WHY WE DO NOT PRODUCE OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALISTS

[hks2056]

Hi Everyone
I often wonder why we cant win gold medal in shooting sports in Olympics. I found the real answer today.[Some of you might already know the answer] Here is the text of interview of Kim Rhodes the gold medalist in London Olympics taken from an online magazine:-

""""
Kim Rhode has become an American Olympic staple. Among her most significant accomplishments, she has won Olympic gold three times (1996, 2004 and 2012), silver (2008) and a bronze medal (2000). In 2012, she set out to do something no other Olympic athlete has ever done: medal in five consecutive Olympic games, and in doing so, is helping to bring the shooting sports to the forefront of worldwide attention.
[A]How did you first get into shooting? ___________
I don’t remember the first time I ever shot a gun, but I was very little—and very, very small. I can remember sitting on a lawn chair and dad helping me to hold the gun and take down the recoil. And I remember my first limit of doves. I started competing at 10 years old. A lot of people don’t realize that I started in the junior NRA programs shooting smallbore .22, but I eventually took up shooting a shotgun. I was maybe 12 or 13 when I first earned a spot by shooting bunker trap out at Prado. I won the match and earned the right to go to the Junior Olympic Training Program. Then I got a call that I was ineligible because of my age. I was very upset and decided that I was going to do this. I went to the American Championship for American Skeet, and Lloyd Woodhouse—the Olympic coach—was there. He saw me compete, and I won the World title. He said, “We’ll make an exception if your mother comes with you.” It was from there that I was introduced to the International styles.
Do you practice with the same load you shoot with?__________
Yes, I use the same Winchester International load. I used to shoot a special reload using all Winchester components and went into shooting the International load that they now produce. It has the most developed shells Winchester has ever made.
[C]How often do you practice?______________
Up until recently, I’ve been shooting every single day, seven days a week. I would average anywhere between 500 and 1,000 rounds a day.
[D]Do you have any rituals ahead of a competition?_______________
About the only thing I’ll do on the morning of a competition is that I’ll turn on the cold water for a shower to wake myself up. I’ve been doing this since I was a little kid. We do so much traveling and competing overseas that when there’s a time change I’m usually competing when I’d otherwise be asleep.
[E]What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?____________
Choose your friends wisely. I think that’s a great one. You want people around you that will build you up and help you through thick and thin. Those who you consider your true friends. I can truly say that I have amazing friends and family. When I’m gone for three months, I can come home and pick up where I left off. When you’re down, those people know what to say, and when you’re up they know what you need to hear.""""""""


From the above answers it is clear that two things are totally absent in India:-
1] To take up shooting sport from the age of 13 or 14 because of our excessively restrictive laws on firearms.Wider aspirants are automatically ruled out because without very long pockets and resources no one will get you the weapon and ammo.
2] Less than .001 percent of Indians have wherewithal to afford shooting 500-1000 cartridges a day along with associated range expenditure and support.Those who have wherewithal to do so are either the ruling politicians or very rich industrialists in the descending order. While politicians are over busy in the politics and industrial giants are over busy with their money making then obviously they take no personal interest in picking up this sport.Some of them might have tried but due to lack of talent did not succeed and hence never came forward.
So the obvious moral of the story is that we will continue to miss gold in Olympics.Our present day international shooters do not have resources and opportunity like Kim Rhodes to fine tune their talent and stay in shape.How sad that we don`t have a `Winchester` in India.In India the talent and resources are poles apart and will continue to remain so for foreseeable future.

ANY AND ALL THOUGHTS ARE WELCOME

[xl_target]

Our present day international shooters do not have resources and opportunity like Kim Rhodes to fine tune their talent and stay in shape.

Isn't that true of every sport in India.

Once a sportsman/woman reaches a certain level of competence, they can get corporate sponsors but for the vast majority of aspirants, there are no facilities or opportunities. Other countries spend billions of dollars to nurture their sportsmen and women. It is very hard to compete with that. It is amazing that with such a large population, we are not able to produce more people who can compete on an International level.

[Vassili Zaitsev]

Really surprising when I see all the Indian athletes do exceptionally well in all the other events and except in the Olympics. Please see as an example of the Indian shooting team and archery team. They won in World championship and in the archery team we have World rank 1 archer but they fail to qualify in the preliminary rounds.
I personally don’t think it is the equipment or the sponsors are the main reason to get medals in Olympics. Population is more in China than in India but they have established themselves well in the world sports.

