“Whether you win or lose, participating is most important”-it’s a common statement we say to athletes when they go for any tournament. When it comes to Olympic the pressure is more than we could think of. It’s like more important than winning the world cups.
For most of, us it’s like medals matter as they give reputation to the country you are representing. If you belong from the developing country and see someone from an underdeveloped country or another fellow from a developing country to win any medal which you couldn’t, it’s very hard to digest that. It lowers down your respect and your country’s respect in your own mindset. This is completely wrong but it still happens. Even if not the player feels low for him/herself but will definitely feel to have made some injustice for the hard work of their coach. They will be scared to face the countrymen and the media. It becomes very difficult for a player to lose in the game and then stand with strong will. The entire hard work and all efforts that were put in by the sportsperson get diluted because he/she couldn’t win the medal. Is winning a medal matter that much? Or maybe the question should be “what comes first-medal or participation?”
People who are not usually a direct part of the Olympic games would never get the hang of the hard work which is given by each sportsperson to be there as a participant in the Olympic games. Thus it is very easy for them to criticize the sportsperson for not wining any medal or for losing the medal for just a point. We should first understand the level and intensity of each player’s hard work throughout years to reach that position where they can represent their country. It takes a lot of courage to reach that position. We should keep in mind that they are one of us but more eligible than us definitely and so they are there in the Olympic Games representing our Nation which we can’t do. We should thus respect them for their great work. There are thousands of participants in the Olympic games and everyone can’t afford to get medals. Someone will win only when the other will lose. So win and lose are just two of the parameters out of thousand others. Therefore, the potentiality of any sportsperson should not be judged by how many medal he/she won in an Olympic.
This year, in the Rio Olympics 2016 we have come across the harsh tweet by Shoba De which goes like “rio jao. Selfies kheechke wapas aa jao. What a waste of money and opportunity”. She made these insensitive statements just because till then India won no medals from the Olympics. This shows that how such famous figures of India also evaluate medals with the hard work of participation. If such educated people will come up with these kind of lame statements, what do we expect for the laymen. As a responsible citizen of India, if she could not or may be didn’t want to support the Indian players of the Olympics she could have just not come up with such a negative and insensitive statement over a social media site. The negative impact of her statement must have lowered the will of many of the players. It shows that how much we still disrespect them. It shows that their hard work is not meant to represent our nation as we do not respect them. It also shows disrespect towards the entire nation. Although I was glad to see numerous comments opposing to Shoba’s by eminent personalities like Amitabh Bachchan, Virendra Sewag, etc. This kind of showed that although there are few Indians who would try to pull down our sportsperson only because they missed the medals in the Olympics but also there are many to oppose this nuisance. It’s always good to see fellow patriots around you. A sense of brotherhood and belonging comes from this kind of games (Olympics, cricket world cups, etc.) These events tend to unite the nation into one, where each Indian cheers for the fellow Indian mate who is representing the entire Nation.
Therefore, I believe that every Indian should respect our representative irrespective of them winning a medal or not. We should value their (sportsperson’s) existence that they took to responsibility to represent the nation we all belong to. It take a lot of strengths (both mental and physical), dedication, hard work and courage to become a player of that strata where a player gets the opportunity to stand amidst of several other international players and represent their own nation. Winning or losing comes far later and a medal has almost no value as compared to the efforts a participant gives for his/her game. A medal is like an extra scoop of your favorite ice cream on the top.
Policy Neophytes 