Just 35 Medals in 25 Olympics
Why India is the Worst Olympic Performer Among Major Economies?
When a country with 1 billion people and 3 trillion economy could win just one Olympic gold medal, that poses a unique situation. This is exactly the situation that is been faced by India.
In this multimedia immersive, with the help of data, we try to understand India's anomaly, i.e. why India is the worst performing major economy at the Olympics?
Before we dive into details, here's a brief overview of India's journey in the Olympics:
The last Olympics, i.e. Tokyo 2020 saw India’s best-ever show at the Games with seven medals in its tally.
But when compared to other leading economies of the world, India was off the mark.
Besides military and cultural influence, economic wealth invariably brings supremacy in sports. The Olympics are considered the paramount metric to determine a country's capability in sports.
And several studies have established a positive correlation between a country's economic strength and its medal count in Olympics.
India's lack of Olympic medals, therefore, show how India's economic progress poses a unique situation when seen in context of its poor show in the global sporting competition.
India's economic prosperity is a recent phenomenon, while other leading economies have been on those positions for a long time. "The first world countries have had their sports infrastructure in place for over a century. Their children get early access to sports, which in turn helps them produce more and better athletes," said Rahul De, a PhD in economics and Associate Professor at Azim Premji University. "That's why, measuring Olympic success via GDP is misnomer and we should instead look at a country's expenditure on sports."
When we look at the sports spending of India in comparison to other leading economies, it explains India's low medal tally at the Olympics.
Financial patronage and funding plays a crucial role in the development of a sport or a sportsperson. "If you look at India's Olympic champions, majority of them have been sponsored by private companies or PSUs," added De.
Successive Union Sports Ministers have repeatedly stated that:
Sports is a State subject and the responsibility for promotion / development of sports in the country, including providing sports facilities, rests primarily with the respective State / Union Territory (UT) Governments. However, the Central Government through its various Schemes supplements their efforts for promoting / developing sports in the country, which includes extending sports facilities in various states / UTs.
"We need people in the district and state federations to start working," said Manisha Malhotra, Head of Sports Excellence and Scouting at JSW sports, who was part of the Olympic campaigns of both of India's gold medalists – Abhinav Bindra and Neeraj Chopra. "Everywhere else in the world, sports is a huge part of schooling. In India, school sports are still nascent. That's where we need to get going."
Except hockey, India hasn't won a single Olympic medal in any other team sport. "That's because team sports require centralised coordination between states that can only be done by a central government body. But the bureaucracy that comes with government intervention hampers the overall quality," said De. "Individual athletes are not affected by such hindrances because their sponsors help them get personal training."
India has not been able to convert its rich demographic dividend into Olympic medals.
India's Olympic Medals By Categories
Hover/tap the bubbles for info. Double tap to zoom. Use the control panel for filtering the categories.
The funding disparity in sports becomes evident when we look at the number of athletes qualified for Olympics from different states. While one fifth of Indian contingent for Paris 2024 constitute from Haryana, states like Chhattisgarh couldn't produce a single Olympian.
"Rich states like Haryana & Punjab receive higher funding for sports, while poor and primarily tribal states see less budgetary allocation in recreational fields like sports," said De.
Which brings up the question:
Should a Developing Country Focus on Sports or Basic Needs?
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated his government's intention to make a bid for hosting the Olympics.
The funding disparity in sports becomes evident when we look at the number of athletes qualified for Olympics from different states. While one fifth of Indian contingent for Paris 2024 constitute from Haryana, states like Chhattisgarh couldn't produce a single Olympian.
"Rich states like Haryana & Punjab receive higher funding for sports, while poor and primarily tribal states see less budgetary allocation in recreational fields like sports," said De.
Which brings up the question:
Should a Developing Country Focus on Sports or Basic Needs?
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated his government's intention to make a bid for hosting the Olympics.
But hosting the Olympics requires a city to develop world class infrastructure, which comes at massive costs.
And rather than being a matter of pride, hosting the Games is being met with resistance from the locals, as seen in the past few Olympics.
So, should a developing country like India be enhancing its spending on sports when it is lagging behind in fundamental indicators like Global Hunger Index?
"Normally, a developing country should be focusing on the fundamental welfare. But since sports has been ingrained in our culture, government investment in sports is also necessary," said De.
"While higher medal tally ranking of Scandinavian and Western European countries are explained by their established sports infrastructure, countries like Russia and China have intentionally invested in Olympic sports to get more medals and portray themselves as global power. In a country like India, its democratic setup will legitimately prevent it from pouring irrational amount of funds in sports when a large part of its population can't even fulfil their basic needs. Therefore, instead of focusing of medals, it makes more sense for India to invest in grassroot sports and improve the access to sports," added De.
"The focus of sports should move from Olympic medals to community. Olympic glory can help in galvanising the systems but it can't be the whole thing," Malhotra added. "I don't think any one corporate or just government can do it. We all need to collectively sit on the table and discuss grassroot pathway for sports. It's a growing process."
Reporter & Producer
Naman Shah
Illustration
Aroop Mishra
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Abhilash Mallick
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