Indian contingent returned with six medals in recently
concluded London Olympics. It has generated mixed reactions in India. There have
been celebrations for best ever medal haul in Olympics, while there have been
criticism for a handful of medals from a country of 1.2 Billion people. Several
reasons have been attributed for low performance in Olympics –lack of killer
instinct or competitive spirit, pre-occupation with Cricket, social and economic
reasons. These reasons have played considerable role in lack of Olympic medals
in India’s show case, but off late India has been undergoing significant social
and economic reforms. Economic factors, worldwide seem to have played
significant impact upon a country’s performance
in Olympics. 
Goldman Sachs (GS) “ The Olympics and Economics 2012” has been
in the news recently. It predicted the medal haul by each country based on
predominantly economic factors. It predicted 5 medals including 2 Gold medals
for India. Its prediction has been even more accurate for host country Great Britain- a total of 65 medals. The list of predicted and actual medals for few top
sporting countries in London Olympics is listed here. The prediction of overall medals for countries with double digit
medals have been impressive. It is not my point to debate the accuracy of
prediction here, but the correlation with economic health of the country seems
to play a significant role in success in Olympics. Though money does not affect
all sports equally but country’s capability to promote sports and its
infrastructure does matter. Political stability, Democracy and country specific
strengths & skills are other factors impacting success in sports, in
general. Goldman Sachs’ The Olympics and Economics 2012 discusses economical and other related factors in details. The case of few developing countries does show a good correlation with the economical factors. I have tabulated three developing countries and compared their performance in Olympics- India, Brazil and China.
The population
of the country does not seem to play a major role, while economic parameters
(such as GDP per capita) seem to relate with the medal haul more closely.
Therefore, the two most populous countries, China and India, started to win
medals in Olympics only after their economies looked northwards. Brazil won
only 3 medals in 1992 and went on to win 15 medals the very next Olympics,
though it had earlier won 6 medals in 1988 but the increase in medal tally is
as phenomenal as its economic growth. In China, sports reforms and good administration
propelled its success in Olympics, but it seems to have been ably
supported by its economic prowess.
India’s participation, performance and success in Olympics
are summarised in below graph. India’s performance have been improving
gradually synonymous to its economic growth. Since number of medals have been
low over the years, one need to consider the potential medal winners at each
Olympics. The “Among top 10 performance” column shows the number of
participants who featured amongst the top 10 in finals (for sports like athletics) or
qualified for at least quarterfinals in other events. The swelling of medal
worthy performances in various disciplines/sports gives a glimmer of hope.
Any article on India at Olympics would be incomplete without
mention of Hockey. India’s traditional
stronghold seems to have slipped away badly, reaching its nadir this Olympics
with 12th and last position in the
table. Hockey continues to defy economic growth and it is appropriate to
mention that it is not only economics which can help you win medals. This is
one of the sports where it takes time to build skills, and economy plays a
little role. Also India have been on receiving end due to changes in the rules
and regulations of Hockey, which went against its traditional skills and slow
pace, which India had mastered. Even otherwise, the participation and
performance of team sports by India, in general and Olympics, in particular
have been traditionally poor except Hockey. Even in Hockey, there has been no
medals for the last 40 years (except in 1980, when many top Hockey playing
nations did not participate).
Despite political interference, poor & corrupt sports
administration, skewed economic growth and more academically
inclined mindset, India has been able to come out of its slumber and produced
at least one medal consecutively in last five Olympics. More remarkable is its
consistency in all round performance over multiple sports and also other
sporting events such as Commonwealth Games and Asian games. Needless to mention-
hard work, practise, skills and more importantly- hunger to win seem be paying
off now.
Finally, India seems to have arrived at
Olympics and the next Olympics at Rio could mark a watershed for the growing economic
power.
- Sandeep
Triclour Image sourece: http://hadhhogayi.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/india-london-2012-olympics-600x450.jpg
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