Indian Sports and Entertainment Industry

[Stan_Savljevic]

...
my wife had a RD in 05. one needs surgery asap. ....

Singhasaar if I may, can I prod you to provide details on what caused the retinal detachment in your SHQ's case. You may ignore this request if I am being intrusive. I have no clue what causes something like RD and hence am curious to find how this happens in the case of a non-sports person. Apologies in advance if I stepped on a redline here.

Biju saar, RD can occur for any and almost no reason. I was walking home on the road and all of a sudden, I felt blurriness in my eyes. In fact just one eye. I did nt know it was RD at that point, but yea you know something s truly effed up.. A feeling like someone threw a very small piece of stone at you and something snapped in your eyes. You cant see clearly, so that makes you feel bugged too. I had a feeling that someone pointed a laser pointer at my eyes a few minutes back and that was why RD happened. In fact, I religiously avoid going in the way of laser pointers these days.

When I specifically asked a doc as to if high impact sports can cause RD, he said maybe, but he was not sure. The same I found in my digging on ggle. In fact, unless you take part in some high impact sports professionally, the chances of RD are as much as someone who is a couch potato. Other factors like a thick glass would imply that the retina and the cornea have to stretch real bad {from their normal shapes} and hence the increased chances of seeing RD in super myopic cases.

Normal people usually see what are called "floaters". Floaters are like weird insect like thingies {floating around in arbitrary directions} that you can see when you either open or close your eyes, in addition to everything else that you can really see. If you have not noticed this before, or if you have noticed it but cannot really place as to wtf these things are, just relax, look at a far distance, and check if you see some things are moving back and forth even though your eyes are "stationary." Those are floaters. Floaters are themselves not a bad sign, but an unusual spurt in floaters should make you a lil more careful. There is some unscientific connection between spurt in floaters, RD and many kindsa of eye problems. Just be aware that RD can happen, that information is more important than worrying about all else. Lack of information is the biggest evil that medical practice in India sustains. My doc in India never bothered to explain me all the details cos he thought I will be worried unusually. Human touch truly, but did nt serve any purpose. And I was not even aware of the symptoms as a high risk category case till shit really happened. Then I actually dug up frantically and figured I was more closer to blindness due to lack of information than because of my life history. Hope this helps, worrying or preventive medicine cant do much with RD....

Thats why, these divers who put their life at risk in some sense without actually being aware of it, esp till shit really happens, is a case that is a violation of human rights, whatever that means. But given that HR is a joke in China, I dont really mind their winning diving golds all and sundry {like now}. Its their natural bastion. Diving == HR violation. Whats funny is that these very same western nations that preach home about HR et al, I am not sure how much info they put at the disposal of the diver. Cos if I were a diver, and if you told me what exactly I could cause to my health, I will be truly sick and that may impact my performance {negatively}. Funny, west farts about HR and whines if someone else farts too...

[Singha]

I believe vulnerability to RD is mainly genetic i.e. people who have large & bulging eyeballs
are more prone to it. come to smaller details, if the curvature of the retina and the back side
of eyeball to which it attaches become different there will be RD. so anything that changes
the shape of the eyeball (diving being a fast method) will do it. as the eye power increases
the eyeball shape also changes, making more vulnerable to RD.

if you have relatives or friends with large eyeballs ask them to periodically do a retinal
check...it involves dilating the pupils with a 45 min eyedrop, then doc shines a light and
looks at the retina. if necessary they make a drawing with blue and red colour pencil in
India, maybe in massa they use a EOS1dmk3s with a macro lens .....

my wife had a power of around 7.5 then. the cause was probably a lengthy and
difficult natural delivery a few months before....so thats one thing - if SHQ is high
power (literally!) , opt for a c-sec .... rd will be a risk in natural delivery. afaik they
use a epidural and she is semi conscious and you can wear a surgical gown and be
there. but the nasty part where they cut the belly open is hidden deftly with a
cloth screen at the middle. so its not too bad, and nothing that a hip flask of
bacardi in the bathroom cannot fix ... boosts the moral fiber it does.

[Nayak]

Here is something to soothe the eye, and it definitely wont cause any damages to the retina.



Priyanka Chopra realizing she is wearing something too short.

[Singha]

but isnt her good boyfriend already partaking of the tangdi kabab ?

[Stan_Savljevic]

After much bwahaha, insinuations, cheap under-arm tactics that would put DoS to shame, here it is...

The Indian Olympic Association president, Suresh Kalmadi, and international Hockey Federation (FIH) president Els van Breda Viresman, signed a six-page memorandum of understanding (MoU), concerning the 2010 men's Hockey World Cup to be held in New Delhi, at the Hockey Stadium in Beijing, where the Olympic event is underway. Several representatives from the FIH, the IOA and other delegates from the Sports Ministry, including Secretary Sudhir Nath were present during the occsion of signing the document.

According to the MoU, the Hockey World Cup, to be held in October 2010, will be jointly hosted by the FIH and IOA and all the profits accruing out of the event will be shared by both parties. However, the share of the FIH will be ploughed back into the development of the game in India. {Well IMO this is another charade that is going to explode very soon. Just like there were caveats with the ricc episode, we will see ultimatums fly in thick and fast soon. Kalmadi has just kicked the can to post 2010 phase. Hope there is some1 nationalist at the helm who can kick right back at the Brindas of the fih.} As per the MoU, both Kalmadi and Els will be the joint chairman of the Organising Committee and they will soon be setting up a managing committee that will take care of marketing the event in India. "We are looking into the legality of setting up such a committee which will be based in India and look after all the marketing aspect of Hockey World Cup 2010," said the FIH president addressing the media. Asked if it would be a limited company of sorts, she said FIH will not be in a position now to reveal the details but it would be done soon after talking to the legal experts in India. "We are already in touch some with legal luminaries and once everything is finalized we will come back to you," she added.

Kalmadi, addressing the media, said that the World Cup would be staged in March 2010 and it would help the Commonwealth Games Organising committee a chance to assess the facilities before the October Games. "We will have 17 disciplines in the Games and have a lot of test events before the October Games. And this Hockey World Cup would be one of them. Our boys have really done well in the recent months and things in hockey are moving in the right direction," he said. Promising Els that {Heh cant you promise us Injuns? } India would be a force to reckon with by the London Olympics, Kalmadi said that our boys will aim to win gold in London. Kalmadi also said that the sports ministry has already announced a number of astro-turfs to be laid in various parts of the country and it would help the game and the players improve standards.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has released Rs 700 crore for the Games and the Sports Minister and his team have been very receptive to our demands. Now that we will go back India with at least three medals, including gold in shooting, the Olympic sports is picking up really well. We can only look ahead from here," he said. Kalmadi also said that he and his colleagues have been getting in touch with various hockey federation heads who are assembled here for the Olympics to tie-up various exposure and other exchange programme in hockey to improve the game in India. {Standard fart to finish the piece.}

Meet Abhijeet Gupta, the new world jr chess champion. The third Indian to don this title.

Peter Roebuck uvacha

If India decides to care about the Olympics, and it’s not compulsory, then it might study these strategies. Improving facilities and coaching is the first step. Happily there seems to be an abundance of sporting rupees around. Some of it must be in government hands. Identifying and developing talent is the next stage. Professionalism is required or the cause is lost. Competitors must emerge because of the programme, not despite it.

