ARE MEDALS IN THE NEW AGE WON OR BOUGHT?
It is not a scathing attempt to undermine the grit, perseverance, ability, will and superhuman levels
of hard work of any athlete who competes among the best and emerges victorious, making the
nation proud. What I would like to highlight here is the fact that the magnitude of government
splurging the greens and blues on the training and performance of various athletes, to get
the gold home is just unimaginable!
The fact that developed countries have ample monetary resources that they can redirect towards
the aspects not directly involving the welfare of nation automatically puts them on a vantage point.
On the other hand, we have countries which are still battling food security, poverty and many such
challenges. How can these two be put on the same pedestal and made to compete against each
other in various sporting events across the world? For instance, U.S.A., a behemoth and a sporting
prowess, has won 2,633 medals in its entire Olympic history whereas India has meager 35 medals
to its tally.
To see the wider picture, we need to zoom out a bit. Firstly, the industrial revolution began in the
west way too early in the mid 18th century, and their imperial past helped them accumulate
enormous wealth by exploiting their respective colonies. Secondly, the industrial revolution in the
global south has still not reached the optimum level due to excessive exploitation of resources
leading to drain of wealth in the past. This created room for massive economic challenges coupled
with instability which cannot be ignored. Thirdly, a place where putting food on the plate is of
utmost importance, such sporting medals become domains that are not to be prioritized either by
the government or by the people, resulting in a perpetual disadvantage for such underdeveloped
and developing countries. Lastly, an underdeveloped sporting culture clubbed with lack of
nutrition since early childhood resulting in a major chunk of the population being unfit for a variety
of games. However, these countries still try to put their best foot forward and create history using
the handful resources at their disposal, them being exceptions because the harsh reality screams
otherwise. It becomes more of a balancing act and optics in most cases.
Developed countries having developed economies got tons of money which they utilize on
enhancing the performance of participating athletes by providing them with highly advanced
training gear and top tier training facilities not just confined to the likes of orthodox sports
complex. They set out millions to billions of dollars for competing in such events, the Olympics
being epitome. In case of U.S.A. and China, they go to extreme lengths to train their athletes in
the wind tunnels of defense facilities and other such critical infrastructure originally meant for
research. They have made heavy investments ensuring to bag at least one medal in every
game/sport in every event. This goes on to show how important these events are for such countries
because what’s a better way to showcase your sporting strength than to own the world games! As
we all know the basic tenet: an athlete better conditioned is bound to perform much better than her
peers but such conditioning should not rob others of glory just because their countries did not
prioritize sports as they have a lot to deal with in the first place.
This is a grave injustice not only for the athletes but also to the whole sporting genre. The
International Olympic Committee should strive for putting up a mechanism in place to eradicate
this grave disparity, commit to bringing uniformity in competition and setting up a vigilant system
of checks and balances to ensure strict implementation of the policy. IOC can also introduce a
system of caping the amount a country can spend on conditioning its athletes; spending more than
that can result in disqualification or even a ban. Such measures will surely boost the morale of
disadvantageous countries, restoring equality in the domain of skillful competitiveness. This
makes me wonder whether medals in the current era are truly won, as there's a plethora of forces
backing an entity raising concerns of putting them in the territory of being bought.
Note: Opinions expressed are personal
Pic credit: Pixabay
Siddharth Jaiswal
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