Going for Gold

As London prepares to roll out the red carpet to host the Olympic Games and participating countries prepare for podium finishes, ideally on top, India is not far behind. Having made a cut in almost all the major sports of the event, our athletes are leaving no stone unturned to bring home glory, and gold.

India made its foray into the Olympic Games in 1900 with Norman Pritchard winning 2 silver medals in the 200m and 200m hurdles races. And now, despite being 1.2 billion strong, India’s showing at the mega event has been far from satisfactory. Will things be different this year?

The general vibe has been one of great confidence and all the contenders have been sounding upbeat about their chances. And not without reason. For the efforts of the Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), the brainchild of Indian sporting legends Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone, have been unrelenting enough to bear sweet fruit.

For 9 times Billiards world champion Geet Sethi, it was at the Bangkok Asian Games (1998) - where Billiards was included for the first time as a medal sport - that he felt a gap between the government and the athletes in terms of speed of decision making and professional micromanagement in their training. The endeavour to bridge that gap took the shape of the OGQ. “We (the OGQ) position ourselves as an organisation which complements the federation and the government...We don't believe we can replace what the government does or for that matter what the respective sporting federations are doing. We come in and complement what they are doing and bring about a certain amount of professionalism and efficiency in decision making when it comes to the training and preparation needs of India's top athletes,” describes Sethi.

The OGQ has short-listed five sports – shooting, track and field, archery, boxing and badminton – as the ones in which Indian athletes have the strongest potential to win Olympic medals. The organisation then serves to provide them with high quality support staff and administrative support, world-class equipment, medical, nutrition and physiological support, foreign training/coaching camps etc. About the new aspects in training introduced by OGQ, Sethi says, “We micromanage the needs and preparation of athletes; we identify specific requirements of each athlete and accordingly implement the required program with efficiency, professionalism and speed.”

Efficiency, professionalism and speed are definitely what much of our sports administration could do with. Geet reinforces, “In the first 50 years of independent India, our government was tackling huge socio-economic problems and as such sport was low priority. That stance has changed in the last 10 years and is visible through its willingness to invest heavily not only into athlete training but also into infrastructure and eagerness to host big international events... the financial rewards for an Olympic gold medal winner has been raised to Rs 1 crore.” Mary Kom, the first boxer to represent India at the Women’s Amateur Boxing event at the London Olympics, is overwhelmed by the support from the Sports Ministry of India, the State Government of Manipur and OGQ. “My preparation is going on very well and I am in very good shape. Olympics is my dream and I want to get a gold medal for our country. I am doing my level best and working towards it,” she says.

There is a lot of investment involved, and the organisation is heavily dependent on donations. “We look for funding from Indians all over the world and would like to have not only large donors (which we already have) but also small donors of Rs 100 per month to become involved with what OGQ is doing and with the athletes whom we support. I dream of a time when the corporate world would support OGQ as a CSR (corporate social responsibility).”

The OGQ follows a very meticulous selection process to ensure that only the truly deserving are taken under its wing.As Sethi explains, “We have a research team in place which constantly monitors the performances of the top athletes in the five identified sports. Once the research throws up names which are performing at or close to Olympic medal benchmarks, we do further due diligence on their mental strengths, attitude, work ethics and general discipline levels and lifestyle. The research team headed by our CEO Viren Rasquinha then puts forth the proposal to the Board which approves the selection.”

The OGQ has changed the lives of many athletes who can now not only dare to dream big, but also fulfill those dreams. As Sethi reminds us, “We need to romanticise Olympic sport, especially our outstanding achievers in Olympic sport, and of course continue to build infrastructure and publicise these achievements to inspire the youth.” The OGQ is doing its bit; it’ll be up to us and our attitude towards sports and our sportspersons – past and future – that will help make Olympic conquests the rule instead of stunning exceptions.