Kudos to Abhinav Bindra, Sushil kumar and Vijendra kumar to win the most coveted medals for India in the Beijing Olympics. These three individuals were unheralded and their performance was indeed a welcome surprise. While several Indian sportsperson flattered to deceive there were noteworthy achievements. Three boxers, one badminton player and the tennis doubles team made it to the quarterfinals. Only one boxer made the next grade while the others fell one round short of a medal. The last time India won two medals in Olympics was in 1952 at Helsinki. It's been more than a generation's gap till then. This is the maximum number of medals India has won at a single Olympics and the first instance of India winning two Olympic medals in a single day.

While India is nowhere close to the existing sporting superpowers like China and the United States. India should take heart from the fact that a country like China, which is still a developing country, has excelled at the Olympics. While a democratic country like India cannot replicate the tactics of authoritarian states, there is a ray of hope. With increasingly better infrastructure and facilities available to Indian sportspersons India is bridging the gap with the sporting powers.

The young badminton player Saina who lost a closely fought contest in the quarterfinals is a future medal hope. One hopes the cash prizes awarded to the medal winners in the current Olympics will spur them to win medals in future Olympics. Even the corporate sector, which heavily favors cricket, has started paying attention to the other neglected sports. The Olympic sportspersons now enjoy the support of both the fickle politicians and the Indian public. With better coaching and hard work India can be one of the major sporting powers of the world.

Let the Indian public enjoy cricket but not at the expense of other sports. If we can do well in cricket so can we in other sports.

China's creditable success in Olympics is a stark contrast to the poor performance of a country with an almost same huge population like India. Sporting success is a national priority in China. They begin young. Kids are identified for their aptitude in different sports at the tender age of three. They are isolated from their families and sent to special sport schools. There exist all the requisite sports infrastructure and experienced trainers to train and guide them. They follow a specialized diet. They practice vigorously for several hours a day for years.

The sportspersons are given all possible encouragement and incentives. They are sent to the Olympics as polished products. It is probable that Chinese sportspersons might be using performance-enhancing drugs. But without concrete evidence this is speculation. They are replicating the success of the erstwhile East Germany. They have the potential to top the table at the Beijing Olympics.

India would do well to invest the needed money for Olympic success. Generally in India only after a sportsperson achieves some success he is offered financial assistance. Like China we should start identifying talent when young. We should get over the national obsession of cricket and give all sports the due respect. Foreign coaches could be hired to impart training. Else we could send Indian coaches abroad to get trained.