Thanks to the pandemic, nothing is as it used to be in the pre-Covid world, but national table tennis coach Soumyadeep Roy doesn’t find the Olympic Village in Tokyo to be too stifling despite the protocols and restrictions.
“It’s normal as usual, like what we get to see during other multi-discipline events like the Commonwealth Games or the Asian Games… Tense-yet-focused faces, gruelling practice sessions and a bevy of activities. The Olympic spirit is very much there. The mood in the Village is much more relaxed than what we expected,” Soumyadeep told The Telegraph from Tokyo on Thursday.
“Yes, there are protocols which everyone has to follow, that’s normal. Like, every morning by 8.30am you have to give your sample for Covid-19 testing. We are wearing masks and on arrival we were given a kit with hand sanitisers and soap,” he added.
The Village is home to around 11,000 athletes and thousands of support staff. It straddles 44 hectares of reclaimed land in the Tokyo Bay, with 21 residential towers, a 3,000-seat canteen, a park, gyms and recreation facilities. The Indian contingent is staying in Tower 15 on three floors (11, 12 and 13). “I am on floor 13,” Soumyadeep said.
The best part of staying at a Games Village during a multi-event sporting extravaganza is that one gets to have a glimpse of famous names from other disciplines. During his playing days, Soumyadeep had bumped into swimming legend Ian Thorpe during the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. He has gone to Tokyo with a wish too. “It would be nice if I manage to meet my favourite Novak Djokovic. He is an inspiration,” he said.
On Wednesday, shuttlers B. Sai Praneeth and Chirag Shetty posted photos with Djokovic at the dining hall on their respective Twitter handles, but Soumyadeep doesn’t have a liking for a freeze frame. “I am not into taking selfies. Even when I met Thorpe, it was just a handshake and a hello,” the former paddler, who was just 19 when he represented India in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, said.
Sutirtha Mukherjee, one of the two women table tennis players in Tokyo and Soumyadeep’s student, is having an experience of a lifetime. “Tokyo is her first Olympics. She has prepared for this for a long time. She is so excited that at times I have to calm her down. The other day she met Viktor Axelsen (top Danish badminton player). She is also a big (PV) Sindhu fan. They are staying on the same floor, so they get to meet very often,” Soumyadeep said.
The Indian paddlers were handed a tough draw on Wednesday, but Soumyadeep said they were expecting that. “In the mixed doubles, where we have a chance to win a medal, Sharath and
Manika drew No. 3 seeds Lin Yun-ju and Cheng I-Ching of Taiwan. It’s a tricky match but we were anticipating China. That would have been a lot more difficult. Sharath is expected to enter the third round where Ma Long of China awaits. Let’s see what happens,” he said.
