Rural India wins lion’s share of Asiad medals

NEWDELHI: You can’t beat sport for its ability to surprise, unite, and triumph against the odds. The son of a well-digger; the daughter of a miner; the daughter of weavers; the son of a driver; the daughter of a daily labourer; sons and daughters of farmers: children of parents with blue collar jobs, brought up amid poverty, have beaten the odds to triumph and figure among India’s gold- and silver-medal winners at the Jakarta and Pelambang Asian Games.

At the same time, there are children of parents with white-collar jobs, raised amid old money. We have the son of a coffee estate owner; the daughter of an industrialist; and sons and daughters of businessmen among our medallists. India’s medal winners have come from backgrounds as diverse as a country of over a billion can expect.

Of the 69 medals (15 gold, 24 silver and 30 bronze) India won, 45 have come in individual disciplines. Of the 39 gold and silver medals won by India, 24 were in individual sports. Nine of them were gold. But the best thing about

37 of those 39 medals (excluding the women’s team silver in kabaddi and hockey) is that nine of them were won by athletes aged 20 or below. As many as 27 winners were younger than 25.

This portends well for India at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, especially after the Rio Games yielded just two: a silver by PV Sindhu and a bronze by Sakshi Malik. Another interesting fact that could help India prioritise where to invest for Olympic excellence is that 67% of the gold and silver winners are from India’s villages (in keeping with the country’s population distribution as per the 2011 Census); 27% are from the Services; and five of the nine individual gold medals have been won by athletes from Haryana.

The 37 gold and silver medals are distributed between 59 athletes (including team events like 4x400m relay, the archery and squash teams, bridge pair and quadruple sculls in rowing).

CONTINUED ON P 9 A look at the profiles of the athletes who did India proud ››P18