Exclusive: 'Sport is not a culture in our country, you need to push things' — Arjuna awardee Ashwini Nachappa

As we get ready to cheer for the Indian contingent that will be representing the country in the upcoming Paris Olympics, hoping for them to break the record of the best-ever medal haul (7), which was set in the last edition in Tokyo, we must also look ahead. Sport in our country, whether it’s the administration, the grassroots infrastructure, the overall facilities, the reach, the scouting or any other facet, of course, needs to continually improve.

We spoke to former Indian track and field star, Asian Games medallist, Arjuna awardee and now someone who is working tirelessly at the grassroots level in her state of Karnataka, Olympian Ashwini Nachappa, about the upcoming Olympics in Paris as well as the road ahead, as India aims to secure the hosting rights for the Olympics sometime in the near future.

Excerpts…

The last edition of the Olympics was historic in more ways than one. First time India won a medal on the first day of competition, first time an Indian won an athletics individual medal, that too a gold, first time in 41 years that the Indian men’s hockey team won an Olympic medal and also 7 medals in one edition – best ever performance by an Indian contingent. Now, three years on, technically from the last edition in Tokyo – do you see history being re-written in Paris, in terms of India’s overall performance or is that hoping for a bit too much?

Nachappa: I think the current performances of our archers, our wrestlers, and our shooters show that there could be some great performances. In javelin, there’s not just Neeraj, but even our Kishore Jena. Our walkers have all been doing well. They have been training abroad, and most of them have been training abroad in the run-up to the Olympics. One would hope that the number of athletes (compared to Tokyo 2020) increases and that in every edition performance improves. That would be an ideal situation. But we also have to wait and watch how the athletes perform on that particular day.

It also becomes important to see the health of the athlete on that day – mentally, physically, and emotionally. It’s a big stage after all and there’s immense pressure and eyeballs on each of these athletes, who have qualified. So, the public opinion would be – ‘how come we are not getting a better performance than last time?’ Better performance in terms of – they are not looking at the timings or the scores, they are looking at the medal tally, so that’s an enormous amount of pressure on athletes.

I will not go by the numbers. I can only hope that we do far, far better than what we did (in Tokyo 2020). It’s a different stage, four years later. Things change for every athlete and new ones could spring some surprises and if that happens that means our sporting trajectory is on the right track.

India will be hoping for another gold medal from Neeraj Chopra. PTI

The four-year gap between the two Olympic editions is also a good time to assess how much work has been put in, by both the athletes and the federations and the IOC of course in ensuring that the next edition is an even bigger success. In that context, as someone who has her ear to the ground always, especially for Indian athletics, how satisfied or unsatisfied are you with where we have come now from the last edition in Tokyo?

Nachappa: One thing is for sure – the enormous amount of encouragement being given by TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme), by the government – right from whether it’s the Khelo India Youth Games – they are tracking athletes. Also, the kind of exposure with the inclusion of private bodies, like OGQ (Olympic Gold Quest), GoSports, Abhinav Bindra’s (Foundation) – many of the top, elite organisations which are looking at these top athletes have been providing not just the exposure of competition, but support in all facets of the athlete’s lives. It isn’t like back in our day when we had to scramble even for running spikes, which were not available.

Today, everything is available. And I also think that the mindset of the athletes has also changed from (aiming to) just qualify to now gunning for a medal. We’ve reached that stage. So, that’s the change point which is very positive. Therefore, I would like to see – long-term records that are still hanging on in India to be broken, with the kind of technology, support and exposure that’s available. But, as far as governance of sports goes, there’s much to be done. We’ve seen in wrestling, we’ve seen what’s happened in football, in boxing. Things have to change. I have always said when the intent is right of one person and not so much of the other, it really doesn’t co-relate with results that effectively.

Talk to me about some of the athletes who you think stand a great chance of putting in good performances this time.

Nachappa: Well, I think Neeraj is one. I won’t go with the colour of the medal. I have seen the performances of our archers in the recent past and of our young shooters. What excites me are things like – a young 14-year-old swimmer (Dhinidhi Desinghu) qualifying. That’s fantastic. Then in golf, we have Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar, who have been performing very well. So, there are these young kids who are doing brilliantly. In archery, it’s a full team for the first time since 2012. So, those are exciting things, that are positive. I am looking at performances from them. It’s not just the medals. It is bettering themselves on that day, on the biggest platform. Medals are just one of the aspects of the

Olympic Games. Every big event is a platform to showcase your best performance, ever. And that should be the mindset of every athlete and then the medals will follow eventually. So, I think for our Nation – we should not look at just the medals, but the individual performances of the athletes – how much they have progressed from the last edition to this one.

