Monday Musing
[ M. Doley ]
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games are just four days away. Millions of sports enthusiasts around the world will soon be glued to their television screens to watch the greatest sporting events on earth.
A total of 117 athletes and 140 supporting staff from India will be travelling to France to take part in the Games, which will be held from 26 July to 11 August.
There are three athletes from the North East in the Paris-bound national team. They are Lovlina Borgohain (boxing) from Assam, Mirabai Chanu Saikhom (weightlifting) from Manipur and Tarundeep Rai (archery) from Sikkim.
Borgohain won a bronze medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while Saikhom won a silver medal in the Games. Rai, who made his Olympic debut in 2004, will be participating in the Olympics for the fourth time.
Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya are the only two Northeastern states, from where no athlete has qualified for Olympic Games till date.
We have been hearing about the much hyped ‘Mission Olympic’ to produce Olympians from the state for quite some time now. But, nothing concrete or visible has been done yet.
In 2022, the then sports minister said that the state government has formed a task force to prepare a roadmap for the 2024, 2028 and 2032 Olympics, and that the elite athletes will be given special training and coaching by foreign coaches.
Two years’ later, the chief minister said that his government is preparing a roadmap called ‘Mission Olympic 2028’ and ‘Mission Olympic 2032’ under its 100-day action plan with the sole objective of producing Olympians from the state. Besides, the Cabinet also approved five sports disciplines-boxing, badminton, taekwondo, weightlifting and archery-under the ‘Mission Olympic.’
To encourage the athletes, the chief minister last year had announced that the existing prize money for Olympians from the state will be enhanced from Rs. 3 crore to Rs. 5 crore for a gold, from Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 3 crore for a silver and from Rs. 1 crore to Rs. 2 crore for a bronze medal. While a mere participation in the Olympics will earn an athlete Rs. 60 lakh.
It is the dream of every athlete to compete in the Olympics.
While hard work and dedication are just parts of success, talent identification, providing long-term training to athletes, reinforced by support, motivation and resources are the most essential aspects to produce future Olympians.
Arunachal lacks proper sports infrastructures, coaches and trainers-a fact accepted by almost all the sportspersons in the state. And, the authorities are not unaware of it.
While a number of outdoor stadiums have come up in various districts in recent years, the proposed multi-purpose indoor stadium-a decade-long demand of the Arunachal Olympic Association-is still in the womb.
Forget about the use of technology to enhance athletes’ performance, in Arunachal, we still don’t have proper facilities and sufficient qualified coaches to train our young athletes. A lot has already been written about it before.
Since Olympians are not produced overnight, the government must invest in long-term training, infrastructure development and address other issues to see Olympians in the future.
It is hoped that the roadmap being prepared by the government will turn the Olympic mission into reality. Otherwise, an Olympic berth will continue to elude Arunachal for years.