NEW DELHI, Aug 17:
Indian Olympic Association today expressed disappointment at the country’s hockey debacle in the just-concluded Olympics but said that qualifying for the London Games was an “improvement” from missing out of the Beijing Games four years ago.
India lost all their six matches in London to finish last in the 12-team competition but IOA acting president V K Malhotra said that qualifying for the Olympics was better than not making to Beijing Games.
“It’s a disappointment in hockey. But at least we qualified this time. We did not even qualify in Beijing in 2008,” Malhotra told reporters at the sidelines of the felicitation programme of Olympics medal winners, organised by electronics major Samsung.
“We will have a review of the performance of Indian athletes in London Olympics, including the hockey debacle. We will see what went wrong,” he added.
Malhotra said winning six medals this time was a big jump but the country needs much more and to do that, he said the Indian government would need to invest more money in sports.
“We won six medals in London and it is more than the medals we won in the four earlier Olympics. It’s a big achievement but we need more,” he said.
“The corporate houses have started coming in but the government will need to spend more money in sports. It’s true that the sports ministry spent substantial amount of money this time but it is not enough.
“See the percentage of the money in terms of GDP spent on sports in India and that in other major sporting countries. It’s very low in the country and we need to increase this. Some years back sports was looked after by a Deputy Minister. It’s no longer now but we need more money in sports,” he added.
Malhotra does not agree with one stream of view that India should focus on only those sports in which the country’s athletes can win medals.
“I don’t think that is right. Some years back, nobody thought medals would come from wrestling and boxing in Olympics. Had they been neglected, how medals would have come now?” he asked. (PTI)
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