Score card: The worst Olympians

India is the worst-performing Olympic country, with only 17 medals in its kitty so far, says Foreign Policy. A games participant since 1900, India ranks behind Nigeria, a country with an economy one-twentieth India’s size, in total medals. But we can take heart from the fact that there are others not so ahead of us.

VENEZUELA
Venezuelans have brought home only 10 medals, which is as many as Trinidad and Tobago, despite winning their first medal in 1952. Georgia, which first medaled at the 1996 Games, has outpaced the Bolivarian Republic. Venezuela has taken home only one gold, and the only Venezuelan woman to earn a medal is Adriana Carmona, who won the bronze for tae kwon do in Athens in 2004.

ISRAEL
The Jewish state won its first medal in 1992, and since then Israel remains tied with Uganda in the medal count, which stands at six. Of the other countries that first reached the podium in Barcelona, Israel has been outdone by Croatia, Slovenia, and Lithuania. All this is despite the fact that Israel has had a recognized Olympic committee since 1952.

TAIWAN
With 15 medals in all, Taiwan ranks with Mongolia, whose economy is one hundredth its size. Taiwan has half the medals of Ethiopia, which, like Taiwan, won its first medal at the 1960 Games. Taiwan’s Olympic status has always been contested. For years, China boycotted the games to protest Taiwan’s participation. In 1979, Communist Party leaders got the IOC to agree that Taiwan had never been a recognized Olympic country and that it would have to compete as “Chinese Taipei.” Taiwan must march under a special Olympic flag and may play only the “National Flag Anthem” on the few occasions when its athletes reach the podium.

PERU
Peru, with four medals, stands with Zimbabwe and Moldova, the biggest losers in Africa and Eastern Europe, respectively, as a top Olympic washout in its region. Peru took its first medal in 1948. Jamaica—whose economy is one-tenth of Peru’s—has won 10 times as many medals. Reason? Poverty and lack of infrastructure. Ten years ago, over half of Peru’s team was malnourished. In May 2008, President Alan García, proffered Lima as the host for 2016 Olympics, along with Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Prague, Doha and Tokyo. The deadline for applications had passed nine months earlier, and competing cities were already raising funds. García announced later that he’d like to play host in 2020.

Nadal gets gold before crown

Rafael Nadal clinched a golden treble to wrap up the Olympic tennis tournament on Sunday, overcoming Chilean Fernando Gonzalez to add the Games men’s singles gold to his French Open and Wimbledon crowns.

The unstoppable Spaniard won 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 to mark his impending rise to the top of the world rankings with his country’s first ever Olympic gold medal in tennis. “It’s very difficult to win this because you only have one chance every four years,” Nadal, who replaces Roger Federer as world No. 1 on Monday, said. “I played almost a perfect match.”

Before Nadal’s fireworks, Russia’s Elena Dementieva enjoyed the biggest moment of her career when she won the women’s singles gold medal against compatriot Dinara Safina.

Dementieva battled back to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. Vera Zvonareva made it an all-Russian singles podium by beating China’s Li Na 7-5, 6-0.

American Venus Williams claimed the third Olympic gold medal of her career when she and sister Serena thrashed Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2, 6-0 in a onesided women’s doubles final.

While Dementieva and Safina served up a compelling battle of wills, it was Nadal who everyone had come to see — apart, that is, for the flag-waving Chilean fans who cooked up a Davis Cup-type atmosphere on Centre Court.

From the start Gonzalez did what he does best, pounding forehands across the net. Nadal munched them all up and fizzed them back from all angles.

Nadal sealed the first set after a 37-minute masterclass of blurring movement and power.
Gonzalez traded blows with Nadal in the second set, standing toe-to-toe with the raging bull over the net, and his big chance came at 6-5 when he had the Spaniard in trouble at 15-40.

On his first set point he played a perfect point but with the court gaping, put a simple backhand volley wide. He then offered up a forehand gift and his moment had passed. Nadal stormed the tiebreak and muscled 5-2 ahead in the third set.