Most of all, India must play to its strengths. Some sports are as foreign as black pudding. But shooting, boxing, archery, badminton and weightlifting are known. And how about kabaddi? All sorts of strange sports are played at the Olympics, including synchronised swimming, dressage, softball and BMX bike riding. It seems random. And chess? Squash? India plays them well and can advocate their inclusion.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/23/stories ... 771700.htm

[sum]

Nice writeup on our administration

Will there be any eager, inspired, onlookers at Satpal’s akhada in the Chhatrasal Stadium next month? Will OB vans be parked outside Bhiwani Boxing Club after a week? How soon will India stop thinking about Abhinav Bindra, who bravely declined to accept the sudden attention being showered on him as a return for the months he had spent locked up in the private shooting-range in his plush basement?

Will those who’re screaming about India’s awakening at the Olympics, linking the improvement on the medals table as a sign of the country’s rising status in the world, look behind the success stories to realise that Indian sport is not in safe hands? Will they accept that the medals have been won only by individual effort — a laconic shooter who hardly needed any support from the government, a boxer who dreamed in a small club in rural Haryana, and a wrestler who shared a room with 19 others, unfazed by mosquito bites and grimy humidity?

Every four years, India wakes up to the truth that it is once again entering the Olympic Games not certain of a single medal. After a fortnight of planned lamentation, which turns into exultation when that accidental medal does come along, we wait to repeat the routine at the next Olympics. It’s a good way to live. Cozy, convenient. When you expect nothing, you usually end up with something. So, the medal secure, we return to obsessing about cricket, and life goes on.

This time, however, India has a problem on its hands. The ignored, oppressed athletes, who get no returns for their efforts, have managed to come back with more than that one face-saving medal. This time, there are three heroes to celebrate, three idols to shower with money and free railway passes. This time, there is a danger that the country will really start caring.

If that happens, the comfortable officials, who these one-off accidents suit just fine, may actually have to do something to ensure a repeat. They may have to finally put in some effort. They may not be able let things be and use the history of India’s failures as an argument whenever their own incompetence is discussed.

No matter how corrupt and opaque we say cricket administrators are, in comparison to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and its affiliates, they are a ray of sunlight. And the reason the cricket board has had to put systems in place — monitor age-group tournaments, scout for talent, make facilities easily available — is because the weight of expectations doesn’t let them rest too easily. The BCCI knows its smooth existence is directly proportional to how the Indian cricket team are performing. If they stop winning anything, India will react with anger, and the coffers will eventually dry up.

The IOA has never had such pressure. Its officials have enjoyed the good life — power, clout, government grants, official foreign trips — with no accountability. Who could ask for more?

But this system of slothfulness has gone on for too long. Now, we have the right to demand that things change. Along with text messages from the sports ministry, congratulating everyone from Abhinav Bindra to Rafael Nadal, we need to see something real.

Responsibility also lies with Indian sports fans, you and me, whose job is simply to stay interested. Let Bindra, Vijender and Sushil not go the Malleswari, Paes and Rathore way. Let us celebrate when they win and mourn when they lose. Let’s not treat their success as an accident, but as a sign that things can improve.

A big reason cricket managed to capitalise on the 1983 World Cup was because fans were constantly in touch with the sport. There are Test tours and one-day tournaments live on TV all year round to keep them connected.

Other sports, in contrast, come into focus three times in four years, at the Asian, Commonwealth and Olympic Games. The key to inspiring new athletes is to ensure that the link is not broken. Organise international boxing tournaments in India, get a shooting World Cup, and a wrestling championship to ensure newspaper and TV coverage.

In 1996, after Britain returned from Atlanta with one gold, it chalked out a plan to win 35 medals at Beijing 2008, and did. What plan is India making?

For me, Britain is the true hero of the games....from fast fading star to third place is simply unbelievable(and they seem to have done it by funding through lotteries!!!!).

Wish even we embark on such focused plans and achieve what Britain did.

[Stan_Savljevic]

Squash update: Ritwik is going to shed more points in the next psa update. He has lost in the semis to Sid Suchde. Sourav is on to the finals, as expected.

Some lessons from OG as India's campaign has wound down:
0) We are getting better by the day, and there is no further way than UP. Its so damn obvious that the only thing we can probably whine about is the rate at which we are going up .

1) The OGs are skewed up in every sense of the word. And they will be as far as time will keep ticking. Many bs "sports" are a part of the OG movement. And these sports have a rich haul of medals. Like China has taken to diving, gymnastics and UK to cycling, rowing, canoeing etc, we need to take to something. In short, if we want to win 10 golds sometime soon, looking for 10 in hoi polloi sports wont cut it anymore. Shooting, boxing etc can fetch us 2 or 3 or even 4-5, but we need to make the numbers elsewhere. I cant see how this is possible without some top-to-bottom help. Bottom-to-top is fine for sports well-established...

2) We are going to be bestowed with doofus level babus and sports mantris as far as a sea-change in the political spectrum can be seen. And I am not seeing that coming anytime soon. It happens at an Indic pace, but it sure does. In the meanwhile, private-partnerships are the only way to go. I have heard stories about constructing state of the art faciilities in Chicom land by donashun of 1 buck a person. Well, whats stopping us from getting astro-turfs in many places in India by this method?

3) That said, the state of our hockey is NOT bad. It is the state of hockey administration that is terrible. Even though hockey has some former superstars in its admin apparatus, I dont see change happening at a pace thats sustainable or revolutionary. I see same old same old. And despite the fact that hockey has only 1 medal in any event, I still see a need to revive it cos it is our national game, whatever you think of its official capacity to be one. We will see our team finish London 2012 in the top 6. You can smell the blood in some of the jr team's eyes. I can.... Like I said before, this team or the one that went through the Santiago meltdown are NOT bad. They are good. In fact, if you see the level of hockey played here, we should definitely be in the top 6 here. Except for those 2 bad days at Santiago that none of the team members of JC will ever want to remember.....

4) I am not really sure if there is a cash shortage for individual sports, assuming that one can convince the grantor of the cash that his cash will be well-spent. Coming from the acad side, I see so many parallalities. You need to have a solid game-plan to write a grant that is worth funding. The OGQ article may not be too off, they have cash surplus. What they probably dont see is a good game plan to fund a gold quest, as their name goes. So they dont fund such ventures which will be truly sportsmanly, even though it may fall well-short of a gold quest. Probably a bronze quest should nt make them unhappy. They should make their venture "Olympic medal quest" to get rid of their surplus, perhaps. That is not a sign 2 say, "Please dont donate to OGQ". Please do, and please post avenues where cash can be of help. I am just pointing out that OGQ is perhaps by its very nature of goal-{make it gold}-oriented funding, not the best avenue for sports like hockey etc. Thats all.

5) Killer instinct: We have seen so many near-misses. So many, I lost track of many. Crikkit needs to share its inputs with other sportsmen and women. For long I have seen the so near yet so far thing in crikkit, which has changed recently. Still a long way to go. Nevertheless, whining about crikkit wont get us much except for anger from crikkitirs and crikkit-fanatics. We need to channel their enthusiasm constructively, and this is one area where there can really be cross-fertilization of ideas, literally.

6) Attaching Echandee to a gold quest will only make us beasts out of normal people. We can see that across the McMahon line. We need to win for winning is fun. At the end of the day, sports are what they are. Some people make a livelihood, some people remember, it does nt win us real wars. Propagandu is all fine and dandy, but we have far more ridiculous enemies to fight before we can attach Echandee to sports. That day will come.....

