Proud moment for India… Every Indian has tears of joy in their eyes for the son of India -Neeraj Chopra! There is celebration across the country!! We have finally got a star athlete out of the 1 billion Indians, who has realised our dream. The last gold medal which we were reminded of was of Abhinav Bindra for the shooting in Olympics. He performed magnificently and bagged a Gold medal for the country. This year making history Neeraj Chopra won Gold Medal on the Day 15 of the Tokyo Olympics. The Haryana boy has created history for India and made us proud, and shown us that dedication -determination and diehard willpower can make anything possible no matter which country or background you belong to. After 121 years, a new chapter for India in both athletics and sports, has begun. Chopra is the second Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympics, after Abhinav Bindra won it in 10m air rifle at the 2008 Beijing Games. In spite of his elbow injury he has truly lived upto the expectations of the nation and his team.
It’s a great surprise to all of us, that India the land of talents is not raining medals …Yet how often do we really prioritise sports whether as a family -community -nation… When a child is born all we are worried about is admission in school, the school likewise is also focused on strict adherence to academic syllabus and grades. Very few schools encourage sports and the kind of rigour it requires to produce a SPORTS STAR!! As sports requires hours of toil for mastery, and only the best are remembered.
It’s high time we we start encouraging the children, when we see their aptitude in sports! In fact playing for senior state championship can be equivalent to a graduation and playing for the country as Masters and such equivalent accomplishments and recognitions. So that the short shelf life of a sports person, is not taken as a disadvantage and they are engaged in roles beyond their active career. When at least 10% of our population takes sports and politics more seriously as a career and not just good to do…we too can scale up our medal rankings and also emerge as a super power! After all globally we all are flesh and blood people who need the right encouragement and support to make things happen….
As a educationist, parent -grandparent -coach do you think you would encourage more people to consider sports as a career!!! Look forward to your thoughts!
drsonaliduttabaanerjee 