The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics have been declared wide open. The events calendar is also out now. The qualifying processes have also commenced with the first qualifiers also identified in a couple of sports.
It has been almost a year since the Tokyo Games were held. The Indian contingent while still in celebratory mood from their best Games ever is also slowly getting back to action after the euphoria of the Games. A combination of felicitation ceremonies and the pandemic ensured that most top athletes were out of action for quite a while. Sometimes, looking at all the felicitators, one wonders what success India could have got if there was similar support during the preparations!
Meanwhile here is a selection of some key Indian performances with an eye on Paris.
- Badminton: The biggest success in the past year with the men’s team clinching the Thomas Cup for the first time ever showcasing the tremendous depth of the side. And prior to that Lakshya Sen & Kidambi Srikkanth had both won a medal at the World Championships. Add to this a resurgent HS Prannoy and the doubles pair of Satwik-Chirag, and a still impressive PV Sindhu Indian Badminton is in safe hands.
- Athletics: Neeraj Chopra, the Olympic Champion, continues to break new ground becoming the first Indian to win a silver at the World Championships and also improving his own National record multiple time. The past few months have also seen quite a few long-standing national records being broken (multiple times) with Avinash Sable adding the 5,000m record to his record-breaking streak in the steeplechase. Hopefully it’s the dawn of a something good for Indian athletics. On the flip side, there have been high profile doping cases including members of last year’s Olympics contingent. The doping menace needs to be seriously nipped in the bud.
- Hockey: Both men’s & women’ teams finished 3rd in the Pro League campaign, proving that performances at Tokyo were not just a flash in the pan. However, the women’s team did not have a good World Cup finishing 9th and unfortunately, they are not part of the next Pro league cycle.
- Boxing: Nikhat Zareen is now a world champion but has to follow up the success of the legendary Mary Kom. So not much pressure there!
- Shooting: After the disappointment at Tokyo, the Indian team is back to winning medals at the World Cup stages. Given the uncertainties in this sport, can’t really say what will happen in Paris. But another performance in lines with Rio & Tokyo will certainly lower the sport’s reputation for the Indian fans. Similar to the state of Indian Archery.
That was a short summary of the goings on at Indian Olympics sports.
The Asian Games which would have served as some of the Qualifiers has now been pushed back by a year due to Covid. So next stop for some of the contingent will be the Birmingham Commonwealth Games starting 28th July, 2022. While not exactly the most competitive of events, performances here will an inkling of the things to come over the course of the next two years!
A review of the CWG performances will be part of next Episode!
Wishing the best for the Indian contingent at Birmingham.
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