Paris Olympics 2024 is now part of history, done and dusted. The French city had hosted the event after a gap of 100 years and sure enough France can take a big compliment for a well organised event and what is more its athletes brought enough moments of joy to the home fans. France finished 5th on the Medals table, something to be proud of. The aspirations in India are to host the Games of this magnitude in another 12 years’ time. As a major nation in Asia and probably the biggest country in terms of population, the eagerness can be understandable but has our sporting culture tuned enough to bring in the kind of joy to the host country as seen in Paris is the big question. If anything Paris 2024 has once again been an outing that had at best given hopes of a good future just as Tokyo 2020 did earlier. But the returns this time had been lesser, six medals as compared to the seven including a gold medal in 2020. India finished at the 71th place on the medals table. By any standards then, it may be said India still has a long way to go.

And yet nobody is losing hope! The reason apparently is the mixed experience this time. True there was only one silver and five bronze medals to show but as experts point out, the Indian contingent also had the mortification of seeing six other medal winning opportunities slip away with fourth place finishes. Had that clicked then the pre-Games goal of a double digit medals tally could have been there! Nice words but ground realities could........

© Mathrubhumi English