7) And lastly, please do not diss our players as being old or whatever choicest epithets you would like to use. We have seen many a poster tar many a sportsmen and women with such jibes. In Nukkad as well as here. That also includes the crikkit quartet. Unfair, and I will protest everyone of these attempts, irrespective of who is writing that. Sorry, no personal affront meant, intended or otherwise. These guys shed their blood, sweat and life for something so far with hardly any systemic support and pure individual motivation. In case of crikkit, there is a fine line between being an arm-chair pundit and going and performing on the field. Everyone has a down day or a down-series. We need to appreciate that. We can micro-analyze things, but at the end of the day, we need to realize that we are sitting and opinionating on a keyboard with no clear understanding of whats actually happening on the field, let alone in the head of a guy who is playing a must-win-game. That is sports. Just because they are professional does nt mean all kindsa ad-hoc criticism is fine. Criticism is ok, but when it goes too far, yea we are just shooting at our own damn feet.

The freedom of democrazy has made many us Indians fatalists in some sense. We see the glass half-full when it aint and vice versa. Of course, that in itself is not good or bad. What is bad is to shift the can to the other side unnecessarily. What I mean is "blame the babus {assuming there is a good reason 2 diss em}" is fine with me.

8 ) And one last thing, there are and there will be Indians who will be world champions in their sports. There are quite a few lined up already for the later part of this year.... So yea, you know the routine .

[Rahul M]

India-Today Articles from Sharda Ugra.

Your best is not good enough(on DDM's style of reporting, a must read)
http://www.itgo.in/index.php?option=com ... 0&Itemid=1

Bindra's first words on gold: No! No! No!
http://www.itgo.in/index.php?option=com ... 0&Itemid=1

The Great Wail of China
http://www.itgo.in/index.php?option=com ... 0&Itemid=1

[ramana]

Stan, The old Raj concept of sports is for gentlemen has to be thrown out. Sports has to be for the masses and the best should be allowed to prevail. the mantris, babus and former sports stars committees prevent the best from emerging as they feel that sports is their domain and they can do willy nilly as they please.

Yo have done a good job of identifying the areas of potential excellence. Need to do more. Some of our doc members can put together a team of specialists and take them to the akahadas and advice the coaches and players on nutrition and sports medicine.they can even get their professional bodies to adopt/support such arenas. The doping has to be stopped as it makes the efforts tainted.

And we should pick one stadium and try to get it astro-turfed by public money.

[saip]

I am just watching the marathon. Amazing infrastructure. Beutiful roads. No pot holes anywhere. Well manicured shrubs and fountains. Even Chicago or Ny has nothing like this. The Chinis have really come up big in building the infrastructure. But I dont see that many spectators. In NY marathon you have 10 deep at places.

[Singha]

I believe start time was 7:30am....just like indians maybe chinese too never show up
before 10am

[niran]

SAIP saar, you have witnessed the Chinese "Face Intact" syndrome.
what do you think Ze Authorities will let aam Chinese at the site?
think again. all present are party officials/state security.
all very proper and PC.

[sum]

Link

A relevant article:

Indians should copy the British in Olympics

If India decides to care about the Olympics, it must approach the task professionally, writes Peter Roebuck

India’s lowly position on the medals table at Beijing indicates its lack of focus on the Olympics. It was not so long ago that Great Britain’s tally was almost as modest. Now that misty island stands third on the gold medal list, behind China, with its population and determination, and United States, with its vast pool of talent. If India wants to rise then it could copy the British.

Embarrassed by past performances and anxious to raise standards before the forthcoming London Olympics, Britain developed a three-part plan. Realising that better facilities were needed, it set about building gymnasiums and cycling tracks and so forth.

Previously the nation had rejoiced in valiant amateurism. Locals saw themselves as eccentric and slightly superior, but their approach was outdated. Fortunately the National Lottery provided the money needed for construction and hiring the best coaches.
Immigrant talent

Next the British set out to exploit the athletic talent possessed by immigrant communities, especially those of African heritage. No resource can be wasted. Over the years soccer had had the same idea. To its frustration, English cricket has fewer black settlers than it did 30 years ago.

Anyone watching the British performances in Beijing will appreciate the part played in track and field by black athletes. Nor were they flying a flag of convenience. Many of them are third-generation settlers. Not that Britain alone has benefited. Kenyan runners pop up all over the place.

Britain’s third strategy was its most astute. Students of the Olympics know that the medals table is lopsided. A country can win a team sport like soccer or basketball or hockey and collect a single gold medal. Even the finest athletes can only hope to appear on the podium two or three times.

Usain Bolt, the greatest sprinter ever born, a man who glides whilst others pound, a slim sportsman with no hint of steroids about him, only took part in three events. Unlike the swimmers, he cannot dash 50m, or run backwards, or hop. It is grossly unfair.

The British decided to concentrate on events with more variations than Elgar, and lots of medals. Sailing, rowing and cycling fitted the bill. And all of them are familiar. After all there is no shortage of river or sea water, and the roads are often packed. Moreover rowing has singles and doubles and foursomes, and all sorts of boats, and men and women as well.

And the same applies to sailing. It is a distortion and Britain has been shrewd enough to exploit it. Resources were poured into these pursuits. Britain did not attempt to shine in everything. But success spreads like melted butter.
Requisite strategy

If India decides to care about the Olympics, and it’s not compulsory, then it might study these strategies. Improving facilities and coaching is the first step. Happily there seems to be an abundance of sporting rupees around. Some of it must be in government hands. Identifying and developing talent is the next stage. Professionalism is required or the cause is lost. Competitors must emerge because of the programme, not despite it.

Most of all, India must play to its strengths. Some sports are as foreign as black pudding. But shooting, boxing, archery, badminton and weightlifting are known. And how about kabaddi? All sorts of strange sports are played at the Olympics, including synchronised swimming, dressage, softball and BMX bike riding. It seems random. And chess? Squash? India plays them well and can advocate their inclusion.

Ultimately, though, it’s not about seeking an advantage. It’s about excellence, and that requires organisation and application. Is India up to it?

[rsingh]

Most of all, India must play to its strengths. Some sports are as foreign as black pudding. But shooting, boxing, archery, badminton and weightlifting are known. And how about kabaddi? All sorts of strange sports are played at the Olympics, including synchronised swimming, dressage, softball and BMX bike riding. It seems random. And chess? Squash? India plays them well and can advocate their inclusion.

How long they( Chinese,Sudanese Gambians and Afganis) are letting us to win our favorite games. This is thinking of looser. We have to try our best to compete with world in existing games.

[Stan_Savljevic]

And we should pick one stadium and try to get it astro-turfed by public money.

Unfortunately, this one is going to require a large amount of cash. And someone on the ground in India to coordinate this more or less full-time. 1 million USD around 2002. I dont know where it stands today {the cost of astro-turf laying}. I have asked a cpl of folks if they are aware of any private initiatives to lay astro-turf. I have mailed K. Arumugam at s2h. I will try to write to KPS Gill and see if he has any ideas, but he is persona non grata from IHF these days. But he may be able to help channel attention to ppl he thinks who may care. I will post here if there is some movement.

There are two things Indian hockey desperately needs: 1) More astro-turfs so kids can get used to astro-playing to start with, 2) Some kind of monetary incentive for the ones who are on the threshold of making the national/state level teams. The first one is clearly a cost factor. Besides that astros need to relaid every 6-7 yrs or so for optimal use {Thats Europe, in india astros stick around fo up to 15 yrs like Vikraant}. Besides that water scarcity is also an issue cos astros drink a lot of water, salt water not permissible cos that will destroy the grass. So we have a loop.... Second one can be addressed, at least in some part, if we know some way the money will actually go to someone deserving. The main problem seems to be finding the right contact person to latch on to leverage our resources, monetary or otherwise. Too bad..... I will blow some time on this and try to email many more, going to take some time. Will keep posted.