Let’s not blame the Indian politics and bureaucracy every time as an excuse to cover your own failure.Our sportsmen cannot recreate the history as many other countries can do. Rathore and Bindra are now not in the qualifying list of the games.
India was never a sporting nation so let us be happy whatever we are getting in the Olympics.
Next Olympics very few athletes who won medals this year will be able to win medals and maybe we shall have new faces to bring us glory and finish 50th or 60th in the meal tally.
Countries like Kazakhstan (6 gold and 3 bronze, rank 11), Iran (4 golds, 4silvers and 1 bronze rank 14), Belarus, Kenya, Ethiopia(2 gold 2 bronzes, rank 31) can win medals and it is hard to imagine what kind of facilities they may be giving to their players…

[Rajat]

Good to know your point of view Vassili but we do not think alike. You might have a point but that's about it and its not all that goes into it.

[sowmiyamoorthy]

Dear Vassili
In India CRICKET is the only sports people and government like.Our national game is Hockey but today its in worst position.Same way the sports person who get Olympic medal in India fail to improve in next Olympic because the fame and money sponsor close their eyes.For example who ever got medal in last Olympic vanish this time.
Every country have hope that we should enter in top 10 medal position.But in India we pray at least one bronze India should get.Don't think about sports in India.If your rich and has political support then you can choose any sports in India.Simple to join in rifle club you have to pay at least 50k and then firearm license man you have to run behind all government officials to sanction the licence and bribe them.So my advice is BE INDIAN AND PROUD TO BE A INDIAN

Sowmi

[drifter]

Dear Vassili,

I do not agree with you, I have particapated in national level sports for a perod of 7 years quite successfuly not in the feild of shooting sports though, it was a sad state of affairs when it came to the involvement of the government. Simple things like permissions and paperwork were always a nightmare for the organisers, events getting cancelled because of lack of govt permission in the last minute, it was always a turn off for current and potential sponsors. Buying good equipment which are expensive for events was always a problem because of the import duties and etc.

Regards,
drifter.

[Vassili Zaitsev]

We are all proud to be an Indian and about the nation.

What I want to say , there are many poor country than India where they face civil war and other natural calamities more than we face but still they are aboe to win Gold for their country. In our country the champions just get vanished in the next Olympics.

Kindly have a look in the famous trap shooter profile in the link below and see just before the Olympics his performance was its pick and he was a main gold aspirant for us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronjan_Sodhi

this is just an example of what I meant. You may search for other names as well.

They do very well in the World Championship and other Global event but when it comes to Olympics they fail to deliver...

[Skyman]

Hockey is not our national game.And we don't win because nobody cares enough to put in the required effort to succeed at the top.Officials with the power to change this don't care if we win or lose.

How many dads in this country will let their kids shoot when they are ten, with an ammo quota of 50 rounds?

Hell, my dad doesn't think i can ride a bike even though i have a license.It was my cousin brother who took the time and effort to teach me when i was ten.An RX100 at ten, what a thrill it was!!! Even today, parents don't believe in kids, how can they chase dreams?

It is only when parents realise there is more to life than a good job and a good house, can people not have either and chase their dreams

[sowmiyamoorthy]

Hockey is not our national game.And we don't win because nobody cares enough to put in the required effort to succeed at the top.Officials with the power to change this don't care if we win or lose.

How many dads in this country will let their kids shoot when they are ten, with an ammo quota of 50 rounds?

Hell, my dad doesn't think i can ride a bike even though i have a license.It was my cousin brother who took the time and effort to teach me when i was ten.An RX100 at ten, what a thrill it was!!! Even today, parents don't believe in kids, how can they chase dreams?

It is only when parents realise there is more to life than a good job and a good house, can people not have either and chase their dreams

Dear Skyman
Which country you belong too ? Who told you hockey is not a national game of India

Sowmi

[Pritu79]

hks2056 & xl_target i agree with you'll, India does have tremendous potential and will surely win medals in the years to come. I would say that because, when i was in school i really did not know if an shooting club existed and if there was an opportunity for getting into shooting sport (though i was bought up with guns) and I guess this would apply to most 15-20 years back. Though clubs did exist scarcely then, no one ventured since there was not that much of awareness about shooting sport. But now it’s a different story, if you go to most of the shooting ranges you’ll see small kids who can barely lift these weapons practicing at 10mts and their parents encouraging them. The government too is coming out of Victorian laws at a snails pace which has made a difference.

