India - No Olympic Medals

[Anonymous]

The second most populous country on the planet has no medals as of 8/17, despite the decades of British influence?

It must hurt to be so phenomenally bad at athletics. I guess the only good thing for them is that Pakistan is equally untalented.

[Anonymous]

But their butter chicken is awfully good.

[Anonymous]

They had a gymnast place well.

[Anonymous]

Lack of money for training. India still has plenty of poverty.

[Anonymous]

Do they even care, though? A lot of countries probably have no real athletic tradition or interest. It's ok. We as a country have always been a bit obsessive about our sports.

[Anonymous]

All this thread tells me is that OP has a bizarre beef against India. Pun intended.

[Anonymous]

Is that really surprising to you given what you know about the country and people, beside there being a lot of them? Different story if cricket were included, but not really surprising.

[Anonymous]

Win some, lose some!

[Anonymous]

they used to be studs in men's field hockey, is that not in the Olympics anymore?

It is like any country including here. The wealthy are the ones who are representing the country because they have access to the sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:they used to be studs in men's field hockey, is that not in the Olympics anymore?

It is like any country including here. The wealthy are the ones who are representing the country because they have access to the sports.

There are plenty of wealthy people in India yet still no medals so that's not the reason.

It's a culture thing. I work at an Indian company with probably 90% Indian employees (between 150-200 employees total). There is a very good gym next door. Out of the 10 or so regulars at the gym from my company, probably 2 are Indian. And one doesn't change out of her street clothes and just walks the treadmill at a snail's pace (and this is a young woman). Cricket is probably the only sport my colleagues are really interested in. Since the interest isn't there to the same extent as in other countries, there's no real support for the few that ARE really interested in them.

[Anonymous]

To hoist itself out of poverty, India wisely decided to focus on academics, particularly math, science and technology. Give them a few more years to start on athletics.

[Anonymous]

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/neither-the-will-nor-the-cash-why-india-wins-so-few-olympic-medals/260693/

[Anonymous]

"In general India is weak in sports that require high levels of physical fitness. This largely reflects caste and class attitudes to physical effort. This is a society in which even middle-class people will have a servant bring them a glass of water from just a few feet away: for centuries, high status has partially derived from lack of physical effort and the abundance of other people to take the strain for you."
http://www.theweek.co.uk/sport/london-2012/48149/why-cant-122-billion-indians-win-more-olympic-medals

[Anonymous]

what does the decades of british influence have anything to do with it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what does the decades of british influence have anything to do with it?

I wondered this myself. The only iconic British athletes that come to mind are the guys in Chariots of Fire.