[Emvi]

Sharath Kamal loses to Chinese table tennis legend Ma Long 4-1 in the 3rd round of the men's singles, but not without a fight. Stunning display of skill and sportsmanship from both the players.

[CarML]

Like many Olympians in the past, Mirabai is surely an inspiration for the next generation of youngsters wanting to pursue career in sports.
Watch this little girl imitating Mirabai. Cute!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85UuOQWrDy0

[Emvi]

13-year-old Japanese skateboarder Momiji Nishaya is one of the youngest Olympic gold medal winners ever!

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-kno...nners-ever?amp

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Emvi

13-year-old Japanese skateboarder Momiji Nishaya is the one of the youngest Olympic gold medal winners ever!

Three of the new sports at the Summer Olympics- Surfing, Skateboarding, and Sport Climbing were deliberately selected to target a younger audience. Since they are all (relatively) non-mainstream, we should see a less conventional athlete with a younger than average age of participation for a couple of games.

If they do remain on the roster, expect mainstream coaching methods and more conventional age distributions to catch up, as they have in the other sports. (Except gymnastics I guess, that will always have a definite younger person advantage because of the nature of the sport.)

[am1m]

Did some digging for numbers, as expected gymnastic events have the lowest average age.

"The ages of peak performance cover a wide range at the Olympic level. On average, male athletes reach the highest levels of performance at a more advanced age than female athletes. As a general trend for both genders, the disciplines involving very specific technical skills include the youngest athletes, such as the gymnastics and swimming disciplines. On the other hand, the eldest athletes are mostly found in sports requiring higher levels of tactical skills, such as game sports, and also in nautical sports. It would be advisable to collect subsequent data to confirm these tendencies."

Sources: https://www.thestatszone.com/archive...age-vary-13812
https://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/1..._N_1_31-41.pdf

[Samurai]

There was time I used to feel bad that India doesn't win too many medals at the Olympics. Now a days I don't feel bad at all. Any kind of success depends on the investment made in capital, talent and effort. Olympics requires long term capital investment in talent acquisition and sports infrastructure. It takes nearly 10 years of effort before seeing any result and human cost of it is very high. Less than 1% actually make it to Olympics, let alone win medals.

In India there is very little investment in these areas because of low ROI. So that reflects in the results. When we see how China is producing athletes in assembly line, it feels like child abuse. For them it is about national pride I guess.

Russia has model factory, Korea has K-Pop factory, China has athlete factory... The first two have much higher ROI I think.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Samurai

In India there is very little investment in these areas because of low ROI.

The fact is that most sports, except the really popular ones, do not provide financial returns even after Olympic victories, not for the sponsors and sometimes not even for the winning athlete's lifetime.

But from an athlete's point of view, this recognition of the sport as an 'Olympic' sport does increase the funding for the sport, from government sports bodies and from sponsors. It increases the 'base talent pool' of potential competitors. It improves zonal and state-level competitions so that the few who do make it to the national/international level are more likely to be competitive. So it makes a big difference. A medal at one games will make it easier for future funding for that sport.

A country deciding that it does not make sense to fund Olympic medals is also understandable (a country deciding that it should not spend the huge costs associated with hosting a games makes even more financial sense!) But certainly, a medal does make a difference to the way a particular sport is perceived in that country.

[ABHI_1512]

Originally Posted by Samurai

In India there is very little investment in these areas because of low ROI. So that reflects in the results. When we see how China is producing athletes in assembly line, it feels like child abuse. For them it is about national pride I guess.

Russia has model factory, Korea has K-Pop factory, China has athlete factory... The first two have much higher ROI I think.

Not completely true since there are schemes like TOPS which is from the government and there are private entities like Olympic gold quest (OGQ), JSW as well as Gosports Foundation which are consistently supporting top athletes for some time now. Neeraj Chopra, PV Sindhu, Saurav Chowdhary, Sakhshi Malik and Mary Com etc are all part of TOPS and apart from them around 100 athletes are also part of it.

Also, TOPS has shortlisted around 200 or more athletes for preparing them for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics. Private entities are also pitching in with the support. Things are not that bad as such and sponsorships levels have vastly improved these days. It’s another matter that Babudom still exists but things are looking up for sure. Prospects such as Saurav Chowdhary and Manu Baker should be nurtured for the future and I have high hopes from them. Fingers crossed.

It is in this context that I find the Dominos Pizza affair disgusting. They merrily hijacked the medal win of Mirabai Chanu and made it into a promotion for themselves. It’s demeaning to the sponsors who have been supporting her from the beginning when no one even knew her !!

