(By Jitender Dabas) This is the hope season again.
When the world’s largest sporting event began in Tokyo amid global pandemic, this is the time for Indians to build their hopes again.
A country of 1.3 billion people again looking for the glory of the Olympics.
When you read this, hopefully, more than one young Indian athlete will set a tone for the next 10 days.
As a nation, we have plaid relations with the largest sporting event in the world.
Olympic Glory is something that has prevented us as a nation.
It’s been a long time, the Olympics are reminders of how the nation consisting of 1 billion pluses cannot produce Olympic champions.
Success in global sporting events has a major contribution in citizen self-esteem and is a national prestige source.
When India lined up as a country over the past few decades, we achieved success in all fields.
We produce global CEOs, become economic forces that must be taken into account, even test our own nuclear bombs and send satellites to Mars.
But the Olympics have become different stories.
Growing in the 80s, our biggest stories about individual sports victories were from those who missed the podium at the Olympics by Mustache (Milkha Singh and PT Usha).
We grow with athletes who are in 4th place as our hero.
As a nation, we did not win an individual medal for more than four decades after 1952.
I often wonder if we, as a nation, take the proverb of Pierre de Coubertin about participation and not win more importantly in the Olympics more seriously than other countries.
Every four years, the Olympics will come and leave us disappointed.
No wonder, our love for cricket grows multiply during this period.
We can beat the world (okay, around 10-12 countries) and feel good about ourselves as a nation.
Cricket not only gave us excitement but also a lot of self-esteem (especially after hockey, our national game, went to a decline in the posting of the 1970s).
However, cricket and hockey are team sports and we need individuals who beat the world.
Exceptions such as Prakash Padukone and Vishwanathan Anand will never be able to get us that individual Olympic gold is difficult to understand because their game does not display in the event.
Apart from all this, the Olympics remain very special.
Apart from collective glory, the Olympics are also about individual searches to be the best in the world.
And no one inspires it more than that.
The story of the Olympic glory is made of herolation, determination and year dedication.
That’s why individual success inspires thousands of children.
We waited around six decades for the first gold (and only until now) by Abhinaav Bindra in 2008.
It inspired the generation of children to take filming.
Not surprisingly, the Indian shooting team in 2021 had nine young shooters who were ranked among the top several in the world.
That is why, hopefully, this year’s Olympics can change our relationship with the event.
Tokyo contingent is full of athletes who represent “Indian Naya”.
Not affected by history and confidence in the future, a number of young athletes are ranked 1 or 2 in their fields.
This team is full of teenagers’ inspiring stories that have risen to become a world shaker.
Football and cricket gave us unmatched excitement, but individual sports gave us a hero.
Children around the world view them, especially when they hear their trial and tribulation survive just to get to the Olympics, especially the struggle for gold.
In 2010, the 14-year-old Yashaswini desk became inspired by watching medals win an Indian shooter in the Commonwealth game.
In Tokyo, he is the world no.1 in 10 m air gun and hopes of medals for India.
So, the next 10 days in Tokyo, will, hopefully, not only change Indian relations with the Olympics, but also tell thousands of young people throughout the country so that they can become a world shaker in whatever field they choose.
If there is something you have to watch with your children for the next week, what happens in Tokyo.
This might be the best Olympics to watch as Indians.
(The author is the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Strategy Officer, McCann World Group)