Talking Tokyo

Why do we follow sports? I read somewhere that Emotional investment in sports is just weird. You have absolutely no control on the result and are dependent on the efforts of some random people who currently have the allegiance to the same flag as your passport! And who most likely have no idea you exist. Yet, we somehow share the collective joy and disappointments! 

The Tokyo Olympics actually happened. And India achieved its best medal tally. After two weeks of action all that is left is an Olympics sized void in its aftermath! And lots of memories and interesting factoids for future sports quizzes! Here is what the Tokyo Games would be remembered from an Indian perspective (or maybe not). 

• 2021 – The bizarre answer to the question, “In which year were the Tokyo 2020 Olympics held?” There were Covid cases (thankfully very few), some bio-bubble breaches (dealt with severely), Russians masquerading as ROC (what is even the point of that ban then!), a missing Ugandan weightlifter, a nearly kidnapped Belarussian runner, and a coach who punched a horse! In all not too many off-field distractions. 
• 1988 – That was the last Olympics in which Leander Paes - the man who got India back to medal winning ways - was not part of the Indian contingent. 
• 126 – Final count of Indian athletes at the Olympics, with Diksha Dagar sneaking in after the Games started. And whatever the armchair critics might say, they were all there on merit, making through the long drawn Qualifying cycle disrupted by a global pandemic. 
• 87.58 – metres, that’s how far Neeraj Chopra’s javelin flew earning India’s first ever Athletics Gold. In one of the most dominant displays by an Indian athlete, Neeraj Chopra’s throws would have placed him 1st, 2nd & 4th and all this despite not even meeting his Personal Best! Just to give a perspective, Avinash Sable broke his own Steeplechase National Record, while the Men’s 4x400m relay broke the Asian Record and yet failed to reach the respective Finals. 
• 41 – Years since we last got a Hockey medal. It had been a while coming. We waited nearly half a century for the Indian team to reach the semi-finals and then in a matter of 24 hours we had two Hockey teams in the last 4! And somehow PR Sreejesh ended up on top of the goal-posts!
• 7 – Medals won by India - 1 Gold, 2 Silvers & 4 Bronze Medals. one more than the 6 at London 2012. Also improved the total medal tally by a whopping 25%. Remember the Names - Neeraj Chopra, Mirabai Chanu, Ravi Dahiya, PV Sindhu, Lovlina Borgohain, Bajrang Punia & the Hockey team (Dilpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Surender Kumar, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Gurjant Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Lalit Upadhyay, P. R. Sreejesh, Sumit, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Varun Kumar, Birendra Lakra, Amit Rohidas and Vivek Prasad).
• 7 – medals won by Indian wrestlers till date. The Gold still eludes but we are getting closer. 
• 4 – India has a long history of 4th Place finishes. In some instances, they are more celebrated than some medalists even. In this edition, we added a few more chapters. Aditi Ashok in Golf (where India got a quick lesson in bogeys and birdies), the women’s Hockey team (where real life nearly imitated reel) and Deepak Punia. Aditi missed birdies by an inch or so, while Deepak was leading for most of his bout. 
• 2 – PV Sindhu added a Bronze to her Silver at Rio, joining Sushil Kumar as the most decorated Indian individual athletes. Still 2 short of Hockey Legends Leslie Claudius and Udham Singh. 
• 1 Billion – Number of armchair experts who popped up during the Games, giving a detailed critique of every athlete’s sporting technique, physical fitness and mental toughness, while themselves having zero idea of (a) the rules of the game, (b) the qualifying process and previous competitions, and (c) even the names of the athletes. And then there are the abusive trolls, channeling all their misplaced anger and frustrations at the athletes! 

There is a very fine line between fame and anonymity. Nowhere is this adage truer than the Olympics. Take the case of Chirag Shetty & Satwik Rankireddy – they beat the eventual gold medallists in the first match but ended up finishing 3rd in the group despite winning two matches and were eliminated in the first round itself. 

And then there are the other heroic stories:

• Bhavani Devi – a true trailblazer, becoming the first Indian fencer to not only qualify but also win a round at the Olympics. 
• Fouaad Mirza and Signeur marking India’s return to the Equestrian arena after 2 decades. And making it to the very last stage, quite a commendable feat. 
• Kamalpreet Kaur making us watch the Discus Throw Final and finishing a creditable 6th 
• Satish Kumar boxing through stitches on the face for a chance for a medal 
• Vishnu Sarvanan registering a 3rd place in one of the legs 
• Saurabh Chaudhary – the only shooter who did not disappoint, he had a bad start in his Finals, but did well overall. 

And then there were the bizarre stories 

• Mary Kom thinking she had won the bout. Well, Boxing judging is weird to say the least so can't blame her. 
• The journos who spread rumors of dope testing for Chinese Gold winner in Mirabai’s event! 

And finally the disappointments 

• Sony Sports Network – where navigating through its myriad channels was an Olympian task in itself. Toggling between their various channels and invariably landing into ads rather than the real action. And they did not exactly cover themselves in glory by reducing the Indian contingent marching in at the Opening Ceremony to a small box on the screen 
• Then there is the rush to take credit for every success and was the blame game for every other result. 
• The Jinxers - small progress by an Indian athlete and they start updating the medal table. Wonder why the need to always jump the gun!

That was it for Tokyo (the Paralympics are still to take place). In Eminem's words - "If you had one shot or one opportunity, to seize everything that you wanted, Would You take it or let it go?" Quite a few of the Indian contingent took the first option thus leading to the best ever tally and yet there is that nagging feeling that we could easily have got many more! 

And now we begin the Road To Paris. It is a shorter one this time (hopefully)!