Can add the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation that. They started supporting Sport Climbing long before, building infrastructure from the ground up and actually supporting athletes financially so that they could focus on training instead of worrying where they will make a living from. (And surprisingly without any strategically timed twitter posts from any of the group ceos! )

Of course, Tatas are the foremost ones. The way they have supported sports is second to none. Who can forget the TFA(Tata Football Academy) and it’s contribution.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

Private entities are also pitching in with the support.

Can add the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation to that. They started supporting Sport Climbing long before, building infrastructure from the ground up and actually supporting athletes financially so that they could focus on training instead of worrying where they will make a living from. (And surprisingly, without any strategically-timed twitter posts from any of the group ceos! )

Their athletes are only now showing results, at the past two national competitions. Hopefully in time, internationally. It's a long process without any guarantee of results.

[deathwalkr]

How relevant is this amount?
https://sports.ndtv.com/othersports/...report-2467002

[hothatchaway]

Despite us having decent infrastructure and support, our shooters have disappointed. According to an article in the ToI, there seems to be a gulf and misgivings between the athletes and the coaches and the administrators. After Rathore provided the impetus and the high of abhinav bindra, we seem to have found a disciplined to excel in when there were two podium finished at London. Alas, Rio and now Tokyo are showing that we still haven't left out pet maladies behind.

Hope the shooters are not hung out to dry especially the younger lot. I wonder if we did not have a young bunch at Rio (like we do now with manu bhaker and Abhishek) and if yes, what happened to them? Outside of shooting, why have a hima das and a dipa karmakar not qualified? Where are the successors to Sindhu and saina? A lot of money is now available under TOPS and private funding as fellow members Abhi pointed out but I fear the old breed of administrators still remain, in a different color of course.

We have come some distance from the zero medal days of the 80s and 90s but so have many other nations. I don't think we have kept up and of course the obsession with cricket is a factor. Just spending money at the highest level is not enough, by that time it's too late for many

[kavensri]

I always used to wonder how our players with top rankings perform so badly in Shooting and Archery. But, after reading this article https://www.espn.in/olympics/story/_...ooting-archery, I understood the reason behind this.
Basically, our players are not ‘really’ top ranked as indicated by their rankings! But, then why are we not addressing this issue as suggested in the article? Any thoughts?

[am1m]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

How relevant is this amount?

(First off, my apologies to fellow members for posting so often on this thread. This topic just happens to be one where I have seen things unfolding, first hand wrt a particular sport. So, thought I'd share what I've seen.)

A certain sports facility in the city that I live in was upgraded completely just a couple of years ago to host an Asian Championship for that sport. The event went well and got decent coverage (for that relatively unknown sport). The expectation was that since the facility was now of an international standard (at public expense!), local athletes could use it to train in the years to come. That happened for a few months. If you walk past that area now, the state of the place is pathetic. The basic infrastructure has been removed and what is left is exposed to the elements and is literally crumbling. That's crores of expenditure that will need to be redone for the next event when just a few lakhs of maintenance could have seen it serve the real purpose - to be used to train and develop future athletes.

So yes, there is enough money for sports now, but it's being spent in the same manner (and for the same reasons) as the crores spent on city roads!

[ABHI_1512]

Originally Posted by kavensri

I always used to wonder how our players with top rankings perform so badly in Shooting and Archery. But, after reading this article https://www.espn.in/olympics/story/_...ooting-archery, I understood the reason behind this.
Basically, our players are not ‘really’ top ranked as indicated by their rankings! But, then why are we not addressing this issue as suggested in the article? Any thoughts?

Archery and shooting are quite similar in their approaches actually. Ranking seldom matters on the day of reckoning and what matters is how one can manage the nerves. Specially in case of archery, wind speed plays a crucial role and it can play havoc with the medal prospects. From the past, the great Limba Ram is a prime example who never won any medals on the world stage despite being such a brilliant archer.

Abhinav Bindra had top notch facilities and even had mental conditioning coach before the Olympics and who was actually part of his entourage. Bindra succeeded out of his own resources, something which he always attributed his success to. Our shooters and archers are world class, it’s the mental conditioning part that needs to be strengthened for the big occasions.

Look at what Atanu Das achieved today, showing immense mental strength, he shot a perfect ten on the last attempt and defeated a Korean legend and previous gold medalist Oh Jin-Hyek. If he continues this way, he can easily win a gold for the country and so should his wife- Deepika Kumari. It’s all about keeping the nerves. Talent was never an issue, its the subsequent support which usually fails our athletes !!

[Emvi]

Alexander Zverev knocks out Novak Djokovic in the semis! Zverev comes back from a set down to deny the Serbian great a shot at Olympic glory.
Scoreline: 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.