[ABHI_1512]

It has been one memorable para Olympics for India. Remarkable feats from remarkable athletes, so proud of each one of them. I have had immense respect for everyone of them but one man who stood tall despite not winning any medal is the Table Tennis player Ibrahim Hamadtou from Egypt. Sheer determination and belief is what made the man and I am in awe of him completely after I saw him play. May his tribe grow

Just adding a clip of the great man for reference :

https://youtu.be/3JbZlexspc8

[Emvi]

Indian shooters add 2 more medals to the count.

Singhraj Adana and Manish Narwal won GOLD and BRONZE respectively in men's Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 event.

Medal tally is set to gain with shuttler Pramod Bhagat reaching men’s singles SL3 gold medal match.

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by Emvi

Indian shooters add 2 more medals to the count.

Singhraj Adana and Manish Narwal won GOLD and BRONZE respectively in men's Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 event.

Medal tally is set to gain with shuttler Pramod Bhagat reaching men’s singles SL3 gold medal match.

Slight correction: Singhraj won the Silver while the teenage sensation Narwal secured the Gold. It was a nail biting finish with many ups and downs. Watching it live, I was on the edge of my seat throughout.

On the badminton front, we are sure of three medals - only the color remains to be seen.

Pramod Bhagat, Krishna Nagar and Suhash Yathiraj are competing in the finals of their respective categories.

Trivia: Suhas L Y is an IAS Officer, currently serving as the DM in NOIDA.

[Emvi]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Slight correction: Singhraj won the Silver while the teenage sensation Narwal secured the Gold.

My apologies. Thanks for correcting

[Emvi]

Pramod Bhagat bags badminton GOLD in the men's singles SL3 category. Manoj Sarkar claims BRONZE in the same event!

[Emvi]

Indian shuttlers bring home 2 more medals.

Krishna Nagar wins GOLD in Men's Singles SH6 Category.

Suhas Yathiraj settles for SILVER after losing to France’s World No.1 Lucas Mazur in three hard fought games in the final of the Men’s Singles SL4 category.

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by Emvi

Suhas Yathiraj settles for SILVER after losing to France’s World No.1 Lucas Mazur in three hard fought games in the final of the Men’s Singles SL4 category.

Lucas Mazur played an extremely unsportsmanlike game. He employed all tricks of the trade and more to distract his opponent time and again. He would wander around the court, take unscheduled water breaks, delay receiving the serve : in short do everything to break Suhas' flow.

Interestingly, Suhas was in the lead at midpoint of all three sets. But Lucas' experience in winning matches at big stages took him home comfortably. Also, the support he received from his compatriots went a long way in bolstering his spirit and in bogging down his opponent's.

Krishna Nagar was excellent in his game and the Gold was a worthy finish to our campaign in Tokyo.

[RaghuVis]

19 medals out of 54 Participants! Avani bagged 2. so 18 individuals got medal in total.
That's an astounding 33.3% conversion from participants to medals! Beyond Amazing.

[Emvi]

India end the Tokyo 2020 games with their best ever showing.

Olympic Medal Count

Paralympic Medal Count

[am1m]

At an intellectual level we all know that being a differently-abled athlete takes monumental mental strength. But to actually see them in action really brings home the realization of the challenges these winners must have faced and what it took to overcome them. I was at a sports facility a few weeks ago, just go there for a morning run, and I noticed some state-level para-athletes training. One gentleman, formerly of the ITBP, had lost one one hand and a couple of fingers on the other hand in an avalanche. A few of them were visually challenged. There there were at 6am on a cold Bangalore morning doing circuits of a course that would have challenged anyone with complete mobility. And smiling. Very humbling, very inspiring. Medals or not, they're all winners just by doing what they do.

[Venkatesh]

MG India honoured 2020 Tokyo Paralympics silver medalist Bhavina Hasmukhbhai Patel with a customised Hector SUV.









Link

[am1m]

Once in 4 years threads like this get active, we all become cheerleaders, and auto manufacturers happily use the opportunity to associate their brands with sport and get publicity and twitter likes at the fraction of the cost/effort it normally would.

But what happens in the 4 years between Olympics is what counts.

Recently a local news channel picked up a story about the national athletes of a particular sport being invited to a felicitation ceremony. The issue was that after being made to wait for hours for the dignitary to show up, they were finally told it was not happening. The event was organized by the governing body for that sport and some of the athletes took to social media to register their protest. Apparently this sort of thing is par for the course. One parent of one of the athletes could not contain his anger and vented it out at the venue at the organizers.

I am somewhat familiar with these events because I know some of the people involved. Without going in to details, from what I've seen over the past 5 years is that money for sport, at least at the top levels is no longer the issue. Neither is ability, potential nor commitment from the athletes and coaches. What hamstrings us is the usual- bureaucratic administrators, politics, politicians and their chelas who want to use sport and sports persons to bask in reflected glory and glorify their even more senior political bosses. In this particular sport, the main training venue in the city that is the focus of the sport in India probably functions 60-70% of the time. And it's shut at random with athletes waiting outside early in the morning. (And this is an Olympic sport!) Another venue that was developed at considerable cost for an Asian competition and meant to be an alternative, now lies in ruin because simple, basic maintenance was not done in time. Of course there will be hefty contracts to restore it before the next competition.

But we will wonder why no results come our way at competitions. It's because of what happens in the 4 years between.

[am1m]

https://indianexpress.com/article/sp...h-dog-7936450/

"Over the past few months, athletes and coaches at the Delhi government-run Thyagraj Stadium have been complaining about being forced to wrap training earlier than usual, by 7 pm. The reason, according to them, is this: Delhi’s Principal Secretary (Revenue) Sanjeev Khirwar walks his dog at the facility about half-an-hour later."

"On Tuesday, The Indian Express saw Khirwar reach the stadium with his dog after 7.30 pm. The pet could be seen roaming around the track and football field even as security guards kept watch."
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While fortunately not for pets, I've often seen how (already scarce) local sports facilities have been commandeered by politicians, babus and their chamchas to host whatever (non-sport-related) event they feel like. And most of the time, the athletes don't have any advance notification, they show up for practice and are left waiting outside a closed stadium. And how it must hurt when the same netas come out to corner some of the glory, by presenting some token to those athletes, when some of them still manage to win something against such odds.

How can we win medals once in 4 years out of the blue? Our athletes need to be able to practice during those 4 years first!

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by am1m

How can we win medals once in 4 years out of the blue? Our athletes need to be able to practice during those 4 years first!

Whats worse is the stadium administrator's justification that all Govt "offices" close by 6 PM and it was only kept open till 7 PM as a "courtesy" for athletes.

Arent most, if not all track and field events held during the night. How does it make sense to force athletes to train during the day when they can obviously train better at night?

[am1m]

Originally Posted by anandhsub

Whats worse is the stadium administrator's justification that all Govt "offices" close by 6 PM and it was only kept open till 7 PM as a "courtesy" for athletes.

Obviously a way to try and deflect the blame from their political/officer boss. If they put in that much effort helping and protecting the actual athletes, we'd be somewhere else by now at sports!

But at least the media report seems to have done some good:

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ias-...adiums-3010720

"Hours after Indian Express's exclusive report that a prominent Delhi stadium was being closed for sports activities earlier than usual so that an IAS officer could walk his dog at the facility, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal directed all state-run sports facilities in the city to stay open for sportspersons till 10 pm."