For the other point of view, which may be statistically correct, but would surely offend most shooters.
Competitive shooting sport is no rocket science, which some other nation has cracked and we do not have the ability to do so. Any person with enough practice can become a marksman and win medals. I feel it is practice that we lack or rather cant afford, as compared to other nations ammo and equipment for beginners comes at an hefty premium. I compete in 300mt big bore event which is quiet expensive, though this is not an Olympic event. At first 60 shots sounds like a walk in a park but when fatigue sets in just after half way through due to lack of practice you start wiping your smile off looking at the target. Its like an endurance race the more you run in practice the more stamina you build and in shooting the more you practice the better you are at enduring the fatigue.

[Skyman]

India has no national game.That was the reply given to an rti.We have a national flower,bird etc but no national game.Hockey is presumed to be our national game.A common error.

If only i had a dollar for everytime i heard hockey was the national game, I'd have a 73 Carrera RS 2.7 by now.

[Bhargav]

Well I don't blame the country neither I blame the financial condition or anything but the only reason India has never been a sports performing country is because of our society and academic infrastructure.

I blame it on our schools and colleges who do not give importance to sports and we do not have scholarships based on sports. I remember when I was in school, we use to play kho-kho during our PT (Physical training) periods. And then when I joined college, there was absolutely nothing on the sports side.

If you compare other countries, I don't know much about other countries but I can speak of the US, they have sports deeply rooted in their education system. The athletes get facilities, sponsorship and full educational scholarship from universities and schools which encourages them to continue.

In the US, the schools have their teams and the teams have their mascots. The schools have teams in many sports like softball, swimming, shooting, Trap, football, basketball and rugby. The schools have regular matches with other schools and other school districts, this develops the wish to win. These students when become very good in games and when they join their college teams, they are directly picked up from there for national teams...

Do we have this infrastructure in our schools and colleges ? No.

I guess most of our athletes try to enter sports when they actually start making some money .. coz while in school they will not be able to afford it...

I have studied in India as well as in the US and after studying in the US I have understood that most of the work that a kid does in our schools today is donkey work. I would say 65% of the students just do the donkey work to make their parents happy and the parents just check the scores.. and that's about it. .. Ah I don't want to get into this topic... back to original topic.

And some blame also goes to cricket or I should say cricket lovers and the media that creates hype, this game has shadowed all games in India.

[timmy]

I understand what you all are saying, and follow your points. But is it really a big deal? It isn't to me. All through school and way into my adult life, it was: "Crusaders brought chemistry and algebra from the Arabs," which is true. But it wasn't until I started digging around in this stuff myself that I found out that the Arabs had gotten these sciences from India. And then, there's the architecture, the arts, literature...

India doesn't have to take a back seat to any nation when it comes to achievement. The games are nice and some of the events are fun to watch, but a lot of it is political. I love boxing, and the boxing is so hideous I can't bear to watch it. The whole notion of amateur and professional is skewed, and the games back in ancient times never were the amateur thing that these modern games represent -- less and less. Commercialism and politics play too much of a part in the Olympics, I think.

So I understand it when some folks feel as if there's a party going on and they're not a big part of it. But there's a lot more to life than the Olympics!

I say, send Rajinikanth to the next one, and he'll whup them all!

[sowmiyamoorthy]

Dear Timmy
You are 100% right next Olympic from Chennai Mr Rajinikanth will represent India.In a movie he run along with the bullet which was shot from villain gun and run before the bullet and gets it in his shoulder before it kills his sister.So am dam sure he will SCREW THE BOLT in 100m and 200m.
In skeet shooting confirm he gets Gold because he can lighten a cigarette throwing in air and shooting it with IOF pistol .

Sowmi

[Rajat]

I understand what you all are saying, and follow your points. But is it really a big deal? It isn't to me. All through school and way into my adult life, it was: "Crusaders brought chemistry and algebra from the Arabs," which is true. But it wasn't until I started digging around in this stuff myself that I found out that the Arabs had gotten these sciences from India. And then, there's the architecture, the arts, literature...

Your post is well taken and in good spirit. Thanks for the encouragement.

You were planning a trip to India. What happened?
Until you come here and LIVE here you wont know what we are talking about. You seem to be well versed with India and its culture etc etc but you really need some practical experience to go with it.

True, India was what you say it was. We all know and agree with this but this is history. Is it good enough that we talk about the golden era and bask in its bygone glory. All that was?

I am not even concerned about the Olympics here.

What about the present? Where are we going now? No, I do not underestimate my fellow Indians. Given a chance they perform very well and do not lack talent. But do you know the hurdles an average man has to cross in his daily life just to get what is his basic right? After all this a person is just plain exhausted.

Sorry, I do not want to go on with my ramblings. I respect you for your knowledge and appreciate the time you give this forum, please do not take this on a personal level. This was not my intention.