TOKYO, July 22:
There is palpable tension, a sense of dread actually, but the COVID-hit Olympic Games starting tomorrow or the ‘Games of Hope’ as the IOC desperately wants the world to believe, could prove to be a watershed for the biggest ever Indian contingent with shooters, boxers and wrestlers expected to lead an unparalleled medal rush.
The Games were postponed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic which hasn’t slowed down as much as the world would have wanted despite the advent of multiple vaccines.
The fear of the virus is omnipresent at one of the globe’s most densely populated cities, playing host to thousands of athletes, their support staff and officials while logging over 1,000 daily COVID-19 cases.
Only a tiny bunch of them are Games-related but they have been enough to ensure that fear remains a constant in the event.
Spectators were barred weeks back, taking away the very idea of festivities that fuel the Olympic spirit.
The International Olympic Committee is trying its best to focus on hope though and wants everyone else to do the same — just try and look at the brighter side.
“It is a recipe…For overcoming a crisis and addressing a crisis, and after the Games, that message of hope will translate into a message of confidence,” said IOC President Thomas Bach on Wednesday night.
Their eager journey of hope begins with the opening ceremony on Friday, and Bach is confident that it will be a “moment of joy and relief, joy in particular” when action begins to unfold.
“…The road to this Opening Ceremony was not the easiest one. There is a saying that if you feel this kind of relief, there are stones falling from your heart, so if you hear some stones falling then maybe they are coming from my heart,” he said.
His musings will have resonance in one country at least.
India, a nation of over 1.3 billion, has just 28 Olympic medals to its credit since making a debut back in 1900. That tally features just one individual gold that Abhinav Bindra picked up in 2008.
This country is definitely more optimistic than before of what its 120 athletes — 68 men and 52 women — in Tokyo would achieve.
The expectations are of a first ever double digit figure in the medals tally, surpassing the best haul of six achieved in the 2012 London Olympics, none of them gold. (PTI)
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