The doping has to be stopped as it makes the efforts tainted.

Apart from weightlifting where doping is rampant, India and doping are as far away as earth and moon. There are a few cases of athletes {field events esp} who have gotten caught in the past. But these folks have been tarred both publicly and eliminated from the circle. In that sense, my only worries lie with IWF. Weightlifting as such is a sport that has doping as its second name, both in India as well as outside. As of now, I dont see a way in which the sport can be revived in India except to send all the lifters home. And start afresh with real young ones, 16-18 yr +. That seems to be the general direction in which SAI and IWF are veering towards. The latest Monika Devi spat is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a few state assns that have far more clout than their normal share of accolades. But SAI is getting sick and tired of getting banned outright in major competitions. We may see the firing of the IWF coach sometime soon, once the other election commissioner Krishnamurthy is done with his report. The ball is getting shifted internally to find a scapegoat. I hope they victimize everyone of these babus who has been a silent witness to doping over the last decade and junk them. With CWG coming up soon, and the fact the weightlifting has ~ 15 golds means that there is pressure from the top {MSG} to clean up the act. Again, the jury is still out on this.

[Stan_Savljevic]

Ramana,
here is one source that states the cost of turf laying at arnd 2crores circa 2003.
http://www.tn.gov.in/gorders/ywsd/ywsd-e-33-2003.htm

The Member Secretary has stated that the cost involved in the relaying of the hockey surface at the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu’s Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium would be around Rs.2.00 crores. A global tender needs to be floated to receive competitive tenders from the FIH approved companies. He has further stated that a Tender Awarding Committee needs to be constituted to open, scrutinize and to finalise the tender.

So one cant get to lay turf from anyone and everyone. There are three FIH listed companies and they hold the monopoly. I dont know if that list has added a few more companies, and if so, they are desi ones. That way the cost will be less. I doubt though. FIH has a stranglehold and turf laying and they wont give up on this.

I thought I will post Virdhawal Khade, the teen swimmer's progression over the last six years or so....
http://bp2.blogger.com/_2HpfxCNRGi4/R2E ... chart1.bmp
http://bp1.blogger.com/_2HpfxCNRGi4/R2E ... chart2.bmp

Virender will be ranked in the top 3 of the amateur boxing rankings that will be due soon. And in the finals of his event, seems like there was a biting incident that the Cuban was accused of. The Brit, Jim DeGale won gold.

Let’s look at the Olympics first. Besides the three medal winners, when was the last time you saw so many Indians break into the quarter-finals, even to the last 16? This time we had Saina Nehwal, barely 19, within a few points (at 11-3 in the final game at one stage) of a badminton semi-final slot. Paes and Bhupathi in the quarters along with three boxers and a wrestler. The answer is never. At past Olympics, all Indian challenge was over in the first round with the rest of the time and emotion spent on following the fortunes of the hockey team.

Now look even beyond your new, Olympic quarter-finalist heroes. When was the last time we had so many Indians in the top 15, top 30 and even the top 300 of the world rankings? Today, two shooters are in the top 10 and at least six in the top 20. Saina entered world badminton’s top 15 at the age of 18 and should at some point enter the top 10. Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand are already in the men’s top 50. Wrestling, weight lifting, boxing, all have, between themselves, several Indians who are leading contenders in their own respective categories. So while you may have still got only three medals, such a substantial improvement in sporting standards is the real plus for Indian sport.

I think I should quote this article in full....
http://www.stick2hockey.com/ViewArticle ... leOID=1581

Chess today boasts 18 grandmasters, many more than ever, underlining the fact that Anand wasn’t just an odd-ball prodigy, but an inspiration for so much hidden talent waiting for opportunity and a role model.
...
So what is the story in all this? Could it just be that this across-the-board improvement in Indian sporting standards has something to do with nearly two decades of breathless economic growth? With improvement in living standards, education, awareness and, above all, urbanization, do we we now see a narrowing of the gap between raw talent and opportunity? There are two ways countries produce winners. One is the old, Soviet-bloc (and now probably Chinese) way of regimented, single-minded talent hunts and training. The other is the way of free-market democracies where fierce internal competition for big money and media-generated fame produce champions. India has, in sheer desperation, dabbled in the regimented strategy sometimes, even handing over the training to the Army which, traditionally, produced our top boxers. It is significant, therefore, that none of the three Indian quarter-finalists in Beijing has come from the Army, which was until now our only nursery for contact sports.

In womens badminton, Saina is just the tip of the iceberg. Dipika Pallikal, another teenager is touted to be even better in baddy circles. Another kid on the block goes by the name Anaka Alankamony. I am waiting to see when these three will storm into the Uber and Sudirman cups. Aparna Popat's dream may finally come true....

Similarly, a budding campaign to make yoga an Olympic discipline should be quashed.

I did nt know there was a measure afoot along these lines . That will be payback time...
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 75,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... ine-bottom

[Stan_Savljevic]

After some digging, this is what I found on the state of Indian hockey. Hope this will say whats lacking....

The cost of laying turf in India comes to around 1.5 cr in 2006, latest.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/20/stories ... 710200.htm

First, the FIH has approved more than 3 companies for laying turf. Every one of them are in the west, with one in Korea. Thats the monopoly.... The US which has no field hockey history or team of repute has 5-6 companies that run the show.
http://www.worldhockey.org/vsite/vfile/ ... ile,00.pdf
http://www.worldhockey.org/vsite/vnavsi ... st,00.html
And unless, India has one or more companies that are accredited with the FIH in the turf laying skill, there is no scope for bringing the costs down. Thats the first and foremost step. Unless the costs are down, there is no scope of getting a large no of stadia in India.

The case of water-free turfs is supposed to be the dream of FIH. It is nowhere near in sight. The FIH is literally acting green and going around for environment friendly turfs, but the costs are still sky high for India's comfort.

There are a few stadia in India that are near world class, but these are very few and far for a country of India's size. Besides that astro survives for 8 yrs at the very best in tropical countries like India. After that a major refit and re-laying needs to be done, which is hardly ever undertaken in most facilities. Not re-laying could result in injuries to players because the ball will stop right in the cracked spots.

Here is the list of stadia from my search
Major ones that can host international level events with small fixes:
Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium, Egmore, Chennai, first laid in 1995 {refurbished in 2004}
Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, Delhi, first laid in 2002, should be refurbished soon for CWG
Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad, first laid in 2003
K. D. Singh Babu Stadium, Lucknow
Surjeet Hockey Stadium, Jalandhar
Sonepat Hockey club, Devi Lal sports centre, Haryana {FIH approved recently}
SAI centre, Gandhinagar, Gujarat {FIH approved recently}

Hockey Stadium, Nanjappa Circle, Shanthinagar, Bangalore
S.A.A.P. Astro Turf Hockey Stadium, Begumpet, Hyderabad
Gymkhana grounds, Hyderabad {both in terrible condition}
Sector 42 Stadium, Chandigarh {International level}
Bombay Hockey stadium, Bombay
Hockey stadium, Rourkela
The Khuman Lampak Hockey Stadium, somewhere in the NE
Bhetapara hockey stadium, Assam
Burlton Park Stadium, Jalandhar
Shivaji Stadium, Delhi
Aish Bagh Stadium, Bhopal
Govt. Ripudaman College, Nabha
Mohan Bagan CFC Ground, Calcutta
M.A. Stadium, Jammu
Upper Doab Sugar Mill play ground, Shamli, UP
Bhophal Hockey Stadium, Bhopal

PCMC PolyGrass Hockey stadium, Nehru Nagar, Pimpri
Captain Roop Singh stadium, Gwalior {Converted to a crkkkit stadium }
National hockey stadium, New Delhi {under construction for CWG}

Point to be noted is hockey belts of India like Sansarpur (Punjab), Rampur (UP), Jharkand, Coorg etc dont have international level hockey stadia. Thats a huge crutch.... Diwakar Ram, the newest star of Indian hockey grew on terrible pitches from his interview.

