- India as a nation is striving to carve out a niche for itself in the international sporting firmament by initiating several measures to tap into the enormous talent available in a vast country like ours. The Union Government and the State Governments are making concerted efforts to popularize sports at the grassroots level, where talent is to be found, identified, nurtured, and accorded sufficient encouragement to flourish as expected. Sports, per se, have become an extremely competitive field, with modern science playing a critical role in shaping budding sportspersons. Even the corporate houses have encouraged several talented sportspersons by offering scholarships/sponsorships to make them realise their cherished dreams. Is it enough, though?
PC: DIPR Nagaland
- Despite earnest efforts at various levels, India has been unable to position itself as a sporting giant producing world-class athletes by the dozen. Save for sporadic sparks here and there, there are not too many internationally acclaimed sportspersons emerging from the country either. This is the fact. Worryingly, the country is in the news for dubious practices like doping. For many years, India’s anti-doping rule violations have been the worst in the world. Now, the international organization to combat doping has downgraded the Athletics Federation of India to the highest-risk, Category A bracket. Are we confused? We must be. Because we are used to seeing other countries that make such headlines, they hold a bagful of top-tier medals. Not India.
PC: YouTube
- At the Paris Olympics, for example, it finished 71st, with ‘nada’ gold. This riddle, however, is easily explained. The bulk of violations are at the developmental, rather than elite level. Not in international championships but state and national tourneys, university competitions, and local meets. The issue persists predominantly at the grassroots. If anyone is taking comfort in the absence of a state-sponsored programme designed to win Olympic glory, like Russia’s was, it’s cold comfort. India’s best athletes may not be abusing drugs to win world titles, but lower-tier ones are downing them plentifully to grab things far more modest. Such as cash awards, police recruitment, and railway positions. These athletes aren’t trying to beat a Kenyan or a German. Then what?
PC: Unique Times Magazine
- Just the person next to them at a district, state, and national meet. This doping is a socioeconomic phenomenon, playing out at the bottom of the sporting pyramid. For top athletes, India’s downgrade will mean more stringent testing than their competitors. The real need for this, though, is at lower levels of the pyramid. It needs much better staffing of the National Anti-Doping Agency. Currently, drug control officers leave local competitions mostly unregulated. Another major enforcement gap is that while athletes (often young, poor, and uneducated about what they’re being given) absorb all the career-ending bans, coaches keep facilitating doping with very little personal risk. Grassroots doping is only mirroring more widespread grassroots corruption.
