May 11 2016, 15.18 PM IST || Pocket News Alert
Bangalore May 11, 2016: The Rotary Club of Bangalore (RCB)- Youth Services Committee on Monday May 9, 2016 hosted a panel discussion on the topic “Why India is not able to win more medals at the Olympics (Focusing on Rio) and what should be done to get there?” The panellists and key speakers of this discussion were Mr. C.M. Muthaiah former director of National Institute of Sports and a decathlon champion, Ms. Ashwini Nachappa former athlete, Rtn. Dr. Thomas Chandy Chairman and Managing Director of HOSMAT hospital and Mr. Satish Kumar director of Swimlife.
From Left Mr. Satish Kumar, CM Muthaiah, Ms. Ashwini Nachappa and Dr. Thomas Chandy
Ms. Ashwini Nachappa, Former Athlete
The panel discussion opened with Mr. Muthaiah being the first speaker who stressed on the point of Indian athletes being ill prepared for the Olympics. “We prepare for Olympics just for a year or two to win medals whereas countries like China and USA train for a decade to win a single medal.” He quoted. He also spoke about the incapability of Indian coaches and the politics involved in the sports institutes in the country. Mr. Muthaiah was also criticising the government’s decision of making Bollywood Star Salman Khan as the ambassador of India for Rio Olympics 2016. He said “For the first time India is sending a film star as an ambassador for sports. This shows that people without any knowledge of sports are given priorities instead of people experienced in the field.” He also expressed concern about the depletion of university sports and the decrease in scholarships being given to the athletes.
The discussion was then continued by Dr. Ashwini Nachappa who appreciated Rotary’s efforts on inclusion of sports a topic of discussion and said “This encourages sports to be considered as a part of learning and developing health.” She stressed more upon the interference of politics in sports and commented “Sporting institutions and federations are run by politicians and bureaucrats but not by sportsmen, therefore they don’t know the ground reality. She also expressed her worries about the conditions of athletes in India and termed it as ‘inhumane’. “Sports in India isn’t a way of life, it is not in track with the academics and no parents are ready to put their children into sports and this is the reason of India’s ill performance in the Olympics.” She quoted.
Rtn. Dr. Thomas Chandy spoke next who stressed upon the financial aspects of this field saying “Sports needs to be outsourced to schools and colleges and a lot of money needs to be put into it. Funding has to be done by the government and private organisations also should take interest and fund athletes in schools and colleges.” He continued to say that in the top 10 Olympics countries athletes are produced by universities and not countries. Speaking about sports medicine Dr. Chandy said “Sports medicine is not just to treat injury; it also helps in enhancing the body of a sports person. Because of not a lot of sports medicine knowledge, we don’t know the principals.” He also suggests India is consider more sports other than wrestling, running and archery like swimming, gymnastics etc which constitute most medals in the Olympics and anticipates the possibility of winning ‘one fifth’ of medals if participated in a wider spectrum.
The final speaker of the discussion was Mr. Satish Kumar who spoke about the positive changes that India has seen in the field of sports in the past decade. “Nowadays people can afford sports unlike the past and hence India is seeing a gradual change, it will see a change in the future as well. Athletes are getting funded by the government now and times will certainly be better.” He said. He also mentioned that motivation and incentives are the biggest factor in sports and it is slowly being taken up by the government. Pointing towards the better days for sports, he said “Athletes presently have began their own sports institutions to train more sports persons and therefore India will win more medals by the 2024 Olympics.”
This was followed by a question and answer session where when asked by the audience about the funds and national policies for sports, Ms. Nachappa said “Every year students pay sports fee to school but not once sports is taken seriously. Money is there in abundance and so are the policies, we just lack in implementation.” She ended the discussion by suggesting separate committees for sports without the interference of government like that of BCCI.
About Rotary Club of Bangalore (RCB): RCB, the seventh club in Pre-independence India, came into being in 1934. It is part of the 106 year old Rotary International, and the second largest in the country. It has members who are 250 strong affluent Business people. Among many land mark projects, the prominent in Bangalore City is Nationally known Rotary Bangalore TTK Blood Bank , school for underprivileged ‘Rotary Bangalore Vidyalaya’ at Nagadevana halli, and many other schools in Rural Karnataka built along with matching grant from other sources in the country and other countries.
http://www.rotaryclubofbangalore.org/