Why are India so rubbish at the Olympics?

[gunneradt]

Actually, its the Pakistanis who are really good at it. I could have sworn Jahangir Khan was Indian but apparently not.

GB very strong at squash - not an Indian or Pakistani in the worlds top 10 - unless they've all defected to Egypt

http://www.worldsquash.org/ws/?page_id=1706

 

[1927]

Perhaps they don't have a national lottery.

And just who decided that UK lottery money could be redirected to sports instead of the other worthy causes that it had been funding!?

This was one of the founding principles of the lottery.

 

[Big Gunz]

On the flipside who wants to pick a sparsly populated country and represent them in Rio? I'd expect you'd have to fund your own training/ hotels/ flights though. I'm picking Antartica, going to enter myself in the following sports for a laff: 100m, 200m, 400, 800m, 1500m, 5km, 10km, 3km steeplechase, K1, C1 er anything else I can try?

 

[alsoknownas]

kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi,etc...

 

[zippyRN]

At a guess I'd say a total lack of investment in sport beyond Cricket, which is pretty mujch the only game in town. India produces some good Hockey teams I think.

and kabaddi isn't an olympic sport ...

 

[zippyRN]

Maybe their jerseys are heavier because they have so many letters in their names

the Sri Lankans would really suffer there

 

[Giles]

Its not just the Olympics, though.

Cricket aside, you don't see many Indian sportsmen and women at top levels in most sports and games.

Some of this can be put down to most people being desperately poor, and lack of facilities and support, but not all.

Different cultural attitudes to sport and fitness generally? I dunno....

Giles..

 

[twistedAM]

Has anyone said yet that maaybe some countries don't really give a fuck about the Olympics and much as the big powers plus GB and Australia do?

 

[UrbaneFox]

Maybe their jerseys are heavier because they have so many letters in their names

I thought they were all called Khan, which would be terribly confusing for commentators.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

It reflects the Western framework of the whole Olympic movement coupled with India never being one of the Communist bloc states who tried to compete within it, so only recently begun getting on board. At a guess.

Japan does ok.

 

[JimW]

Japan does ok.

Brought into the Western world during the US occupation as its chief client in East Asia.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Brought into the Western world during the US occupation as its chief client in East Asia.

India: colony of the British Empire.

 

[JimW]

India: colony of the British Empire.

Yep, so entirely a different relationship. And after writing the previous post, thought about the entire western turn in Japan from the Meiji Restoration on.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Yep, so entirely a different relationship. And after writing the previous post, thought about the entire western turn in Japan from the Meiji Restoration on.

I think India mostly marches to its own tune.

 

[scifisam]

What I find odd is that india's doing so badly when kazakhstan is doing so well, despite having the same disadvantages as india and being a fair bit poorer.