Gonzalez saved three match points but the insatiable Nadal sealed it on his fourth. “It looked easy, but when you’re tired you get a little dizzy,” Gonzalez said of the volley, neatly summing up the effect Nadal has on his opponents.

Rafa deserves top spot, says Federer

Roger Federer said Rafael Nadal “totally deserves” the No. 1 ranking, paying warm tribute to the Spaniard who takes over the top spot on Monday. Federer, who grabbed Olympic doubles gold with partner Stanislas Wawrinka, said Nadal had played his way to the top and admitted he was now dominating the sport. “I’ve known for over a week now about the number one ranking. But it’s fine. Rafa played great to get it,” Federer said. “That’s what I expected and hoped for many years ago when I got to No. 1, that if ever somebody were to take it away from me, he would have to play an incredible tennis schedule, win the biggest tournaments, dominate the game basically, and then like this he can take No1. I didn’t want it to happen that I would play completely bad and somebody would pick up number one in the world. So I think Rafa totally deserves it.”

After Eight

Thirty-six years is a long time for an Olympic record. But that is how long swimming legend Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in a single Olympic Games has stood. On Sunday, Spitz’s record was broken by fellow American and swimmer Michael Phelps when he powered the US team to a gold in the 4x100-metre relay. Phelps’s tally of gold medals now stands at 14, which is also a record.

Questions will inevitably be raised now whether Phelps is the greatest Olympian ever. If you go by numbers alone, Phelps is way ahead of the other greats like Spitz, Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi who had all won nine golds. And there might be more since Phelps plans to take part in the 2012 Games. But just as it is difficult to compare performances across disciplines, so it is to compare between eras. The training, schedules and incentives have all changed since the days Spitz competed. The swimming pools are different, so are the new corset-like suits.

What is more important is the ability of Phelps to reach the heights that he has in a system which is focused on sporting excellence but does not force athletes to perform. As a seven-year-old, Phelps joined a swimming club in Baltimore where he quickly showed amazing potential and was taken under the wings of coach Bob Bowman. Spitz, too, began at a local club at Santa Clara in California. Local clubs, along with schools and universities, are the backbone of America’s sporting success. Athletes from several other countries also train in American universities as did Serbia’s Milorad Cavic, who came second to Phelps in the 100-metre butterfly event. There are poorer countries that are following this model. The fastest man on earth — Jamaica’s Usain Bolt who won the 100-metre sprint in record time — along with a host of other top-class sprinters such as Asafa Powell train at the island’s University of Technology on a scholarship programme.

India must borrow a leaf from such schemes. While we could look at China’s example of focusing on a few disciplines, we must build up an institutional structure that is not dependent on the government. Some of the Indian boxers, who are doing so well in the Olympics, learnt their boxing in local clubs before getting sponsorship from private trusts. There is plenty more such sporting talent waiting to be tapped.

EIGHT-OMIC WONDER

Michael Phelps has dreamed of a lot of things, written down a lot of goals ever since he started training under Bob Bowman in the 200m butterfly event at the age of 15. This was the biggest one he had ever written down. So big that the world just kept convincing itself for 32 years that it was impossible to achieve; so big that the Water Cube forgot about everything else here these past nine days.


On Sunday, Phelps was set to write the punchline of his fairytale. He was itching to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals at an Olympics, and all roads led to the Cube.

‘The dream’ loomed large over the city’s landscape as people rushed to reach in time. Hundreds milled outside the security check point, looking desperately for tickets. They were selling all right, at four times the normal price. It was like no other Sunday.


Inside, fans had occupied the seats long back in anticipation, fanning themselves, sipping iced tea and simply waiting, eyes glued to the clock. At exactly 10.30am the wait came to an end. The buzz turned into a roar as Phelps trooped in with his teammates and stretched for a while at the 4x100m relay medley starting point.



