Siddharth Kher

How’s it going everybody, we are back another episode on Sportified. With me Sid Kher, Sid Pandey as always with me. And today, like we promised you the last time, we’re going to be chatting all about the Indian contingent at Tokyo 2020 in 21 Sid, get them off

Siddharth Pandey

Sid its a pleasure to be here discussing what else but the greatest show on earth, it’s upon us and India’s finest are headed to Tokyo. In this show we are going to discuss in depth India’s contingent, our athletes, our chances at Tokyo in each event where we stand to win a medal, we are going to do our own analysis on grace notes virtual medal tally, we’re going to talk about where the medals are going to come from, where they should have come from, but won’t be coming from we’re going to talk about a few exits in Indian sports curtain call for a few athletes, and a lot more. So Sid let’s get going.

Siddharth Kher

Where do we start from? Well, let’s just say, um, well what about the first Indian medal. Yeah.Now, let’s think about we just started this a while back. And to sum it up from 1950, or 50 to 52, I think from 1952. To the 2016 Rio Olympics, India’s medal tally has been 14. All right. And between 1952 and 1996. That was the gap from the first to the second medal. Now, here’s the here’s where things get a little bit crazy. As Sid mentioned earlier, grace note has come out and made a prediction that India stands to win 17 medals at the Olympics. So just let that sink in for a minute. From 1952 to 2016. We’ve won 14. But now our contingent is on the verge of possibly 70 Sid. Are they messing with us?

Siddharth Pandey

No it doesnt seem they are messing with us. But the other numbers that you put out, which are not your numbers. Obviously history is witness to these events and these medals that India has won the first one was won by KD Jadhav. And when Sid Kher said 14 medals from 1952 to 2016. He meant 14 medals minus hockey, or medals that came apart from those that were won in hockey. So just to tell our listeners who are not quite aware or may not be aware of what grace note is, Gracenote is actually a Nielsen subsidiary. The virtual medal tally by grace note is prepared based on results that the athletes have achieved in previous Olympics World Cups and World Championships. Now, this virtual medal tally also comes with a time factor. You know, so recent events and recent performances by these athletes have more weightage than events that have taken place a long time ago. Right? Exciting, it is very, very exciting that these algorithms if not anything more, it is statistical data. It is data that is fed into computers that throw out these results. According to this, India is going to win 17 medals minus hockey minus hockey. Yeah, we will come to that. We’ll come to that when we do a deep dive into India’s medal hopes in our contingent, but these 17 medals is not only going to be better, we’re not only going to better our all time medal tally, from all the medals that we won minus hockey from 1952 to 2016. But it’s going to be a plus 15 from Rio. Yeah, that is an unbelievable jump on that virtual medal Tally. Also, if we win 17 medals, India would have been the sixth biggest improvement in terms of countries winning medals from Rio to Tokyo. So the sixth biggest improvement by any country would be that of India, Netherlands leads the biggest improvement. But India will be sixth on that Tally. To win nothing between 52 and 1996 when we underbase won the bronze in the men’s singles at Atlanta to win another bronze in Sydney. Improve that a little bit in Athens Finally we did much much better and you know, we won three medals in Beijing, but there were Others at the margins who could have also won medals, very close margins. In fact, Akhil Kumar Saina Nehwal we did even better, there was a double, there was a jump in London a significant jump. We significantly under achieved in Rio, most of our athletes most of our Federation cirio as a blip. Now, this has been our history, it’s been an underwhelming history in the Olympic Games, to go from there to win all of a sudden, around 17 medals at Tokyo, that is just going to be life changing for athletes game changing for Indian sport, and I was just going to send everybody into an absolute frenzy.

Siddharth Kher

Yeah. And I mean, the only thing that I’d want to come out, I mean, and like you rightly said, if we do manage to pull this off, or get anywhere even close to it, like no pressure. I mean, come on 17 Let’s get 15 that’s cool. But what that will do is flip the face of Indian sports. And that’s what we’ve said, with Sportified. That’s what we want eventuality. And eventually, is that Indian sports, sees a flipside, a betterment more athletes, athletes get more encouraged, maybe that these games that are being questioned in the situations and amongst the situations that they’re being held? It might just turn around and have a Flipside to at all?

Siddharth Pandey

Absolutely. There is no doubt about that. And as I said, you know, game changing for Indian sport, I think people like me who have played Olympic sports, field hockey being my sport, that is my background, we’ve been waiting for a big Olympic Games, we thought it would have been Rio, but for various reasons. It was not to be anyhow, heading to Tokyo. And, yeah, going straight into what we believe the medals will come from where they will come from. One thing is for certain Sid, if India is to get anywhere close to that number, that grace note has put out, the heavy lifting in the Indian contingent, as far as medal goes, will have to be done by our shooters. They have to be on song in Tokyo, if India has to get anywhere near that number of 17.

