Hi , I am Manish Chauhan Location:Pune, Maharashtra, India I was born and brought up in Lucknow, The City of Nawabs. Graduated (B.Tech) from IIT-Kanpur, Aersospace Engineering. Currently working as a Software professional in Pune, the Queen of Dec
If you are banking on it, then you can't be blamed. But apart number one ranked Malleshwari, forget about others. Here is the reason behind it.

That day they were showing an interview of Kunjurani Devi on some news channel . She was asked about her preparation. Her reply gave me a thorough jolt. According to her, representing her country in the Olympics itself is a big honour, however she will try for the medal as well !

This has been the attitude of most of the players till now because I have heard many a fathers beaming with pride for having their sons as Olympians. No wonder we have drawn almost a blank till now. Content with participation and a job in Railways, Tisco, ONGC whatever.

Malleshwari also have had a fair share of the problems. Motherhood and other family problems have kept her out of training for almost a year. She had won a Bronze in Sydney 69 Kg, by lifting 240 kg. But this category is out of bounds for her because Asian record itself is 270 kg now. But there is a grit on her face. She looks confident. She has now reduced her weight to 63 kg to compete in this category. She is expected to lift 250 kg, which gives her an outside chance of a medal.

Not many are aware that for Sydney Olympics, Malleshwari had been advised to move up from the 63 kg class to the 69 kg class mainly because of a possible chance of a medal in this weight category. This time she has been advised to move down to 63 kg. Let's hope it works for her this time as well.

Comments
on Aug 12, 2004
I think we take great pride in beign olympians. You can see ppl being introduced as XYZ"Olympian",thats their only claim to fame. Probably,they believe in true spirit of olympics-Winning or losing is nothing,participating is everything.
Was redaing Madhumita Bisht's column in TOI,she delayed her pregnancy only to be an "Olympian". Compare it with German Tennis Association,who have laid down norms like you need to be a Grand Slam Finalist(Or SemiFinalist) to go to Athens,even if you are an automatic qualification. And our players wait for others to get injued to qualify. Sorry state of affairs indeed!!!
on Aug 12, 2004
Right Rupam. Similarly, I have heard many ex Hockey players very content with their "Olympian" status. This attitude would never fetch them any medal ever.
on Aug 12, 2004
I read on a blog that Stanford university boasts of 50+ members in this year's US contingent. Now I believe that says atleast two things that we need to look at:
1. The average age of our sports persons.
2. The fact that so many of US sportspersons seem to be getting best of education along with regular students unlike in our country where u either get into professional courses or go to sports academy.
on Aug 12, 2004
Abhaya,

There are 2 things.

a) First one is the attitude. Many parents do not encourage sports. So most of the prospective talent is lost. Many atheletes are those who had nothing else do so they took sports.

There is a lot of difference between the life style and school curriculum over here and US. Cycling, Swimming etc are part of their lives. They might be heavy but are mostly fit. Schools also do not put so much stress on theory part. So most of the students are natural atheletes. It's an honour to be in school's Baseball or Football team. In India, such person is called a looser.

That's why educated players like Padukone, Dravid, Anand, Sethi , Bindra etc are rarity.