At 14, Dhinidhi Desinghu will be the youngest Indian athlete at the Paris Olympics. Image: Viren Rasquinha X account

If you look at say the last 5 editions of the Olympics – from Athens 2004, when Rajyavardhan Rathore won the silver to Tokyo 2020, when Neeraj won the gold, what are the big changes you have seen overall in India’s attempt to do well on the Olympics stage? How much has the Indian Olympic landscape changed in the last 20 years?

Nachappa: It’s changed tremendously and that’s why now the government and everybody is gunning to host the Olympic Games. They are quite charged about it – looking at athletes’ performances across the board. Our athletes are performing on the world stage and therefore the government is also confident in pumping in that kind of effort monetarily as well as in other ways to support the athletes. I would just like to see more circuits happening in the domestic arena. We are looking to host the 2036 Olympics, so we need to have a roadmap that is clear and a structure that one can easily relate to, especially the families of young athletes and incentivise them at every stage. Now, that doesn’t happen right at the bottom. I can speak for my own state (Karnataka), it’s a dismal performance, apart from (MR) Poovamma (qualified in women’s 4x400m relay) and one young hurdler who is doing well, we don’t see too many (athletes who are doing well). Then there’s the doping problem. You have a great athlete coming up and then you see that they are debarred for having taken banned substances. So, there is that downside of it, because winning at any cost is what the athletes are looking at and I think that’s the wrong way to go about it.

Let’s talk specifically about athletics now. If we take out Norman Pritchard’s two silvers which he won under British-India, also incidentally in Paris, way back in 1900, we are left with only Neeraj’s gold in Tokyo last time. This time, Neeraj is again a medal favourite, but do you see any other Indian or Indians from athletics potentially joining him on the medals tally?

Nachappa: Not in this edition. We are doing well, but every fraction of a second matters here. We are doing well in the Asian circuit, in invitational competitions that are organised overseas. But unless we see regular medals at World Championships, indoor Championships – it’s only then that we will be confident that ‘yes, we are going to win a track medal or a jump medal.’ Those performances are not there as yet.

Last time, in Tokyo, no other Indian in athletics, barring Neeraj could qualify for the finals. The Men’s 4x400m relay team finished 4th in their heats and set a new Asian record, but couldn’t make the finals cut. Do you see that changing for this quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal, Arokia Rajiv and Amoj Jacob, this time?

Nachappa: For the men, my hope is that they can make it to the second round at least and that in itself will be an improvement. It also depends on what draws they are in. It’s like in hockey or tennis, a lot depends on your draw. If they are in a fairly decent draw, there is a fair chance that they will get into the next round. But, if they are pitched against Jamaica and the USA etc. then it becomes very tough. Let’s hope they get a good draw. They (men’s 4x400m relay team) have been consistently doing well, at every Championship (broke the Asian records in back-to-back international events—at the Tokyo Olympics and then again at the 2023 World Championships. Also won the gold medal at the last edition of the Asian Games).

And, what about the women’s 4x400m relay team of Rupal Chaudhary, MR Poovamma, Jyothika Sri Dandi and Subha Venkatesan?

Nachappa: If anything, they will have to break another National record. If they manage to better their performance, nothing like going into the second round.

India’s men’s 4x400m relay team from the 2023 World Athletics Championship. Reuters File photo

Also, the Games this time will also be the first edition ever to have an equal number of track and field medals for both men and women. Your take on this gender parity and what impact it is likely to have on the Games and on Olympic athletics overall…

Nachappa: As a woman, I can’t be prouder. Performances on the track, irrespective of gender, are there for all to see. Everybody is working towards putting up a brilliant show and I think that in some ways, I would hope to see the women trying to do better than the men. In terms of the overall tally, in terms of the records, so that the competition grows and grows and you see greater performances.

In fact, one of the stand-out facets of India’s performance at Tokyo 2020 was that amongst the 7 medals that were won, 3 were won by female athletes – Mirabai Chanu, Lovlina Borgohain and PV Sindhu. As one of the most notable female athletes that India has produced, what is your take on how much Indian Olympic sport overall has progressed vis a vis the women?

Nachappa: Tremendously. All the women who have performed have come from such humble backgrounds. For me, it is a matter of pride that when such athletes come to the forefront, the entire community benefits from it and it becomes a growing culture. Especially in contact sports – who would have imagined women doing so well in contact sports? It’s fantastic to see athletes being role models for their communities as well as for India. You see someone like Nikhat (Zareen), that’s something to be so proud of, every Indian must be proud of that and this should inspire the next generation.

Youth needs real-time heroes and these are the real-time heroes that they need to follow. It’s not that everybody becomes an Olympic medallist, but these are the people who inspire our youth to do great work, for their communities, for themselves, for their families, and for the Nation.

