Nerve Endings Firing Away

With the Olympics drawing close, many nations are almost close to finalizing their medal-aspiring delegations. I hope the Greeks will get back to building their still-incomplete main stadium after they are done celebrating the Euro win.

I haven’t heard of India’s preparation for the Olympics apart from the occasional bickering at IHF meetings. As usual, the medal hopefuls are amongst the shooters and tennis — sports not really seen on Indian playgrounds. The trip to Athens for the Indian delegation appears more like a walk in the park than an intense competition. Madhu Sapre’s honest answer in the Ms. Universe finals rings true when the competition is more intense for the slots of accompanying officials than for the athletes. We admonished her for her politically incorrect answer but squirmed uncomfortably in our sofas at the obvious clarity of the reality.

On the other hand, the US has a predicament much different from us. Now it is officially much tougher to get into US Olympic teams than it is to win at the Olympics. For example, US has seven of the top 12 performers in athletics but only top three in the trials will make it to the Olympic team. That means that technically the finalists (from other nations) at the Olympics are clearly not the top eight in the world. There are four other Americans who are languishing at home cursing their luck. Similarly for swimming, only the top two will make the trip to Athens in spite of having clearly superior swimmers compared to their peers in other nations. Does that mean that America can conduct its own national Olympics at home and the results would be clearly depictive of the reality than at the “real” Olympics themselves?

This is called an embarrassing overabundance of athletic riches. I wish we could have an athlete-exchange program just before the Olympics so that some medals come our way and we need not puff our chests at a solitary bronze won by the perennially bickering tennis duo. Of course, the Europeans and Asian tigers aren’t too bad either but nothing compared to the rampaging Americans who now consider Olympics as their personal fiefdom. I was going through the history of Olympics the other day and have seen only the Americans being consistently ranked in the top 3 of the medal-winning nations. They not only dictate who they will war with, but also ruthlessly stamp their authority on the playing field. Will this Olympics be any different?