Long time back I had heard of a econometric analysis that created models based on country's economy and population to predict the performance of the country in the Olympics. You can find the article here.To summarize, the article talks about the fact that there are a lot of factors that go in the world class athletes that it creates. One of them is the population of the country. The idea behind this factor is that if a population of a country is large it provides a larger pool of people to choose from, and thus they are more likely to produce finer athletes. Another important factor that the model takes into consideration is the size and rate of growth of the economy. A country which has a higher GDP will tend to have more infrastructure for the upbringing of world class athletes and people will have more time to invest in sports because fewer people from those countries will have hand to mouth existence.
The model that was created for the Athens 2004 Olympics was reasonably successful in prediction the success rates of different countries with respect to their performance, reinforcing the assumptions that went into creating the models. But there were a few countries which were outliers, in the sense that their performance was totally opposite to the prediction. Countries on the positive side of the out lire spectrum were the countries which were part of the erstwhile soviet bloc. Economist reasoned out the though the new countries formed out the soviet block had their economy in shambles, but the infrastructure of pre-soviet era some how survived and still manages to deliver great athletes to the world. On the other hand countries like India. with its billions figures nowhere in the list. I find it surprising that with a population of a billion people and a GDP in excess of 1 trillion dollars we are at the rock bottom of the list. There are countries like Jamaica, and Afghanistan which come nowhere in the list of GDP and population but have a medal tally that brings us to shame. I think it is about time that we turn back and have a scrutiny at what is wrong with our approach.
The previous edition of ToI which had Abhinav Bindra as the guest editor hits at the core of the issue. In his words "The biggest problem is the lack of knowledge among those who run sport and in the vast mesh of inept coaches who are unable to provide the finer technical nuances which make all the difference." He also brings up the idea that we are a country without a vision for sports. There are thoroughaway coaches who are surviving because of being in the good books of some politician and there are brilliant people struggling in the nook and corner of India because of inadequate facilities. We need to get rid of the inertia in the system. Abhinav has put everything very succinctly in his editorial when he talks about what ails the system and what IOA needs to do to counter that.
To reach the ambitious goal of reaching double digit in medals in London Olympics we need to start now. Merely by assigning a large fund in India doesn't give any results. You have to be on top of the execution to see the idea getting executed.
Warna un paison se Lalu ji ke bachhon ki hobbies poori hogi.
Since the fund that we have for sport is limited we need to spend it judiciously.A recent ariticle in ToI highlights the amount of money it takes to build a sports person. Imagine, spending 15-20k bucks per month for training in tennis. Who can afford so much money except for the Mallyas and the Bindras. We do not have the luxury to train lots of people and select few of them. The selection has to be the first stage.
Therefore, the first thing that needs to be done is to have coaches scout for talent across India and not just limit themselves to the metropolitan cities. These coaches need not be a regular full time employee of the sports association but he should be paid on the basis of the kind of talent he is able to scout. This will push them to be in the lookout for talented people and not just send their bhai-bhatijas. Next thing is to decide on what sports you want to focus. The rich haul of medals for China and UK has come because of their focus certain sports. I believe that there are a lot of sports Indians are inherently good at and we can capitalize on them to get medals in the Olympics. It is only through such focus that we can get maximum returns for the limited fund that the government has.
The next important thing is to have good coaches. I am not asking good coaches at the scouting level. Great coaches are needed at the end stage of the program when you have to hone the athletes with skills and tricks that will set them apart from the bunch at the olympics podium. Look at what Houghton has done to Indian football. The importance of good coaches cannot be emphasized any more. We should be willing to accept any nationality as a coach as long has he helps us get the medals.
At the end we need to realize that sports and Olympics are not just past times but have larger repercussions on the morale of the nation. And India, the youngest nation in the world needs more than a single gold.
Ye race hai. koi deshbhakti ka dandi march nahi!
The model that was created for the Athens 2004 Olympics was reasonably successful in prediction the success rates of different countries with respect to their performance, reinforcing the assumptions that went into creating the models. But there were a few countries which were outliers, in the sense that their performance was totally opposite to the prediction. Countries on the positive side of the out lire spectrum were the countries which were part of the erstwhile soviet bloc. Economist reasoned out the though the new countries formed out the soviet block had their economy in shambles, but the infrastructure of pre-soviet era some how survived and still manages to deliver great athletes to the world. On the other hand countries like India. with its billions figures nowhere in the list. I find it surprising that with a population of a billion people and a GDP in excess of 1 trillion dollars we are at the rock bottom of the list. There are countries like Jamaica, and Afghanistan which come nowhere in the list of GDP and population but have a medal tally that brings us to shame. I think it is about time that we turn back and have a scrutiny at what is wrong with our approach.
The previous edition of ToI which had Abhinav Bindra as the guest editor hits at the core of the issue. In his words "The biggest problem is the lack of knowledge among those who run sport and in the vast mesh of inept coaches who are unable to provide the finer technical nuances which make all the difference." He also brings up the idea that we are a country without a vision for sports. There are thoroughaway coaches who are surviving because of being in the good books of some politician and there are brilliant people struggling in the nook and corner of India because of inadequate facilities. We need to get rid of the inertia in the system. Abhinav has put everything very succinctly in his editorial when he talks about what ails the system and what IOA needs to do to counter that.
To reach the ambitious goal of reaching double digit in medals in London Olympics we need to start now. Merely by assigning a large fund in India doesn't give any results. You have to be on top of the execution to see the idea getting executed.
Warna un paison se Lalu ji ke bachhon ki hobbies poori hogi.
Since the fund that we have for sport is limited we need to spend it judiciously.A recent ariticle in ToI highlights the amount of money it takes to build a sports person. Imagine, spending 15-20k bucks per month for training in tennis. Who can afford so much money except for the Mallyas and the Bindras. We do not have the luxury to train lots of people and select few of them. The selection has to be the first stage.
Therefore, the first thing that needs to be done is to have coaches scout for talent across India and not just limit themselves to the metropolitan cities. These coaches need not be a regular full time employee of the sports association but he should be paid on the basis of the kind of talent he is able to scout. This will push them to be in the lookout for talented people and not just send their bhai-bhatijas. Next thing is to decide on what sports you want to focus. The rich haul of medals for China and UK has come because of their focus certain sports. I believe that there are a lot of sports Indians are inherently good at and we can capitalize on them to get medals in the Olympics. It is only through such focus that we can get maximum returns for the limited fund that the government has.
The next important thing is to have good coaches. I am not asking good coaches at the scouting level. Great coaches are needed at the end stage of the program when you have to hone the athletes with skills and tricks that will set them apart from the bunch at the olympics podium. Look at what Houghton has done to Indian football. The importance of good coaches cannot be emphasized any more. We should be willing to accept any nationality as a coach as long has he helps us get the medals.
At the end we need to realize that sports and Olympics are not just past times but have larger repercussions on the morale of the nation. And India, the youngest nation in the world needs more than a single gold.
Ye race hai. koi deshbhakti ka dandi march nahi!