In the Tenth plan, Ministry of YSA, GoI has spent ~48 crores as Grants for Creation of Sports infrastructure and ~26 crores as Grants for Installation of Synthetic playing surfaces. I dont know how much of it has gone to hockey.

http://yas.nic.in/yasroot/beneficiaries ... %202006-07
But the amount that has been given to IHF by GoI in FY 2004-05 through 06-07 has been 1.94, 0.96 and 0.92 cr respectively. Again, I dont know if this amount excludes cash for laying new stadia or turf. The reason why the cash allocated has gone down is because hockey was downgraded from elite status in a GO very recently. But that does nt explain why the womens federation has got more cash than the mens. I dont know if thats a sign from the top admin of fix the mess that was seen in IHF recently.

Nevertheless, some of the sports have been punching above their weight in terms of cash allocation from GoI. These are gymnastics, judo, TT and yachting. I can understand yachting as its a cash-intensive sport. Others I cant see, esp given the results we have seen so far for the cash put in. In short, GoI has been subsidizing the junkets of Dhanraj Chaudharies and ditching the national game at its own whims and fancies. Thats the message I can read from this document.

[Singha]

since money is an issue...hockey has very low bang for buck. supporting 100s of talented
players nationwide and the astro turfs only for one medal.

it fails the panda H&D test in first iteration itself.

if someone wants to play let them build one in their backyard

[SwamyG]

Sports needs to become a "business" {unfortunately}.

Look at the money & participation in USA: http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/06statab/arts.pdf

So why "business"? The "local businesses" can create a national culture or motivation to participate in physical activities. Another example in USA, are the music bands in schools. When a kid becomes eligible (around 5th grade), the schools start sending out fliers about the music bands. Kids get into as being in the school band is cool. If you look closely, all the equipments are expensive - easily in the $800+ range. If a family does not have money, then there are schemes - like renting the equipments. And you guessed it right, some local music store is always tied up with these fliers. And guess what families are going to spend money. Peer pressure can be little hard to beat.

Then comes the "organized" sports right from the elementary school level. My son has so far participated in in-house soccer and in-house baseball activities in the summer/fall. The local city has these events, the kids are all put into various teams with colorful uniforms. We do have to buy the extra goodies - shin guards, cup (abdomen guard), shoes, baseball bat, ball, gloves, socks etc etc. Again the local sports shops rush to cater to the needs.

It feels like everybody is working with each other to get/give the entire experience. Fundamentally there is lots of money involved. This is just as far as the "liberal" or "commie" events where winning is not important. Just imagine as a kid grows, the level of sports s/he gets involved at middle and high schools. Where the competition increases, the stake is just high. Schools & Universities spend money to get lots of money. It is the system.

All the while there are volunteers who bring snacks, who coach the kids, and do so much stuff. And the parents are sitting on their "lawn" chair egging their kids to shoot the ball into the goal, to play aggressive and kick "ass". The expression "soccer mom" did not just spring up one day. Parents taking turns to drop and pick their kids from different fields and different events. Life goes on.

Life shouldn't be too organized, but organized activities stream line the processes and increase the efficiency of all the people involved. Training is more scientific, coaching is excellent, facilities get better, kids get better experience etc etc.

The Indian sports culture, when I grew up was different. Things were totally chaotic, And I liked it. We played "goli" (marbles) on the street. We played "pombaram" (spinning tops) on the street, we played kabbadi on the street, we played field hockey on the street and any vacant areas. We used twigs and a rubber ball. We played cricket on the street and vacant areas. We collected money from all the kids 25 paise, 1 rupee, 2 rupees, or whatever it was and pooled to get a "cork" ball. We played "hand tennis" with a pair of hands and a tennis ball. Sometimes at school we used notebooks. We converted the dinning table into TT table, all we needed was a TT ball. The kitchen tumblers, and the bamboo stick that grandmas used for hanging clothes, become the net. There was no indoor badminton courts, we just played outside - both ball badminton and the shuttle.

The point is the sports culture is quite different. It is not as if the parents discouraged us from playing. I know parents who helped us clear brush to create outdoor shuttle and tennikoit courts. We did have few competitions, but it was not organized like in USA. Parents did applaud and appreciate kids excelling in sports. Yes they always wanted us to do well in academics and become a doctor, engineer etc. But they did not prevent us kids from playing for couple of hours in the evenings.

The society was (and remains) highly disconnected. In the sense there was not an integrated or homogeneous sports culture across the country. The system allowed the kids to play and goof around. Made everybody happy too. It just was not setup for businesses to enter in a big way.
And of course we have cricket. Nothing needs to be said about it.

Sports was not a business in India, until now............ and now things are going to change for the good and the bad.

[Nayak]

TOI(LET)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Edit ... 400547.cms

To win their 90-odd medals, the Chinese government has devised a nursery-to-championship nurturing system. To get our record haul of three medals, India has its own unique system in place. It's called self-reliance. Note, for example, the way our table tennis stars played. While other teams frequently asked for time outs in which to consult their coaches on strategy and tactics, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Neha Agarwal kept their own counsel and sorted out their own problems. Why? Because the man sitting in coach's clothing in the coach's chair wasn't a coach at all, but an official who had never played the game in his life. It turns out that the Table Tennis Federation of India asked for two people to accompany our two-member team. That's a bit much, the sports ministry said, cut out one, so naturally the federation dropped the coach.

As for Abhinav Bindra, the world and its uncle now claim credit for his gold. That includes the national rifle body that helped our shooters become self-reliant by saying what no rifle association has ever said before: No ammunition especially for practice. So, Abhinav's father erected a Rs 1 crore private shooting range for his son. And guess what, equipped it with ammunition too. Then there is Sushil Kumar, now being showered with gold because of his bronze. Shouldn't the National Wrestling Association take a lot of the credit and perhaps a bit of the gold too? After all, for his training they put him into a room in a Delhi stadium, furnished it with 10 mattresses on which 20 wrestlers could sleep and added rats and cockroaches for company. This kind of treatment is bound to toughen you up, essential for any athlete but especially so for wrestlers. And what about Bhiwani, the new epicentre for boxing? How can the Haryana boxing organisation not be applauded? The latest news is that they have just concluded the state competition in which 140 boxers participated. Days before the championship, their coaches were told not to attend the tournament, no explanation given. When the winning boxers asked for a conditioning camp to prepare them for the Nationals, they were told no conditioning camp, no explanation given. What to explain? We have a national policy in place: the country's sports bodies are of the officials, by the officials, for the officials. It makes our sportsmen self-reliant. They then go out and win Olympic medals.

Things will only improve. I am very optimistic about the future.

[Nayak]

Is life back to normal?

Very slowly life is getting back to normal. It's been a week now and the number of calls are dying down.

Have you been approached by any corporates for endorsements?

