[V.Narayan]

The FIFA is on and understandably the cynosure of all eyes, even of those in India a country that has never ever played in a FIFA tournament. Cricket, less said the better. The games we really excel in but rarely speak of are the Paralympics {or Para Olympics}. At Tokyo in September 2021 we hauled in 19 medals, 5 Gold, 8 Silver and 6 Bronze. Out count in Tokyo exceeded our total in all previous Paralympics combined - 12.

While we cheer our over paid cricketers let's take a moment and read through the names, below, of our paralympians who did India proud.

One NGO doing selfless, low key and sterling work in training, sponsoring, assisting athletes with the soft and hard infrastructure is OGQ - Olympic Gold Quest {https://www.olympicgoldquest.in/annualreport.html }who support 285 athletes including 68 paralympians. Some of the well known names groomed by OGQ are Mary Kom, Sania Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Siva Thapa, Heena Sidhu amongst others.

[dailydriver]

On a slightly tangential note, glad to see the Payyoli Express being elected as the president of the Indian Olympic Association.

Although the election was a given, given the lack of any contenders and the weight she brought in as a recently nominated Rajya Sabha MP, it is heartening to see a proper athlete being at the helm of affairs of the premier body. For the sake of statistics, let us also not forget that she is the first lady to occupy the post.



While wishing her all success in her new role, one hopes that she will succeed in shielding the association from the quagmire of politics and brings in measures that would help athletes across India find their mojo and succeed at competitions, like never before.