Battle Ready

A star-studded Indian contingent seeks to reshape its approach with rising talent, even as seasoned warriors in badminton, weight-lifting, shooting and wrestling aim for gold

- Tanmoy Mookherjee

TWO YEARS FROM the next Olympics may seem like a long time, but it is when athletes begin their quest to become medal contenders at sports’ greatest spectacle. Two years out of the Olympics is also time for other major sporting events. The FIFA World Cup is what keeps footballers busy. For athletes dreaming of medals, continental games are what the focus is on. With the Commonwealth and Asian Games in the same year, it would seem 2018 is the perfect launchpad to mount a serious challenge and announce one’s arrival.

The build-up for the current Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, was quiet yet assured. With equal representation in sporting disciplines from men and women, GC2018 has achieved a unique landmark already. For India, the usual suspects, controversy around athlete participation, squabbling within federations and doping-related inquests, besides injury scares for medal contenders have kept the contingent’s hands full.

In July 2002, just days ahead of the start of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, sports writer Frank Keating, writing for THE GUARDIAN, had called it “a bucketload of pointless contrivance.” He pointed out the lack of relevance of the Commonwealth Games, which look like Britain’s last desperate effort to clutch onto its erstwhile empire.

To argue the merits of holding the Commonwealth Games at all may be a topic for another time. It is also an event where India as a sporting country seems to do well. What happens at the Olympics thereafter is a malaise no one has been able to rectify. But the lead-up to the Games have usually been mired in some controversy or the other, as seems inevitable with the various sporting federations in charge.