No corporates have approached me as of now. But I'm open to the idea.

People spoke of your Zen-like calm after winning the gold. Are you into meditation?

I think shooting itself is such a meditative sport that you don't need to practice any other meditation. As for my calm, I am like that only. I don't make a drama of things. And the moment of victory was so fleeting that I was sucked up in it.

Compared to cricketers who rejoice when they score a century, your reaction was quite mild...

I am the way I am. Plus, it won't be right to compare cricket and shooting - cricket is a much more aggressive game while shooting is all about internalizing everything.

But you must be feeling on top of the world. Whom do you credit your success to?

It's not that I am not feeling anything or am not happy. I have practised 12 long years for this and now it has finally happened. Besides my own practice, it's been the financial and moral support of my parents; Mittal foundation financed a big chunk of my training and even the state machinery and Olympic association have a share. With all that, there is a certain element of luck involved in winning a medal. I may have shot better in Athens but this time, I was lucky.

Don't you think you should have stuck on in Beijing to cheer other Indian participants?

If I were there, I would have become the centre of attraction. They all deserve their moments of glory. And what could have I done there? I can't coach boxers and wrestlers; I can't give them tips. In fact, I had decided much earlier that once my job was over, I'd be back home.

In Athens you shot from an unstable floor. In Beijing, your gun was reportedly tampered with. Do you think somebody tried to scuttle your chances?

I can't say that someone tampered with my gun but gunsights were altered from the qualifying round. For a moment I thought it was all gone. Athens came back to haunt me. It took quite a bit of self-motivation to regain composure. In the end, it all turned out well. Now all I want to say is that I am very fortunate.

The whole country celebrated the first gold for India... Why do you think we couldn't manage one earlier?

That's exactly what I've been thinking. My win surely didn't come easy but it is a reality. Winning a gold is certainly not unachievable. It does happen, it has happened to me.

Do you consider it strange that Indian sport bodies and government is celebrating your personal feat although they had very little to do with it?

I am happy everyone is celebrating my individual win as their own. The state did fund a part of my training and Mittal foundation helped me; I certainly can't forget that.

What's your next ambition?

I really don't have an answer for that. I haven't resumed my training as yet. I have stopped believing in this planning situation. I'm certainly thinking of London 2012 but right now, I am living the moment.

Had you not been a shooter, which other game would you have liked to excel at?

I tried tennis for a while, couldn't do well. My tryst with shooting happened accidentally and it's so addictive that I've been hooked ever since.

Who are your favourite sportspersons?

I like to watch Sachin Tendulkar and Roger Federer play but I really don't take anyone as role model. I want to be like myself.

[email protected]

I like this guy, calm, no-nonsense and down-to-earth.

[sum]

Interestingly, the doyen of boxing,Cuba ended the games without a single gold!!!!!!!!

[Nayak]

The babooze as usual on their musharrafs passing the buck around

Pathetic I say, chuck these whole lot of useless turds out of their jobs.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Citi ... 401196.cms

India will cut a sorry figure during the CG games in 2010.

[Stan_Savljevic]

I have never read a worser article on sports matters in a very looooong time. I thought Barkha Dutt was the lowest NDTV can get to, no no she has some super duper competishun.... Ensoi maadi.....
http://www.ndtv.com/olympics/storypage. ... 0080062828

The sheer genius of the media in popularising sports and mentoring the public is worthy of salutation.

Maybe this babette has nt realized the emptiness of Injun media when "Sushil who is that?" won the bronze. The rest of the article should be titled "A babette's soft p0rn fantasy in print." Where do such dumbasses get their journalism degree from, JNU?!

[Nayak]

Looks like either she had a vibr@tor between her errrr ears or was it that 'time of the month', when she submitted the article ?

Media is doomed if imbeciles like her are allowed to voice/air/print their opinions.

Does she look good atleast ? That could be some saving grace.

[Vivek Kumar]

I have never read a worser article on sports matters in a very looooong time. I thought Barkha Dutt was the lowest NDTV can get to, no no she has some super duper competishun.... Ensoi maadi.....
http://www.ndtv.com/olympics/storypage. ... 0080062828

The sheer genius of the media in popularising sports and mentoring the public is worthy of salutation.

Maybe this babette has nt realized the emptiness of Injun media when "Sushil who is that?" won the bronze. The rest of the article should be titled "A babette's soft p0rn fantasy in print." Where do such dumbasses get their journalism degree from, JNU?!

I have not laughed so hard in quite some time. Every profound thought in its own separate paragraph.

Think what heights this boxer could take his sport to, getting snapped up by some branded company to flaunt the briefest of briefs now that Sunny Deol is an ageing lion.

So, lap up the photos of Vijender posing for a men's magazine shoot; linger on the list of the 10 hottest women in the Beijing Olympic Village, some who have gone as far as Playboy.

All this is truly sports coverage with a human face.

[Singha]

thats what not having a steady boyfriend does to people.

[BijuShet]

A big thank you to Stansaar and Singhaji for the clear and concise explanation on RD. I see floaters once in a while but it seems that is not much cause for concern. Besides my vision is better than average 20/20 so I dont need to worry too much about RD for now. I read Singhaji's post and was like WTF is this RD and how does it happen to the average SDREs. It felt like one could go blind in the blink of an eye. But these posts from you two put my mind at ease. I hope and pray that no SDRE suffer from such mishap ever.

[Singha]

I have seen a small amt of dark grey floaters since I was a kid. had my eyes checked in 2004
but nothing came out other than a slightly less than perfect peripheral vision. the optician
advised me to wear a prescription low power glass for night driving, but I havent done that
yet. am planning to get my eyes checked soon. after 35 need to steup up the care.

[SBajwa]

floaters could also be indication of high blood pressure.

[ChandraS]

A big thank you to Stansaar and Singhaji for the clear and concise explanation on RD. I see floaters once in a while but it seems that is not much cause for concern. Besides my vision is better than average 20/20 so I dont need to worry too much about RD for now. I read Singhaji's post and was like WTF is this RD and how does it happen to the average SDREs. It felt like one could go blind in the blink of an eye. But these posts from you two put my mind at ease. I hope and pray that no SDRE suffer from such mishap ever.

Bijushet,

Almost everyone sees some floaters at one time or the other, mostly due to the gooey stuff (protein sebum something..) accumulating in the eye and forming a thin film over the retina. Should go away if you blink a few times and wash your eyes. If they do persist, then you have a cause for some concern. No one goes blind just like that with RD. You will notice some symptoms and have a chance to rectify before further damage, if you are aware of the symptoms. Also regular eye checkup (1/yr at least, 2 or more - depending on your prescription and eye condition - like I have to) helps a lot, irrespective of age.

I had my eyes dilated 5yrs back in desh, but here in Massa things now are more advanced. The retinal exam does not necessarily need dilation. Check this out - Retinal Optomap With this my optometrist showed me pics of my retina and was able to rule out any disorder. The picture is so clear and hi-res that you can see the veins in your pupil as big as you fingers !!!

[Prem]

Hari Puttar



http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080825/film_nm/hari_dc
NEW DELHI, India (Hollywood Reporter) - Warner Bros. has filed a lawsuit against Mumbai-based producer/distributor Mirchi Movies related to the title of its upcoming film "Hari Puttar -- A Comedy of Terrors," which Warners feels is a tad too similar to its franchise about a certain young wizard.
The case is being heard in the Bombay High Court and comes up for hearing Monday (August 25). "Hari Puttar," a comedy that centers on a 10-year-old Indian boy whose family moves to England, is slated for a September 12 release.

