It’s been a roller-coaster ride all the way from Vinesh’s anxiety to Nadeem’s travelling javelin to Manu’s sparkling eyes.
PARIS: That was on July 26 amidst incessant rain next to the magnificently lit Eiffel Tower. It was no ordinary opening ceremony. From big screens, you watched as athletes and officials cruised by boats waving at a crowd thronging the river banks.
On open stands drenched to the bone, you saw Zinedine Zidane run into the Trocadero arena with the Olympic flame and hand it over Rafael Nadal amid deafening applause. An arrow aflame finally lit up the Olympic cauldron. It was an amazing show.
After that we were in a time warp. The real deal. You got dragged into it. The daily rides in Metro were same, food at Olympic venues was still same — in every venue! But inside each arena there was something different happening. It has been an emotional roller coaster.
For me, one of those moments came last Sunday when I found Vinesh Phogat engrossed deep in thought at Games Village right after she had qualified for 50kg freestyle wrestling finals. She had fought hard against her opponents on that day defeating even a former world champion to achieve this much. But she seemed worried. Not so much about her opponent in the final who is American but her weight. She was off by 2.7 kg and must lose it overnight. The weigh-in would be early morning and it won’t be easy.
She missed out by just 100gms; that sure felt like a tonne on every Indian’s mind. Vinesh was heavily dehydrated and mentally shattered. All this are behind her now. However, not so he mind.
Another image is of Pakistan’s Nadeem Arshad throwing his javelin which traveled 92.97meters at the Stade de France. That ended India’s hope of gold in this event too. Neeraj Chopra, with a groin niggle, threw a sensational 89.45m himself. But no way he could ever catch up. When Neeraj goes for an operation and returns fitter than he has been in years to come.
Gold and silver. It is massive. The greatest sportsperson of India, ever? Yes, without doubt, and Neeraj is just 26.
The train journeys to Chateauroux – 300km south of Paris – will certainly stay in memories-getting up at 4am to catch the train from Paris-Austerlitz and reaching the shooting ranges bleary-eyed. But when you saw Manu Bhaker smile her shiny eyes showed all that was worth it. She won two consecutive bronze medals and just narrowly missed another. No Indian has two medals from same Games. She has lifted the bar. Having just turned 22 she will be sure to return.
Sarabjot Singh kept company with Manu Bhaker in the mixed 10m air pistol event where she won her second medal.
Shooting gave us another bronze medal: Swapnil Kusale took home one for his performance in the 50m rifle 3P event. While we were still speaking about Manu’s two medals Swapnil aged twenty nine quietly went about his work and stunned everybody in sight.
The bronze in hockey was something else. They had captured it in Tokyo and wanted it again. They defeated Spain 2-1 to win it. Ten of the players were among the Tokyo bunch which had got India a hockey medal after 41 years. It was definitely the way to go.
They lost a very close match against Germany during the semifinals. It could have gone either way. That might have shattered their faith in themselves as a team but they couldn’t dwell on that any longer because there was no room for looking back. For them, they said, winning a medal for their 36-year-old goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who played his farewell match today for India, was important above all else. And win it they did, in style; as India secured hockey medals consecutively after a gap of 52 years.
Thus, on penultimate day a twenty-one year old wrestler Aman Sehrawat brought home bronze for us; some consolation after Vinesh’s disappointments with winning medals. Aman has had a difficult life, having lost both his parents by the age of eleven. He has given his life purpose by going into wrestling rather than other things that could have seen him stray. Sport and country are reaping from His efforts too. His closeness reveal he rarely smiles. On completion of posing for selfie post mediation at press conference he smiled. It touched one’s soul directly.
India came fourth in six sports: Arjun Babuta got fourth place in men’s 10m air rifle shooting; Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat took fourth place in mixed team archery; Mirabai Chanu finished fourth in weightlifting; Anant Jeet Singh & Maheshwari Chauhan ended up fourth in mixed skeet event; Manu Bhaker stood fourth in women’s 25m pistol and Lakshya Sen came out fourth in men’s singles badminton. If only six medals had not been twelve. This is how the world of sport works.
Thinking about India’s performance, one could say that you fell in love with the city. You were reminded of those quick walk outs from competition arenas just to rush for a meal at a nearby street café. You were reminded of the volunteers here who made your workplace more comfortable.
You remembered the croissants at the Chateauroux station which simply melted in your mouth. Vinesh also remembered friendly faces of Sri Lankan Tamils running a pop-up store right next door to your rented apartment located at Belleville.
It is time to go home now, with a bag full of memories. Au revoir Paris.
