The country's population, according to an estimate through July 2005 is 1,080,264,388 (source). The number of currently active, and famous, track and field athletes can be named using just one finger. Here is a complete listing of all track and field athletes that have represented India at the Olympics and won medals.
| 1900 | Paris | Norman Pritchard | Silver in 200m and 200m hurdles |
Ok, and just to make you feel better, here is another complete list of those who almost won a medal.
| 1960 | Rome | Milkha Singh | 400m, broke the world record, 0.1secs out of 3rd place |
| 1964 | Tokyo | Gurbachan Singh Randhawa | 110m hurdles, 5th place |
| 1976 | Montreal | Sriram Singh | 800m, 7th place |
| 1984 | Los Angeles | P.T Usha | 400m hurdles, 0.01 secs out of 3rd place |
| 1984 | Los Angeles | Relay Team | 4x400m relay, 7th place |
| 2004 | Athens | Anju Bobby George | Long Jump, 6th place |
| 2004 | Athens | Relay Team | 4x400m relay, 7th place |
We have not really had an almost to brag about since P.T Usha's heroics back in '84. Is it really that difficult to find the right athlete, and train them in certain areas so they can excel at a particular event? I have memories of track and field meets back in high school. There are usually a few athletes that appear to be much better than the rest in most schools. So, every now and then, you would find a single athlete from a school doing the 100m, 200m, 110m hurdles, long jump, triple jump, high jump ... you name it. Why? ... because he's the only good athlete anyway. So we might as well burn him out doing all of those events, and not really improve his standing in a single one.
I was lucky that I was in a school that had a good number of athletes and therefore we could focus on specific events. (the long jump and high hurdles being mine). So there I was, skinny as a stick, running up to do the long jump in high school, reaching a best of 6.23m (2o'5" for the "metrically" challenged folks) - and my training for a meet involved a few jumps every evening after school for a week before the meet. Did I have a special diet? Are you kidding? Was anyone in my school approached for serious training at an athletics club? Yes, but the track clubs were just glorified after school activities. How many actually progressed beyond the state level? From the information I have, none. Let me add again, we had our share of exceptional athletes - read Prem, J Ramya, Saifullah ...
South Asians just don't have the right body type did you say? What about those Sri Lankans (read Damayanti Darsha) that have been doing well at the world championships and the olympics. (Sri Lanka population : 20,064,776).
Getting back to Anju George, she must be doing something right. She has had good coaches, follows a strict diet, even though she loves the fried food, and has been able to regularly participate in international competition - paying her own way through until recently. With the help of good training and regular participation in these competitions, she has been quite consistent with her jumps. She does seem to have hit a barrier though, and I dont see her reaching the 7m mark, though that is one of her goals.
At this competition, she started off really well with a jump 0f 6.66 that left her at second place after the first jump. However, Tatyana Kotova, and Eunice Barber quickly came into their own taking the lead away and pushing her down to fourth place. A suprising personal best of 6.89 from the US jumper Tianna Madison on her fifth jump gave her the gold, and made things more difficult for Anju. Anju consistently jumped in the 6.50s but could not better her 6.66 in the first round. A consistent showing, but I am sure she would have wanted to do better than 5th place.
I do not think she will be a force to reckon with when the Beijing games come around. I also do not think we would have found anyone to replace her either. (I asked Google to find me the name of any other Indian woman long jumper, and he came up with nothing).
So who are these athletes that we send to the international competitions? Are any of the following names familiar?
Anil Kumar - our best sprinter. PB of about 10.30+. He has stagnated at that mark for a while. Good for SAF games perhaps.
Maha Singh - interesting new long jump prospect, 7.99 (not sure if he's broken 8m yet). He needs to be consistent over 8m, and jump regularly into the 8.30s to really be able to medal. I dont see that happening.
Satbir and Bhupinder Singh - our regular batch of 400m runners that impress at the Asian level, but can do little else.
I would have loved to have a couple of names that I could say were worth watching out for, and would be making names for themselves soon. I have none. I dont understand why I continue to have a passion for Indian track and field sometimes ... perhaps I just like to live a dream.