It is extremely hard to imagine how extraordinary would things have been if Sriram Singh had held off for another 350 metres on the second lap of the 800 metres to beat back the favourite, Cuba’s Alberto Juantorena, also known as El Caballo (The Horse).
Nostalgia, wrapped up in a soft-velvet haze of ‘what could have been’ is a luxury.
But just for a second, imagine, only for a second, Sriram powering away, his heart pumping like the generator unit outside a marriage tent, the afternoon sun like a warm blanket over the Olympic Stadium in Montreal (1976), a stunned crowd, watching the slim 5’10 Indian taking on the muscular 6’2 Cuban Juantorena.
And winning to the massive roar of the under-dog loving Canadians. India’s Olympic history would have been changed forever. The evolution that we are seeing now across multiple disciplines might have been a couple of decades early.
Or for that matter, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa standing on the podium, instead of fifth in the 110 metres hurdles at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics; or Milkha Singh with a medal around his neck than a fourth place in the 400 metres at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
Each of these moments had the capacity, power, potential to transform a nation of after-dinner walkers into lurking Olympic champions.
From 1960 to 1976, a span of 16 years, we only reached the final of an Olympic event four times. The gold medal came in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics hockey final where India beat Pakistan 1-0. And while travelling across Rome, Tokyo, Mexico City, Munich and Montreal with our national flag, 184 athletes represented us; for a measly one gold and two bronze.
The bronze medals came in hockey in 1968 and 1972. From 1976 to 1996, across 20 years and six cities, India won gold and a bronze; hockey winning gold in 1980 and tennis winning a bronze from the gutsy Leander Paes (1996).
Under the lights at the hockey stadium in the Olympic Park in Sydney, Poland pumped in a goal with 52 seconds remaining on the clock. India had been leading 1-0 and the draw secured the Polish massive satisfaction while it destroyed India’s chances of entering the semi-final. While tears streamed down hockey star Dhanraj Pillay’s cheeks, the nation did celebrate India’s first medal in weightlifting — Karnam Malleswari lifting an overall 240 kg in the 69 kg category.
To an Australian journalist who was a little perplexed on the celebrations over a bronze, Malleswari, said, “You wouldn’t understand this but today India celebrates.”
If it wasn’t for 1/100th of a second, Malleswari wouldn’t have been the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. That honour would have gone to PT Usha, the first Indian woman athlete to reach an Olympic final. Her loss in the 400 metres hurdles run at Los Angeles in the evening, early morning in India, sent an entire nation into gloom.
Though Randhir Singh, an Asian Games gold winner in the mixed trap, did try unsuccessfully over five Olympic Games (1968-84), shooting was fast becoming the sport that India now pinned its hopes on. Shooters were travelling the globe and picking up World Championship medals.
“It was just around the corner,” says Randhir Singh. “I knew at some point, one or more would step across the Olympic line and win a medal.”
The turning point came at Athens. Eight shooters had qualified directly. Suddenly there was hope. For the first time, Indian eyes were looking beyond hockey. Other events were being circled out as possible medal contenders. India had three shooters in the finals — AbhinavBindra, Anjali Bhagwat and Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. Bindra lost out, a loose tile where he stood while shooting destroyed a dream and then suddenly Anjali was gone.
Pressure was on Rathore as he trailed the leaders. But in the final round, a 44 out of 50 gave India its first shooting silver. The monkey was off India’s back. Bindra, the youngest Indian competitor at an Olympics in Sydney, would later say after Rathore’s win — “Rathore changed me. His silver ensured that gold became my possibility.”
For the first time in Indian Olympic history, hockey failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games. The hype surrounding a team of 16 hopefuls was over. Indian journalists covering the Games now had to focus their energies on other sport.
But there was a churn happening across shooting, boxing and wrestling. The Indian Government’s policy of allowing foreign exposure was finally paying off. Nine shooters were in Beijing. India dreamt of a bunch of medals; all it required was a calm mind and a steady finger. It wasn’t that easy as eight fell by the wayside. And India suddenly had only Bindra left.
It was the Chandigarh lad’s second consecutive Olympic final. Lying fourth after qualifying, Bindra shot a brilliant final round with a near perfect 10.8 on his last shot to pull ahead of Henri Hakkinen of Finland. It was a few seconds of shock. For the Indians watching inside the shooting arena, it was a Neil Armstrong moment. For Bindra, it was relief and he smiled.
To journalists, desperately trying to put the win in the right perspective, Bindra’s answer was a calm — “I can’t describe my happiness. It’s the thrill of my life. It’s hard to describe.” Randhir Singh, the then Indian Olympic Association secretary-general and a five-time Olympian who was at the venue, later said, “I haven’t prayed so much in my life.”
The gold answered, largely, what the nation always felt that winning was a process; years in the making evolution and not just a one-camp training phenomenon. And one man, a shooter, had adhered to a system and brought home the gold.
India also celebrated Vijender Singh’s boxing bronze and Sushil Kumar showed enough glimpses of his huge talent in picking up a bronze in the 66kg category. Suddenly there was an urgency, a need to get to the next Olympics.
A year after Sushil won his medal in Beijing, in an interview upon being asked about his training for 2012 London, he said, “I can’t wait to get there and win my medal.” The quotes had changed from ‘trying my best’ to ‘win my medal’. Psychologically, it was a huge jump. London’s six medals — four bronze and two silvers — were celebrated as ‘India’s time had come’.
Sushil fulfilled his promise and became the only Indian to win back-to-back individual medals. While boxing, wrestling, badminton and shooting gave four bronze. The scope was widening.
In Rio, nearly 120 athletes, India’s biggest-ever contingent, will be at the opening ceremony. Expectations of crossing the London tally are already in the air. For India, the process of evolution continues. And with it, the thinking that should we spread far and wide across the sporting spectrum or purely focus on a few disciplines that we genetically and traditionally are good at.
Jamaica, the home of Usain Bolt has won 67 track and field medals since the 1948 London Olympics. Turkey has won 2/3rd of its medals in wrestling while Kazakhstan dominates weightlifting. Cuba largely focuses on judo, boxing and track and field; a total of 142 medals is not a bad haul at all.
Focus, goals and stubbornness might just be the qualities to lift India onto multiple Olympic podiums.
