[kavensri]

Originally Posted by 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.

Not only 'great shot at olympic glory', but also his hopes of winning 'golden' slam. Winning grand slam in itself is extremely difficult, then winning a 'golden' slam is almost next to impossible. That way, I am glad that my fav Steffi is the only person to do it

[ValarMorghulis]

Lovina confirms a Bronze at the minimum.

PV Sindhu reaches Semi-Finals

[deathwalkr]

Watched Sindhu's match in the afternoon. Was exciting and she did play really well.

[Emvi]

Originally Posted by kavensri

That way, I am glad that my fav Steffi is the only person to do it

Don't fret, I think Steffi's record is safe for at least another 10-15 years .

[Emvi]

Indian women's hockey team stay alive in the competition after nudging out South Africa 4-3 in a close encounter. Vandana Katariya creates history by becoming the first Indian woman hockey player to score a hat-trick in the Olympics. The last few minutes of the match were absolutely thrilling to watch!

[Emvi]

Djokovic loses to Pablo Carreno Busta in the Bronze medal match. Djokovic losing two matches back to back is a rarity, unbelievable!
Scoreline- 4-6, 7-6, 3-6

[hothatchaway]

Our women are really doing us proud in these games. Just focusing on medals will be myopic especially for a nation which struggles to look beyond cricket and at the Olympics, getting into the reckoning for medals is also some achievement. Kamal Kaur beat all expectations in the discus qualifiers and hope she has a good outing in the finals. The women's hockey team is in the knockouts with two strong wins and we still have Borgohains bout to look forward to.

Sindhus loss is disappointing, I thought it's just possible she realized at the loss of the first game that Tzu would be difficulty to beat and decided to play within herself considering she is still in the medal reckoning. The quarters against Yamaguchi was worthy of a final and difficult to recover from such a draining encounter in 24 hours.

If we keep strong programs going in wrestling, boxing, weightlifting and even field, we can expect to produce medal winners regularly. Look how a tiny island like Jamaica can keep producing track queens like an assembly line. Tonight's women's Sprint was blistering!

[hothatchaway]

After PV Sindhus remarkable feat yesterday, came today the biggest achievement in the annals of our women's hockey team when the fearless girls bested the Aussies 1-0.

Our girls were off to a slow start at the beginning of the tournament but finished strongly in the group with back to back victories to make it to the quarters. Nobody would have given them a chance against the two time Olympics winners but obviously they hadn't read the script!

The way they held their nerves and defended their early goal is a testament to how our girls have fared in these games

[yosbert]

The amazing success of the Korean archery team at the Tokyo Olympics and elsewhere can be at least partially attributed to the deep support extended by Hyundai Motor Group to the Korean Archery Association, an association going back since 1985. Hyundai has brought in cutting edge technologies and training methods (including custom made grips for individual archers!) and is deeply committed to the sport. It is heartening to learn this and the below article is an eye opener.
https://news.hyundaimotorgroup.com/A...-Collaboration

Hope some of the new age Indian companies take cue from this, and adopt a sport in India as deeply.

[Emvi]

One of the most significant moments in the history of Olympics belongs to the high jump competition of Tokyo 2020. Two athletes- best friends, Qatar's Mutaz Barshim and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi declined a 'jump-off' offered by the officials to decide the outright winner and agreed to share gold medals after they were tied in first place. However this act of sportsmanship has invited strong reactions from fans and commentators across the globe.

Complete Story

Victory celebration after the official announcement

[ABHI_1512]

Originally Posted by hothatchaway

After PV Sindhus remarkable feat yesterday, came today the biggest achievement in the annals of our women's hockey team when the fearless girls bested the Aussies 1-0.

Our girls were off to a slow start at the beginning of the tournament but finished strongly in the group with back to back victories to make it to the quarters. Nobody would have given them a chance against the two time Olympics winners but obviously they hadn't read the script!

The way they held their nerves and defended their early goal is a testament to how our girls have fared in these games

That the girls and boys have succeeded, is a testament to their resilience despite battling the competition as well as greedy politicians and officials waiting to take credit. The media circus going on around the woman’s hockey team is disgusting. All kind of politicians are on the bandwagon and one media channel even had the galls to congratulate the present sports minister saying his arrival has resulted in medals for India conveniently forgetting how much effort the players and the athletes put for a competition like Olympics over the years.

I am still counting a gold from Neerav Chopra since he is a champion since long. Let’s see what’s in store from wrestling and hockey. Finger’s crossed.

[Emvi]

Boxer Lovlina Borgohain loses in semi-finals, settles for BRONZE medal. A valiant effort from her, nonetheless

[RedTerrano]

TWO Indian wrestlers reach the semis

Deepak Punia defeated Chinese wrestler Zushen Lin
Ravi Dahiya defeated Georgi Vangelov of Bulgaria

Bajrang Bali ki Jai!

[papr23]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

TWO Indian wrestlers reach the semis

Does that guarantee 2 bronze medals?

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

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.

I guess you are looking at it differently than I do. The programs you mention are focusing on talents that got identified.

When I growing in the 70s/80s, most schools and colleges had a big grounds, although most of them didn't have a gym or any serious equipment. I remember watching the 1984 Olympics and wondering how does even begin to train in these exotic sports that need boat load of equipment. I was interested in many of the strength, martial arts, fitness related sports. But I had no idea how to even begin to learn it. However, by the 90s even play grounds disappeared. My son's school had no gym or playground. Just a cemented assembly area where few court based games were played, like basket ball, badminton, etc. I could at least play football/hockey in my days because we had bigger grounds. Later when I lived in USA and got exposed to school gyms, my mind was blown. If Indian schools had such gyms and grounds, we would be doing 10 times better.

1) When 99% of the Indian kids have no access to even try out the sports in school, how does one even identity talent? The talent identification happens only among the 1% or less who had the chance to play that game.
2) Because of the low ROI in sports career, very few parents encourage their kids to spend more time in sports.

And then every four years we wonder why we have so little medals. The answer is very simple, we haven't invested in it at all.