They showed the will to win

Published : Aug 02, 2008 00:00 IST

R. S. Rathore savours his moment after winning the silver medal in Athens.-AP
R. S. Rathore savours his moment after winning the silver medal in Athens.-AP
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R. S. Rathore savours his moment after winning the silver medal in Athens.-AP

India’s performance at the Olympics has been dismal. It has won just one silver and three bronze medals in the individual events in the post Independence era. Kamesh Srinivasan on the Olympians who brought some cheer to the nation.

You can count the number of Indians who have won individual medals at the Olympics on your fingers. Though India has won eight gold medals in hockey, apart from one silver and two bronzes, it has just four medals — one silver and three bronzes — to show in the individual events in the post Independence era.

Shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, India’s only individual Olympic silver medallist, weightlifter Karnam Malleswari, the only Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, Leander Paes, who won the bronze medal in tennis, and wrestler K. D. Jadhav, who won a bronze in the men’s freestyle bantamweight category, were the ones who brought some cheer to India.

Four years ago, at the Athens Olympics, Rathore proved that Indian sport was not in the reverse gear. For someone who started competing in shooting competitions — double trap — only in 1998, with a gun that had two triggers and “kicked like a mule”, Rathore had achieved Olympic glory in double quick time. After all, it is not the years that matter, but how well you use the time.

In 2003, Rathore won a bronze medal at the World Championship. And in the run-up to the Olympics, he emerged triumphant in the World Cup in Sydney by a big margin. He worked hard and diligently and was a favourite for a medal at the 2004 Games. While Ahmed Almaktoum of the UAE had sewed up the gold medal even before the last 10 birds were to be shot in the final, Rathore showed strength of character to beat the rest of the field to claim the silver.

“I was not in form that day and needed to fight it out. I am very proud of (my performance in) the final. It was a fight for dignity and self-respect,” Rathore said while summing up his experience.

Rathore shot 179 out of 200. His best then was 191, which he shot at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 while beating the World and Olympic champions.

When asked how it felt to wear the medal, Rathore came up with a classic answer: “It is great that every Indian is seeing it as a personal victory. I will not tell you how it feels to wear the silver medal. I want each one to find out for himself by winning it.”

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Malleswari lifted a career-best 240kg to bag the bronze medal in the women’s 69kg category. Incidentally, women’s weightlifting made its Olympic debut in Sydney.

After the turbulence at the selection trials, where three contestants were vying for two spots and the seasoned Kunjarani Devi, the leading Indian woman weightlifter, had to be left out to accommodate the Asian champion Sanamacha Chanu, Malleswari stayed calm and repaid the faith placed on her. She had 110kg in snatch and lifted 130kg in clean and jerk. She did have a shot at the gold by attempting to lift 137.5kg, but narrowly missed the mark by 2.5kg.

“I went for gold. I had done 137.5kg in training. The lift failed because of a small mistake. You need luck too,” she said while explaining that she was relieved on winning an Olympic medal, but was disappointed about missing the gold.

The Indian team coach, Leonid Taranenko of Bulgaria, an Olympic and World champion, was instrumental in the success of Malleswari. It was he who had advised her to shift to the 69kg category from 62kg.

Taranenko had predicted that Malleswari would lift a total of 240kg, 10kg more than her competitive best, and secure a medal.

Back home from Sydney, Malleswari was accorded a fitting reception. Many rewards came her way as the nation rose to the occasion to express its gratitude to one of its great sportswomen.

“In the last 10 years I had made a lot of sacrifices. The reception I got was the real reward,” Malleswari said.

Leander Paes, known for his heroics in the Davis Cup, but an unknown player in the world of professional tennis, defied the odds to win the bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Ranked 127th in the world, he entered the tournament as a wild card. He beat a string of better-ranked players, including Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, ranked among the Top-10 in the world, to share the podium with Andre Agassi (gold) and Sergei Bruguera (silver).

Leander had grown up admiring his father Dr. Vece Paes, who had won the hockey bronze at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and was determined to win one himself.

In the semifinals in Atlanta, Leander was close to taking the first set against Agassi, but could not pull it off despite a brave attempt. He then beat Fernando Meligeni of Brazil for the third place.

“It was more mental than anything else. I had to overcome the tension of playing for a medal in the Olympics. It was belief, a little extra belief and a little extra bit of hard work,” said Leander while narrating his Atlanta experience.

After Leander won the bronze, the whole of India, overwhelmed by joy, celebrated as the nation had won an individual medal for the first time in 44 years after K. D. Jadhav had claimed the bronze medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. The last Indian medal was the hockey gold at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and so the nation was starved of Olympic success.

Leander realised the magnitude of his achievement only when he returned to a hero’s welcome.

Things had changed in Indian sports ever since Jadhav won the bronze in 1952. The champion wrestler, who was the first man to win an individual Olympic medal for India post Independence, died a poor man 36 years after his achievement in a road accident. His Olympic effort did not fetch him or his family a good life. Nor was his service as a police officer very rewarding in those days.

Jadhav showed glimpses of his prowess at the 1948 London Olympics where he finished sixth in the freestyle flyweight category. In Helsinki, he won a series of bouts in the bantamweight category before losing two hard fought battles to end up with the bronze medal, behind Shohachi Ishii of Japan and Rashid Mamedbekov of the Soviet Union. Incidentally, Ishii won Japan’s first post-War gold medal.

From practising Indian style on the mud ‘akharas’ at home to adapting to the synthetic mat on the world stage — and even getting accustomed to the unfamiliar international rules — Jadhav had proved that he was a quick learner.

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