Indians at Olympics: So near, yet so far

Leander Paes at Wimbledon earlier this year.

It is very easy to say a country of a billion people can never perform well, when it comes to an international mega event like the Olympics. The people and international media have labelled India as one of those underachieving nation, who have never realised their true potential. No one has gone to the grass roots of the cause.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Indian boxer Gurcharan Singh was leading by a point in the quarterfinals of his heavyweight bout against Andriy Fedchuk of Ukraine. But as destiny would have it, he failed to block a punch in the dying moments and the Ukrainian drew level 12-12 and won the bout on number of punches landed.

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, in the match for the bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where they played their heart out before losing 6-7 (5), 6-4, 14-16 to Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic of Croatia. The fifth-seeded Indian pair was the only seeded team in the semifinals of the doubles event after having beaten some of the top names such as Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish of the U.S of A, and Roger Federer and Yves Allegro of Switzerland.

Indian football was at the height of its glory in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Of course, the team was lucky to enter the quarter-finals straight-away from a field of 11 owing to the last minute withdrawal of some of the leading countries including defending champions Hungary.

Moreover, there have been cases of wrong referee decisions and bad luck.

India has the potential to grab at least five or six medals in each Olympics, but had to settle for two 0r three every time.

Many Indian Olympians had previously never faced a tough competition like the Olympics, but nevertheless play their hearts out. Be it the underdogs P.Kashyap or Leander Paes. We still remember the glory that Paes brought us at the Atlanta games.

P.T Usha was also robbed of a medal, along with Milka Singh.

Be an optimistic Indian and hope for the best in the current Olympics.