medals to the communist system, almost as if it was a triumph for a political order when a country won medals.

The truth is, if there is one politician at the moment who actually deserves a 'thank you' note, particularly for our hockey win, it is the Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. A few years ago, Indian hockey was really in the doldrums. We had not even qualified for the 2008 Olympics. We were struggling for a sponsor. The Odisha government sometime in 2015 decided to step in, first by endorsing a premier hockey league. A world cup was organised in 2018 in Odisha. A world class hockey infrastructure was built in Bhubaneswar where the team could train, where they could play quality matches.

The Chief Minister's Office (CMO) or indeed the Odisha government, to be more specific, decided to sponsor hockey - both the men's and the women's teams, with Sundargarh in Odisha becoming the new sort of 'garh' or the fortress of the Indian hockey from where many of the young players are now emerging. In fact, in 2023, the hockey world cup is again scheduled to be held in Bhubaneswar.

It is that kind of sustained support that has helped Indian hockey to rise from the ashes. And that is the reason why, in a sense, Naveen Patnaik is the one Indian neta who can genuinely claim credit for the revival of the sport of hockey that we all love so much.

But contrast his relatively low key reaction to that of other netas. Patnaik released a couple of congratulatory videos, a few full-page advertisements but without the constant chest thumping. He didn't suggest as if he had won a medal at the Olympics, but wanted the hockey players to be the centre of attention.

In fact, when I asked Mr Patnaik's office after the team won a medal about doing an interview with the chief minister, the Chief Minister's Office responded, ' we are sorry. The chief minister is very busy. He said what he had to. Please celebrate the hockey stars.'

I thought that was so refreshing and reassuring to find that, in this media age, there is one chief minister who is happy to stay in the background and keep the focus only on the players who had won the medal.

By the way, I learned a few years ago when I interviewed Mr Patnaik that he was a hockey fan. He was also a hockey goalkeeper when he was at Doon School. I also learnt that the chief minister's ambitious programme was now to have a synthetic AstroTurf ground in every district of Odisha. What could be better than that? This is how sport is encouraged when you do it from the grassroots.

Which is why we need to look at what I would call the Odisha Model in building Olympic sport. What is this model? Basically, why can't every state or certainly major state in the country pick one Olympic sport where we have the capacity and talent over so many years to get medals and then partner a private company, a partnership that helps build Olympic sport.

For example, why can't Maharashtra pick up wrestling - we have a great tradition of wrestling in Maharashtra and tie up with the Reliance Foundation and build the sports infrastructure there. Jharkhand, which has a great tradition of archery, could tie up with Tata Steel. Haryana could focus on boxing and shooting, Manipur in weightlifting and a Kerala, maybe in rowing. Create special games for special states and build an Olympic level infrastructure around them.. Most critically, allow the private sector, foundations like JSW sports of Jindal steel, to take the elite athletes to the next level as they did by supporting Neeraj Chopra.

Bottomline at the end of the day is simply this: medals are won by athletes and not by politicians. This is as true of Abhinav Bindra in 2008 when Manmohan Singh and the UPA were in power as it is today when a PV Sindhu wins two successive Olympic medals during the NDA's rule. Abhinav won gold. Sindhu has become the first individual athlete to win two consecutive medals.

What the state can do is to provide an enabling environment, ensure that budgets are not cut, instead invest in building a solid school and junior level sports infrastructure and create a system which is free of stifling bureaucracy and politics, and is truly merit-driven. That's the role of the state.

The role of the private sector is to look at life beyond cricket and fund Olympic sports and elite potential medal-winning athletes. The truth is, netas are welcome to take their photo-ops with the Olympians. They can engage with them in made-for-TV and social media conversations . Corporates can advertise their brands, but winning medals in sports is not about self-promotion . It is not about naming stadiums after politicians. It's about being genuine promotion of excellence in sports 364 days 24x7. The day we realise that and start building a world-class sporting infrastructure and a true sports culture in every nook and corner of India, we can truly celebrate the spirit of Khelo India and dream of actually winning many more Olympic medals. Tokyo 2020 is not the finish line but must become the starting point for the great Indian Olympic ambition.