"We have recently commenced proceedings against parties involved in the production and distribution of a movie entitled 'Hari Puttar,"' London-based Warners spokeswoman Deborah Lincoln said. "Warner Bros. values and protects intellectual property rights. However, it is our policy not to discuss publicly the details of any ongoing litigation."

The Hari Puttar name began making the rounds here as a comic gag when the first "Harry Potter" film was released. Hari is a popular Indian name, and "puttar" means "son" in the Punjabi language.

[Singha]

I have never had high blood pressure. my upper is always in 110-120 range.

anyway I better get a retinal check properly done. these two up there
and two down below are vital 'strategic assets' and to be SSG protected
at all costs

[Singha]

a alcohol question - plenty of experts here:

would 60ml of brown or white rum every week (say 1 peg on two days)
be bad for my health?

I have taken a fancy for the little 60ml bottles of bacardi which
are really cost effective at rs55/- here. delivers a nice bite when
taken with fruit juice.

had to give up beer due to tendency to increase my weight.
and moreover got tired of the same 3-4 brands - kf, foster, bud
and rc. no cheap microbrews here to try out and imports
like singha, tsingtao, heineken, sapporo, corona etc are very costly.

[bart]

60 ml is nothing...negligible quantity and i am surprised you can even taste the alcohol

[bart]

I have never read a worser article on sports matters in a very looooong time. I thought Barkha Dutt was the lowest NDTV can get to, no no she has some super duper competishun.... Ensoi maadi.....
http://www.ndtv.com/olympics/storypage. ... 0080062828

The sheer genius of the media in popularising sports and mentoring the public is worthy of salutation.

Maybe this babette has nt realized the emptiness of Injun media when "Sushil who is that?" won the bronze. The rest of the article should be titled "A babette's soft p0rn fantasy in print." Where do such dumbasses get their journalism degree from, JNU?!

I could be wrong but that article seems to be dripping with sarcasm. If you take it literally the joke might be on you.

[hnair]

Rahul M, was off for a while, but no worries on our earlier exchange. Thought it was solely aimed at me

Anyways, regarding IPL like league not able to groom the poorer, I am saying it is a good start and a good model for Indian realities. We should have Grade A national leagues like IPL, Grade B at the state level and Grade C at the school/varsity level. Rather than the current Ranji format of states and their state sponsored teams, we could have Grade B teams from all states duking it out. If there are rich B and C teams in the neighbourhood, we will certainly find talent spotters scouring all the galis and lanes of India.

I had observed, help organize and participated in martial arts tournaments in US. Some of them range from small school organized affairs to vast University level trans-Am events with even an odd foreign team or two. The thing that drives these segments of sport are purely private enterprise. There is vast money to be made in running schools with affiliations to regulatory bodies (again private), merchandise sales, seminar circuits, training books/DVDs, personal training to rich/serious practitioners, PPV fights etc. Then there are the fringe masters who do private security work, choreography etc Same approach of money driven, but slightly different models exist for fencing, rowing (rowing clubs), cycling and snow events. I see them having crisis during economic downturns, but they come up with innovative methods to keep the public interest. Quite a good model to replicate in India too.

The Koreans are the best adapters I have seen in promoting their native arts. They do not have any qualms about evolving TKD, unlike the stuck up Gurukkal/Asans of Kalaripayattu that I came across (as recent as two weeks back ). I have seen teams perform what the SKoreans call a "creative group form" in Taekwondo. It is basically Bollywood dancing with lots of clapping and some good aerial kicks. Total time pass, but from talking to a couple of their university students and PYTs, it is apparently the rage in Korea (and increasingly in US). And best of all, this revered Grand Master I was with, he was totally enjoying this apparent distortion of a martial art. No puritan outrage etc. I had seen Kavalam Narayana Panicker, a revered drama pioneer, being hauled over coals because he incorporated Kalari moves in drama/ballet. But Jackie Chan, who was trained in Peking Opera is looked upon by these same critics of the Kalari community. Lots has to change over here.

So yeah, there are umpteen ways to Indianise a sport and have fun. And ultimately the people have to sign in to the concept. And the easiest way for that is to help them make some money out of it, instead of doling it into the pockets of Juan Samaranch, Bernie Ecclestone or Sepp Blatter. A lesson that is lost with the chinese politburo.

As I always mentioned, Olympics is cliche and worn out. This is my take: Baron de Coubertin was competing with Buffalo Bill Cody, Barnum and Houdini type carnies for public attention with his "fastest, highest, strongest" rhetoric. Even then public dint bite. The events were never as entertaining to the modern masses as much as they are a battleground for national masturbation. But World Wars and Cold-war changed all that. IOC became rich by selling coldwar rivalries around (same way that ICC became rich by selling Indo-Pak rivalry) the world. Why am I cynical? Because at different times they sold the Olympics differently - "revival of a tradition of the forefathers of Western civiliziation - Greece", "league of nations", "anti-fascist", "cold-war battleground", "humble background to podium" etc etc. Typical Surf-Ultra campaigns.

But post-Cold war, the babus of the world govts have decided that they dont need to maintain H&D and cut budgets. Hence the euro-based robber barons of three letter sporting entities are scrambling to make the games fun (and plunder the now rich Indians and chinese). That is why they are trying to peddle X-Games maal like BMX, crazy boys doing neck breaking stunts gives the hots to teenage girls in west. Same reason why beach volleyball is an event(geez!). sex. Soon they will have skate boarding, womens boogie-boarding(Singha, have you seen the brazilians? meaoww!), bikini hockey etc. We should always ask "what about aam admi?". What will *WE* earn from Olympics, other than "40 billion dollars comes pouring in" spin that Samaranch's org tries to sell?

World cant even protest in peace because "Olympics" gets disrupted and the oiropeans gets angry. Geez!

[Nayak]

China's gold medals came at a high price

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-fg-har ... 7697.story

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 26, 2008
BEIJING -- If anybody feels a pang of jealousy over China's haul of Olympic gold medals, they need only pause to consider what the athletes went through to get them.

The only mother on China's team, Xian Dongmei, told reporters after she won her gold medal in judo that she had not seen her 18-month-old daughter in one year, monitoring the girl's growth only by webcam. Another gold medalist, weightlifter Cao Lei, was kept in such seclusion training for the Olympics that she wasn't told her mother was dying. She found out only after she had missed the funeral.

Chen Ruolin, a 15-year-old diver, was ordered to skip dinner for one year to keep her body sharp as a razor slicing into the water. The girl weighs 66 pounds.

"To achieve Olympic glory for the motherland is the sacred mission assigned by the Communist Party central," is how Chinese Sports Minister Liu Peng put it at the beginning of the Games.

The contrast couldn't be greater than between the Chinese and U.S. athletes. In their post-match interviews, the Americans rambled on about their parents, their siblings, their pets, their hobbies. They repeatedly used the word fun. Shawn Johnson, the 16-year-old gymnast, waxed enthusiastic about the classes she'll take when she returns to her public high school in West Des Moines, Iowa.

The Chinese athletes generally don't have pets or hobbies. Or brothers or sisters (since most are products of China's one-child policy).

While many U.S. team members hauled their parents to Beijing, most Chinese parents had to settle for watching the Games on television. Chinese athletes train up to 10 hours a day, and even the children have only a few hours a day for academic instruction.