That is very true. Not everyone can emulate people who have been trailblazers in the past…

Nachappa: Yes. Just today I inaugurated the Technological Universities meet in Mysore and there were about 120 colleges which took part, which you don’t see happening very often. The Vice-Chancellor was giving out institutional awards of Rs 1 lakh based on points of children participating, and children winning medals, so it was great. It’s now just up to the athlete to perform, up to the athlete to actually work hard and have a set goal. You know, we go for our walks in the morning or to the gym in the morning. For the youth, they have late nights, so nobody is waking up early, you don’t see them training, so things need to change. And I think, such stories of Lovlina (Borgohain) and Nikhat (Zareen), Mary Kom, should inspire our children to have fun but also to keep that focus. In some ways, all achievers need to be a little bit selfish when it comes to their performance. Unless you think – ‘I need to be better than what I was yesterday, I need to be better than the rest of the field’ – you have got to be a little bit selfish in that regard and that’s where the champions emerge. To keep bettering yourself every day. Every repetition is important, and every Championship is important because you need to feel good. And that feel-good factor makes you perform better.

Hailing from Manipur, Mary Kom is a record six-time amateur world champion. PTI

Another thing that I wanted to talk to you about is what’s happening in athletics per se at the school level. For the kids who are not going to school, the story of course is different. But for those who are, as someone who stays in touch with developments in Indian athletics, what is your take on sports in India at the school level – the first time a young child is introduced to sports?

We often see that once an athlete is spotted somehow, the push starts coming in for that athlete in terms of support, but overall, there seems to be a lot missing at the grassroots level. If we can create a better school sports system, we can build more and better athletes. Would you agree with that?

Nachappa: I would completely agree with that and I have been fighting for that. I have put up this paper even to the Sports Authority of India (SAI). The Khelo India Games, I don’t know if you remember, but the first edition only had KV (Kendriya Vidyalaya) institutions. And I said this is very unfair because sports have to be inclusive and in the next edition they included the CBSE and ICSE schools. Sadly because sports is a state subject, you are not going to get that uniform kind of encouragement everywhere. When it comes to most Federations, still, up to the district level are held by politicians or bureaucrats. Now because you are there, you would say ‘I want this one track to be put up in my constituency’. So, infrastructure is there, but the management of the infrastructure is a white elephant. And there is no programme that will make a parent say ‘Yes, I need to send my child to this event’. That kind of event is lacking at the grassroots level.

No matter what we say, because I work with grassroots athletes in my hometown and I have created an entire facility – a shooting range, doing up the astroturf, through the NSDF (National Sports Development Fund), I got an athletic track, but there is no other support. Now, if you have an x-number of affiliated foundations or sports centres of well-known athletes, you have affiliated them, but what is the support? You can’t just have the elite. Send in your batches of athletes and hold those foundations that the Government has supported, hold them accountable if they don’t perform.

Now, I am in one of the smallest districts in India. Not many people know where Coorg is also, but I do it because I am passionate about it and in a way, I have helped the community have that knowledge. We have all produced without infrastructure. I need support. Like me, there will be many athletes who are doing this or many other small foundations. So, at the grassroots level, you have to monitor. Whether it is the SAI centres that are monitoring or the state centres that are monitoring and then have a Scouting Board in every district. So, when you are having these district Championships, these scouts will go and see – these are the athletes we can absorb and then the sports authority or the centre takes them up for 5 years and says - ‘ok, in 2 years or 3 years in the Khelo India Games you should be a medal winner.’ Set a target for them and the foundation or the coach. Because sport is not a culture in our country, you need to push these things. India has many other issues to handle, sports cannot become the priority, but we can make it effective. And they should use the services of former sports people, across disciplines and not just as mentors. How many sports people are really used after their sporting career, besides cricket? Whether it’s tennis or hockey – you tell me any other sport that has that?

You are not using your wealth. You see at the world stage, athletes after their retirements, how brilliantly they have been absorbed into (the system), whether it is Australia or America, you have such great people doing wonderful work. Work needs to be done at the base level. Look at Jamaica, they are churning (athletes) out every year. And that’s a cultural thing. Everybody contributes back to it (the system). I hope that changes (in India) and everybody plays a part, everybody is inclusive in the development of sports.

Finally, looking ahead to Paris 2024, any message that you would like to give to our athletes.

Nachappa: I would like to wish our entire contingent, great performances. You are there at the highest stage. Go there with the single-minded focus of bettering yourself. Each one betters themselves and have a great performance, overall. So, I would like to see such performances coming our way and not worry about medals not coming in. The first medal is important of course because then the rest of the team gets motivated and inspired, but I think everybody needs to do their job well. And it’s not just the athletes, it’s the entire support system, that goes along with them that needs to be accountable and responsible to bring out these performances.

Akaash is a former Sports Editor and primetime sports news anchor. He is also a features writer, a VO artist and a stage actor see more