Save for badminton, women’s boxing and shooting, performances were way below expectations
True, it is the best-ever medal haul from India. A tally of four medals with one silver and three bronze is greater than the three won four years ago, but the absence of a gold makes it look thinner in quality. (India's challenge in wrestling was yet to begin at the time of writing this article for the magazine)
The Indian story of the Games may well be MC Mary Kom. This, in a manner of speaking, was her first and last shot at glory. She was the face her sport used to get women’s boxing into the Olympic agenda.
The 29-year-old mother of two has been candid enough to admit that she virtually lived to see the sport come to Olympic Games. And when it did, the federation and International Olympic Committee limited it to three weight categories—the lowest of which was still way above the one where Mary Kom had achieved all her glory.
Yet, Mary Kom was resilient enough to fight in a higher category. From 45 kg, where she began her career in 2001, she moved to 46 and then 48. At the Olympics she had to fight in the 51kg category. Shorter, and possessing metabolism that makes it difficult to gain weight, Mary Kom literally punched way above her weight.
She lost out to the eventual champion, Britain’s Nicola Adams. Still smiling in defeat, Mary Kom stole the hearts of 1.2 billion Indians by apologising for not winning a gold or silver.
Hey Mary, thank you for staying on for so long, when you could well have been forgiven for missing the Olympics and arranging for your twin sons’ fifth birthday party on the day you fought your first bout at the Olympics.
Shuttling to Glory
In a sport where Chinese intrigue dominates, Saina Nehwal has broken through in a manner reminiscent of Prakash Padukone making his way past a wall that had bricks of Indonesian, Chinese and Danish make embedded in it.
Back in the 1980s, when Padukone ploughed a lone furrow, it was him against the dominant Indonesians and a sprinkling of Chinese and Danish stars. Now it is Saina versus the Chinese.
Four years ago, as an 18-year-old, Saina was upset and on the verge of crying as she let go of an 11-4 lead and lost in the quarter-finals of the women’s singles at Beijing. Now as a 22-year-old, she is mature beyond her years, and knows what an Olympic medal can do for her sport in India.
If she has any doubts on that, Pullela Gopichand, her coach, and one of the only two Indians to win the All England title, says, “This medal was important. Saina can and will do better, but an Olympic medal can change the face of Indian badminton. We have the depth and we need to nurse it for Rio [2016].” What he makes clear without saying it in so many words is that he also wants to take on the Chinese.
Saina got the bronze when her opponent Wang Xin conceded after the first game on account of injury. But the medal should come without an asterisk, for Saina is among the fittest in her sport and she was showing all signs of fighting her way back as she moved from 14-20 to 18-20 before losing the first game.
Saina’s performance may have overshadowed Parupalli Kashyap’s historic entry into men’s singles quarter-finals, but he has it in him to go higher. Jwala Gutta and V Diju may not have done justice to themselves in mixed doubles, but Jwala and Ashwini Ponappa came within a whisker of making the knock-outs and they had it in them to challenge for a medal for, last year they won a bronze at the same venue in World Championships.
India Can Become a World Force in Badminton
Shooting Keeps the Streak Going
Omega times it with Dicken’s bicentenary
(This story appears in the 31 August, 2012 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)