The Gold Medal Hype

The Olympics fever is through the roof right now and every news channel is talking about it 24x7. First a little background is essential for this article. I'm an Indian, have been ever since I was born, no two ways about it. I played cricket on the streets while growing up at some point of my life or other; I cry in joy when a 4hr Hindi movie culminates with the hero finally getting the heroine from the evil clutches of the apparently invincible villain after about 8-10 songs (maybe the songs killed the villain!). Anyway, here in India, the Olympics is a big thing, despite the shameful fact that we rarely win more than a single medal every time we send all our athletes to compete. Just one. Last time it was Rathode who got us Silver in some shooting event that we didn't even know was a part of the Olympics until the ex-army major emerged with a wreath and silver. At Sydney we won Bronze thanks to Malleswari who lifted some real heavy weight to salvage our pride. The last time we'd won Gold was in the 1980 Games where we won it in hockey. We were real good at hockey and I think all our medals have come only in that sport, until now that is. This year our hockey team didn't even qualify for the Olympics.

Now that you've got the broad picture, you'd understand us better. Rathode and Malleswari were transformed into celebrities overnight for winning us our solitary medals at the respective Olympics. Now, this year, finally, we won our first ever individual Gold courtesy Abhinav Bindra. A few days back he was part of the large anonymity our unfortunate, neglected athletes face. But now, after that dazzling shooting performance in the 10m air-rifle event, he's become a superstar! This is now the other extreme. We Indians philosophize about moderation, but when it comes ot practicality... All the news channels seem to be talking about is Bindra and his heroics. It's as if a billion people are trying to share the glory that the hardworking fellow has achieved. His parents are being interviewed on one News channel, while another has the latest scoop on what's his favorite sweet dish; a third channel's busy screening a quick biography, while a fourth is interviewing his friends and teachers etc.

Now comes the sad state. The poor fellow (quite rich financially!) wasn't even helped by the Government's sports body, all they care about is cricket. But now, they're sharing his limelight. But let's fast-forward now to the next Olympics and see how the situation is going to be (derived from a formula of recurrence!). Bindra would have appeared in at least one Bollywood movie which he'd have just managed to fit into his already busy schedule that deals with an interview a week, a couple of ads and tons of parties for our golden boy. He's obviously given no time to practise, that's only for people who want to perfect...our boy's golden. He'll duly be given the honor to hold the Indian flag come the 2012 London Olympics. In the interim he'd also have been gifted a few lacs of money from the government on making us proud, another few lacs from the state government for making the state proud, a further few lacs for making his city proud and so on. Oh, I almost forgot the huge house and couple of gift cars to show we care for our heroes.

At London, another anonymous fellow will get us our only medal, and the rest will sink back into anonymity. Ah! An athlete's life!