The 29 th Olympics got off to a spectacular start yesterday in Beijing. 08-08-08 was the magical date when the grand opening ceremony took place. The figures associated with the Games are mind boggling. An estimated $ 43 billion has been spent for the Games in which over 10,000 sports persons will compete from over 200 countries.
It is sad that despite having a population of over 1 billion, India is not fancied to get too many medals at the Olympic Games. Many years ago hockey used to be our strongest bet and we won the Olympics Gold as many as 6 times in a row from 1928 to 1956. But that was a long time ago. More recently, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won a silver in trap shooting in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
It is quite shocking that the closest we have come to winning an individual medal in athletics has been PT Usha finishing 4th by 1/100 th of a second in the 400 meters hurdles in the 1984 Los Angeles Games. 24 years earlier, Milkha Singh had come 4th in the 1960 Rome Olympics in the 400 meters.
In this context, it is simply amazing that one swimmer- Michael Phelps- has a real chance of winning as many as 8 Gold Medal in the 2008 Olympics. He will vie to beat another US swimmer- Mark Spitz’s record of 7 Gold Medals in a single Olympics set in 1972. Read what makes Phelps the winner he is in this article in the Washington Post.
Is it ultimately a matter of mind set? A psychological barrier that we have never been able to crack?
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This is Post No: 250 of the “A Step A Day” series : To provide perspective and provoke thought to facilitate self-development across a wide spectrum of issues- big and small- crucial for executive success.
