A good start in a multi-event competition always sets the tempo and boosts confidence. India, who aspire to reach double figures in the medals tally for the first time in the Olympic Games and seek to host the 2036 edition, are hoping for that.
A contingent of 117 athletes is in Paris with promises of some headline-grabbing performances.
In the Tokyo Olympic Games, it was weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu who bagged a silver medal on the very first day to put India’s name on the medals list.
This time, it will be the shooters who will have to stand up and be counted. On Saturday, at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre, some 264km from Paris, the onus will be on the 10m air rifle mixed teams of Sandeep Singh-Elavenil Valarivan and Arjun Babita-Ramita Jindal to bring an Olympic medal for the first time since the London Games.
Despite failures in Rio and Tokyo, there are huge expectations from the shooters. As many as 21 — an Indian record — will vie for medals.
“A podium finish on the first day always counts,” Mirabai’s coach Vijay Sharma told The Telegraph.
“It sort of lifts the mood in the contingent. With everyone staying together in the Games Village, this brings a huge positive influence on fellow athletes’ mindset too,” he said.
India finished 48th in the overall medals tally in Tokyo. It was their best-ever finish with seven medals, including Neeraj Chopra’s gold.
“There is a huge change in the motivation and the level of thinking our athletes have today. We used to feel scared, under-confident because other countries were better. But slowly that’s changed, the mindset (has) changed,” Gagan Narang, the 2012 London Games bronze medal-winning shooter and the chef-de-mission in Paris, told reporters at the Main Press Centre on Thursday.
“People started watching sports, playing it, then we had great performances. The confidence is at a new high. Today’s athletes don’t go just to participate, they go to perform. Someone in the top eight or top five wants to win a medal. Not just any medal, but a gold. That’s the difference in thinking of the athletes today,” Narang emphasised. “They don’t think anyone is above them. They rate competitors on a par and that’s a very positive sign for the Indian sport.”
Narang’s words are true to some extent. For example, in table tennis, the much-feared Chinese nowadays do think how their Indian counterparts would turn up.
“That was unthinkable even some years back. The Chinese and Japanese players used to think Indians are there for the taking. We refuse to give up without a fight,” Somnath Ghosh, India’s top player and world No. 25 Sreeja Akula’s personal coach, said.
The Hyderabad-based Ghosh has a ‘P’ (personal) category Games accreditation in Paris and can visit Sreeja, with whom he has been working for the last 14 years, only during her training sessions.
“If Sreeja, Manika Batra and Archana Kamath play to their potential and get a favourable draw, table tennis can see a podium finish in the team event,” Ghosh sounded bullish. Lifting coach Vijay Sharma said one of the reasons for India’s change in mentality is continuous government support. “There has been a sea-change in the way the government looks at Olympic sports now. And that has helped,” Sharma said. “There is unprecedented coordination between all the stakeholders — the sports ministry, Sports Authority of India, the Indian Olympic Association and the national sports federations,” the 41-year-old Narang said.
Sharath excited
Shuttler PV Sindhu and Sharath Kamal, the 42-year-old table tennis senior pro, are India’s two flagbearers in the opening ceremony.
“Waiting for July 26, when we’ll be leading the Indian contingent at the opening ceremony,” the paddler from Chennai said in a video released by the IOA.
