Are we ready....

08/08/2008 08:08:08 a.m.
What does the above date and time tells you?....

For the uninitiated it tells us excatly the time at which olympics will start..so what...it also tells us "Be ready to face another year of embarassments"...one billion one medal..huh..,even my street watchman can run better..,why is your country's entourage more than the olympic participants..? can we tell them that we got a system that sucks(for want of a better word)..oh please dont forget to tell them that most of the ministers would be there,should i tell you the reason that almost all committes are headed by the present and the former ministers...please tell them that our hockey team is already kicked out this year, so no stories about our glorious 1930's.

When somebody asked the great American skuller, Tiff woods, why he should be given an opportunity in the 1984 olympics,he replied"...because an olympian stands alone" ... Natalie Du Toit who has qualified for the 10 km open water swimming in Bejing olympics in one leg, can perhaps tell us why Olympics is so special or we can ask her South african compatriot Oscar pistorius again a man without two legs, running on prosthetic legs why he is so desparate to attend this Olympics..their answers would be in the lines of "this is where i belong.."
China trains its athletes right from the young age, Cuba has got a system where sports is as important as anything,America pumps money into sports like a madman bitten by a dog, Russians are supremely gifted, Europeans don't play sports to get a college seat or a government flat, naturally medals chase them, Australians work ethic is like our long forgotten high school timetable...how are going to win medals against them?....

Danraj pillay once famously remarked "even when the national anthem is played, before the hockey match, we are 1-0 down"..Australian hockey team practices 1000 penalty shoot outs per session but we change our hockey coach in the olympic village (remember 2004)..there is no point in blaming our athletes because we produce them,we pamper them,we throw them into the dust bin finally...

More than the pumping of money,Government support, countries succeed because their society demands excellence, there is no place for quitters...even a guy who plays smart street basketball is widely appreciated in american streets,Australian school children pack sports kit and if there is space keep books in their school bags,we keep books and if there is more space, more books...every Australian streets conduct week end marathon 's and we don't even watch it on tv..unless or otherwise the culture changes, olympic medal winners would be a rare species in Indian sport...

Rememeber every athlete is ready and raring to go..Michael phelps, the American swimmer is armed with a new powerful speedo suit as well as "a powerful dream" is ready to test the human possibilities,the Chinese Liu Xiang, the reigning 110m champion hurdler has already promised a gold medal for the chinese people, the Russian gymnasts are licking their lips in anticipation,the Jamacian athletes are so restless for the olympics to start...so do we have a chance against the powerful athletes amid our ocean of negatives...yes if our athletes can remember the simple words which appeared in the TIME magazine sometime back...

"Through birth or circumstance, some are given certain gifts, but it's what one does with those gifts, the hours devoted to training, the desire to be the best, that is at the true heart of a champion."

These words were written by Weihenmayer ,the one and the only blind person to conquer Mount Everest....