2024-08-14 03:18:41
Paris: The Olympic journey ended as soon as the wonderful closing ceremony ended at the huge Stade de France. In 2020, Indian athletes won 7 medals. Everyone hoped that this time the number would cross 10, but it did not happen. The Indian team ended its journey shamefully by finishing 71st. The enthusiasm and passion with which the Indian team had left was not as happy on their faces while returning. Being behind Pakistan on the basis of statistics and technology is also a big reason, which finished 62nd with one gold. 205 countries participated, while 84 countries won at least one medal. India, a country with a population of 140 crores, ranked 71st in this. Under Khelo India, launched in 2017-18, PM Narendra Modi’s vision was to win as many medals as possible in the Olympics. When 7 medals came in Tokyo, it became the most successful Olympics in Indian history. Neeraj Chopra won a historic gold in javelin. There were expectations from him this time too, but he was limited to the silver medal.
The pain inflicted by Paris, the city of romance, in the case of female wrestler Vinesh Phogat (disqualified due to weight), will hardly diminish for decades to come. Indian athletes may be happy that they have Olympian in front of their names, but Abhinav Bindra, who won the gold medal in Beijing, tarnished Modi’s vision when he said – money cannot bring medals. He also said that although we cannot stop spending money on athletes, we have to understand where and how to spend money.
470 crore rupees spent, got 6 medals, 6 athletes stood fourth
This is true. According to a Times of India report, the central government has spent Rs 470 crore in the last three years to prepare the team for the Paris Olympics. This is much more than the previous figures. If we look at the figures, the highest expenditure was on athletics (Rs 96.08 crore), followed by badminton (Rs 72.02 crore), boxing (Rs 60.93 crore) and shooting (Rs 60.42 crore). All the 16 sports in which India participated in Paris received funds. But one performance was disappointing.
Top-10 medal winning countries in Paris Olympics, India and Pakistan.
This Indian athlete was at number four
- Arjun Babuta (10m men’s air rifle)
- Manu Bhakar (Women’s 25m Pistol)
- Ankita Bhakat-Dheeraj Bommadevara (archery mixed team)
- Maheshwari Chauhan and Anantjeet Singh Naruka (Mixed Skeet Team)
- Lakshya Sen (Badminton)
- Mirabai Chanu (Weightlifting)
Son won Olympic gold medal for USA, father was a dangerous bowler of West Indies cricket team
Understand participation in medals in this way
- Total medals: 6
- Individual: 4
- Teams: 2
Manu Bhaker was the hero of Indian success
India fielded 117 athletes at the Paris Olympics, including 47 women. Two-time Olympic medalists PR Sreejesh (hockey) and Manu Bhaker (shooting) represented India as flag bearers in the parade of nations at the closing ceremony. India concluded its campaign at the Paris Olympic Games with six medals. Manu won bronze medals in the women’s 10m air pistol and the 10m air pistol mixed team event with Sarabjot Singh. She is the first Indian athlete since independence to win two medals in an Olympics.
Paris Olympics: We must remember what Paris taught us… Instead of hosting the Olympics, we should focus on increasing medals
Who is at the forefront and who is at the back in terms of population
Dominica was the smallest country to win a medal at this year’s Olympics, with 72,737. China’s 1.4 billion people won 91 medals, 40 of which were gold, while India was a country with a population of over 1 billion but only won 6 medals. Grenada topped the table in terms of population, with only 62,719 people coming in for each of its two medals. They were followed by Dominica, St Lucia and New Zealand, whose 20 medals came from an average population of 259,000. Britain is 25th on the list with 1 million people per medal, but Pakistan and India are at the bottom of the list. India’s six medals came from an average of 236 million people per medal, while Pakistan’s gold came from 243 million people.
What could happen in Los Angeles?India finished 71st in Paris (68th if Vinesh wins the appeal). This is the worst ranking since 2000. In 2008, we were ranked 50th, while in 2020 we were ranked 48th. This time the journey ended 23 places behind that, but the good thing is that there were 15 such events in Paris in which India either got a medal or missed a medal. In Los Angeles, it is expected that this team will bring as many medals as possible and there will also be cricket there, in which a medal is almost certain.