"You have no control over your own life. Coaches are with you all the time. People are always watching you, the doctors, even the chefs in the cafeteria. You have no choice but to train so as not to let the others down," gymnast Chen Yibing told Chinese reporters last week after winning a gold medal on the rings. He said he could count the amount of time he'd spent with his parents "by hours . . . very few hours."

The Chinese sports system was inspired by the Soviet Union. Whereas many U.S. athletes have ambitious parents to nurture their talents, China's future champions are drafted as young children for state-run boarding schools. Scouts trawl through the population of schoolchildren for potential champions, plucking out the extremely tall for basketball, the slim and double-jointed for diving -- regardless of whether they know how to swim.

"I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but they said pingpong was right for me," said Lu Lu, a 20-year-old player at the Xuanwu Sports Academy in Beijing.

After Beijing was chosen in 2001 to host this summer's Games, China's sports authorities launched Project 119 (after the number of medals available in track and field, canoeing, sailing, rowing and swimming that were not Chinese strengths) and assigned promising young athletes to focus exclusively on these sports, some of which they'd never heard of.

The final tally gave China 51 gold medals to the United States' 36, and although the Americans won more medals overall (110 to 100), the statistics allowed the Chinese government to claim victory for what Liu called its "scientific" methods.

"The sports systems of the United States and China are very accurate metaphors for our societies. China is a society run by engineers, based on planning and coordination and central planning," said Jamie Metzl, executive vice president of the New York-based Asia Society and an Ironman triathlete. "The state is the supreme entity and the role of the individual is to support the state.

"Truth be told, this old Soviet system works. If you are going to scan the whole population of 1.3 billion for a certain body type and then throw vast resources into training them, you will produce champions."

But the costs are higher than many Westerners would tolerate. China is suspected using 14-year-old gymnasts and falsifying their ages to get around a rule designed to protect girls' health during the transition into puberty. In sports where younger athletes are permitted, they often take risks that elsewhere would be unacceptable.

"It's too dangerous," diving coach Zhou Jihong said to a Chinese newspaper, speaking of the extreme diet that kept his 15-year-old athlete at 66 pounds. "She has superhuman willpower."

Chinese athletes, particularly women, tend to be much thinner than their Western counterparts. Guo Jingjing, a gold medalist in diving who weighs 108 pounds, pointed out as much rather ungraciously when she referred to competitor Blythe Hartley as "the fat Canadian." The 5-foot-5 Hartley weighs 123 pounds.

Guo, 27, suffers from health problems related to diving and is said to have such bad eyesight she can barely see the diving board. It is a common hazard for Chinese divers, who are recruited as young as 6.

"Divers who start at an early age before the eye is fully developed have great chance for injuries," said Li Fenglian, doctor for the Chinese national diving team. She published a study last year reporting that 26 of 184 divers on the team had retina damage.

Despite the validation provided by the Olympic medal count, China is probably heading in the direction of a more open system where the athletes have more freedom. Having tasted celebrity and the wealth it can bring, many athletes have balked at remaining in a system where they are treated like rank-and-file soldiers.

More sophisticated Chinese are also mindful that being an Olympic superpower doesn't necessarily translate into world dominance. The 1988 Olympics in Seoul were a huge triumph for the Soviet Union and East Germany, which won 55 and 37 gold medals, respectively.

By the time the next Olympics took place in 1992, both countries were defunct.

[email protected]

Angelina Qu, Nicole Liu and Eliot Gao of The Times' Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.

[Nayak]

Other Voices: Chinese ponder life after Olympics

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/olympics/ ... ces26.html

By MARK KISZLA
THE DENVER POST

BEIJING -- Sliding her tiny camera through a gap in the 10-foot-tall security fence, a young Chinese woman sighed with disappointment and snapped a photo of the Bird's Nest, where the Summer Games went out in a blaze of fireworks.

"No more Olympics," 21-year-old Hong Hong said. "What do we do now?"

Good question.

After staging the 2008 Games in which the venues were $40 billion of drop-dead gorgeous, buses ran on time and protesters were hauled away to jail, where does China go from here?

For Hong, who got no closer to the Olympics than a spot on the sidewalk after the torch was extinguished, it is back to the cramped tenement flat she shares with a half-dozen young workers trying to scratch out a living in a country where capitalism and communism both rule.

What we saw from the Beijing Olympics was exactly what the Chinese government carefully planned the world to see, although the truth is these games were not a complete picture of China any more than Disney World accurately depicts how America lives.

To think the host country might have falsified the ages of female gymnasts to win gold is disturbing, just as the ugly fact that U.S. citizens who spoke out in the capital city for a free Tibet were sentenced to 10 days of detention reminded us that sports are never a panacea for real-world problems.

But to dismiss the 2008 Olympics as nothing more than one big, elaborate lie is a cop-out by Western visitors who did not bother to take a serious peek behind the "cultural walls" erected to hide the grittier side of Beijing.

"How big is your house?" Hong asked a new friend from Colorado, while searching her wallet for a $5 bill of U.S. currency she keeps as a souvenir. "America rich, China poor."

As the games came to a close, Chinese official Chen Jian bragged the Olympics played a major role in a 12 percent annual growth rate for the local economy.

But not everybody got rich.

Hong works seven days a week as a waitress in a restaurant. Her paycheck is $125 a month.

Part of a new Chinese generation migrating to the cities and rejecting the rural existence that had defined her country for generations, Hong lives in one of Beijing's disappearing hutongs, narrow-alley old neighborhoods rapidly being eaten by towering apartments that rise into the smog.

A toddler back in 1989, she views Tiananmen Square as the place where supermodel Cindy Crawford stopped traffic during the Olympics, rather than the location that "Tank Man" made infamous 19 years ago in the wake of a deadly government attack on protesters, many of whom were no older than Hong is now.

Although China toppled the United States from atop the leaderboard in the Olympic gold medal count, young Beijing entrepreneur Zeng Zhe insists the U.S. should not fear being chased down as an economic world power in the near future. His countrymen are defenseless against three great American heroes: Mickey Mouse, Ronald McDonald and Superman.

"Do you remember the movie 'Superman Returns'?" Zeng asked. "There is a scene where Lex Luthor says, 'If you control technology, you control the world.' China is one giant, efficient factory. But America still controls the technology."

So we can sleep easy, with the confidence in knowing we remain stronger and faster than China, whether you're talking swimming legend Michael Phelps or computer wizard Steve Jobs.

After Phelps won gold eight times, Olympic volunteer Zheng Yangpeng wanted to hear about the frenzy back in the States, then told me: "Americans are not very interested in the world, China or any other country, because America believes it is the center of the world."

If bringing the Summer Games to China did anything, maybe it made us briefly pay more attention to a nation whose potential is as large as basketball star Yao Ming.

On the final night of the Summer Games, Hong reached into her handbag to show off a prized possession recently purchased with her earnings as a waitress. She pulled out a thick paperback book.

"A dictionary. American words and what they mean in Chinese," Hong said. "I read it every morning."

Think what you will of the Chinese government, but the people of China want to speak our language.

Are we listening?

[Singha]

two large dysfunctional insular countries with a chip on their shoulder, a sense of entitlement and cultural superiority, founded on a sea of blood and rapine, maintained on a carpet of
lies and exploitation, ruled by elite inbred oligarchies, deep resentment for anyone beating
them at anything, too clever by half, ruthless and dismissive with who they perceive as
weaker, egoistic to the extreme, amoral by nature, deep sense of jealousy...

reminds me of marvel comics gods and dark gods. there are wonderful duels between people
like Thor and Perrikus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perrikus

another guy we can love:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desak