Eight years after he became the youngest man to set a swimming world record in 200m butterfly Phelps was ready to stroke and glide again, in the event he loves the most the butterfly, like always the third of the four styles in a medley.


Aaron Peirsol gave USA the lead in the first leg, the backstroke; Brendan Steven stayed an inch ahead in the breaststroke and then dived in Phelps. The noise level at the pool could have matched one at an Aerosmith concert.


Phelps has a rare body, his upper torso much longer than his legs. His arm span of 201 cm is 7 cm more than his height. Those arms got down to work to create history, in a beautiful rhythm. The crowd cheered every stroke, every move, every ripple in the sparkling blue at the Cube.



He was way ahead of the rest and soon as he touched the pad, the chanting began. Jason Lezak just went for it, leaving behind a splashing trail. As he turned for the second 50m, one could see Phelps cheering him on, arms swinging wildly, the dream coming closer. It soon turned into a reality and Phelps hugged them all, tightly. Not letting go, feeling his dream, living his dream.



Mission accomplished, the pool’s water now a tranquil blue, Phelps said later at the press conference: “I just saw mum for one minute, we just hugged, she started crying, and I started crying, and then my sister started crying. It’s been a fun week.” The Aquaman was human again.

400M IND MEDLEY Cruises to the finish line in record time of 4:03:84, bettering the previous mark of 4:05:25

4X100M FREESTYLE RELAY Team USA takes the gold, setting a new world record time of 3:08:24

200M FREESTYLE Shatters previous world record time, clocks 1:42:96 on the way to gold

200M BUTTERFLY Another gold and another record-breaking performance with 1:52:03

4X200M FREESTYLE RELAY Team USA dominates the field with a time of 6:58:56. Phelps bags gold No. 5

200M IND MEDLEY Shaves 0.57 off the previous world record to win the race clocking 1:54:23

100M BUTTERFLY His toughest race by far, Phelps wins the race by a hundreth of a second, with a time of 50.58

4X100M MEDLEY Team USA ensures Phelps bags gold No.8 as they set a new world record of 3:29:34

Station the Olympics

Tiny Tibet’s shadow looms large over the Beijing Olympics. Though an outright boycott by any major participant remains, as yet, a remote possibility, the atmosphere is already vitiated. Whatever the reasons, it is not a happy development for any sports lover.

The Olympics have a history of being used like a ping-pong ball in the game of diplomacy. In the post-World War II era at the 1948 London games, former foes Germany and Japan were not invited, and curiously the Soviet Union abstained. China boycotted the games for 24 years subsequent to Taiwan’s inclusion in the 1956 Olympics. Then, 30 African countries boycotted the 1976 games held in Montreal to protest against New Zealand’s inclusion despite its rugby team having toured South Africa, then a pariah thanks to apartheid. The 1980 Moscow Olympics were boycotted by over 60 countries to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The communist bloc returned the compliment in 1984 at the Los Angeles games. Whether one likes it or not, the sad truth is that any ongoing international conflict could spell doom for the games if politics were allowed to interfere. All round participation could then only be ensured in a conflict-free world. But the Olympics are not supposed to celebrate the realisation of world peace. They are an instrument to achieve that ideal.

But how to insulate the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza from the vagaries of world politics? Well, one way is to make a country like Switzerland, with its history of neutrality, the permanent Olympic venue. But the alpine country is small and may not be willing to take such a huge burden upon itself. So, the next best solution is to give this honour to India. India’s record in the promotion of world peace needs no elaboration. Its Olympic record is even more sparkling.

Having participated uninterruptedly since 1928 without many medals, India perfectly exemplifies the Olympic spirit, which found echo in Pierre de Coubertin’s famous words, “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part”. India, with its size, climate and growing economy fits the bill perfectly as a permanent home for the games. As for the country itself, this proposal would not only bring economic benefits but also establish it as a soft superpower. One is not even talking of the fillip that sports here would get.