Siddharth Kher

Yeah, I mean, and yeah, without wasting any more time, I think. Let’s let’s just jump right into the prediction that grace note has made. And let’s just take it from there

Siddharth Pandey

sure grace note says that Indian shooting is going to win eight medals. But before we get into Tokyo, I really want us to rewind a little bit and start from Rio. Rio was a debacle. For Indian shooting and for a lot of other Indian sports as well. But for Indian shooting, especially coming on the back of the London Olympic Games, a lot of people were expecting many, many more medals coming through shooting which did not quite happen. Credit here and credit where credit’s due, you know, a lot of Federation gets they get a lot of Brickbats some of it deserved, some of it not quite deserved. But again, credit where credit’s due the NRA, the NIH National Rifle Association of India and its head Raninder Singh, have done an unbelievable job since Rio, and I’ll tell you what they’ve done. As soon as they the contingent came back from Rio correctives were put in place. A four member committee was formed with no less than Abhinav Bindra as its head and it had two journalists amongst those four very senior journalists such as Digvijay Singh Deo though they had to go in depth into the performance of Indian shooters. Say what went wrong and chart out a map for the future. They put out a 38 page report which is a fascinating read. That report was implemented a new Junior Programme the most significant thing to come out of that report was a new Junior Programme in Indian shooting that came into place that was put into place. The second most significant thing was how Indian shooting has rehabilitated some of our previous stars such as Jaspal Rana back into coaching our juniors back into the coaching setup. The result of that is from Rio till Tokyo. We don’t have to depend or don’t have to look out for one Abhinav Bindra or one Gagan Narang or one Rajyavardhan Rathore. We stand to win medals in every shooting category. Every single day that the shooting event is held in Tokyo, India stands to win a medal. There is a chance that we will win a medal in every category where India has a shooter. That is the most significant thing that has happened in a Indian shooting and perhaps in Indian sport.

Siddharth Kher

What I mean and I think everyone or every sporting Association has to take a leaf out of that book, because having followed such a simple process, the ecosystem within the sport has changed in such a way, in such a short amount of time that we are actually looking or rather we could say we are being so confident that with every shooting event Now we could stand a chance. So, the thought of if if something like this is inculcated in every sort of Sports Association, we just don’t know what we might be on the fold of.

Siddharth Pandey

Absolutely, you know, I cannot agree and with people like Jasapl Rana in place, Sid, we’ve got Manu Bhaker, we’ve got Saurabh, we got Anjum, we’ve got Apurvi, the future of Indian shooting is just unbelievable. I’ve not even named the likes of Anish Bhanwala, Elavenil Valarivan, We’ve just got a host of shooters that are not just competing, but winning medals consistently in senior categories. Right now. Grace note says 8. If we get to 17 we’ve got to get these eight and more. Yeah, and a lot of people are seriously optimistic about our shooters. before the Olympics, we promised our listeners that we are going to get a special on shooting, we’ll get a guest who knows Indian shooting in depth. And we will talk about all our medal prospects in shooting in depth in just our shooting team. But right now, shooting looks fantastic credit to the NRAI. also credit to the way they handle the pandemic situation before I move on to another sport, it is important to note how they handle the pandemic situation how they took care of our athletes, how they saw to remember all our shooters qualify for Tokyo in 2019. Correct. You know, so they have not one year where they’ve had two years to prepare for it. Yeah. Now in the COVID pandemic situation we find found ourselves in a lot of athletes have been crying out for competition, but the shooters they’re flown out to Europe, flights were chartered to get them to Europe to have them compete at the European Championships. And the way the NRAI has gone about it all it has been quite spectacular. So credit to you guys at the NRAI and for our shooters Good luck to you all. This could be the biggest moment in Indian shooting in a very very long time.

Siddharth Kher

We’re here to Team Sportified is going to be rooting for you guys all our best energies go out to you. Well Sid quickly learned a lot of you know or some might some might not Sid has been closely associated with the Khelo India games and I’ve been waiting to ask him this question along your journey with the Khelo India games have you possibly had a chance to spot any of these superstars or have you watched any of them perform?

Siddharth Pandey

It’s it’s really a matter of pride for me Sid being a sports broadcaster to be associated with the Khelo India games our entire project to see people such as Manu Bhaker Saurabh Chaudhary live to see other shooters to see athletes Sri Hari Natarajan swimming and just I’m just taking names here straight off the bat that are coming into my mind straight off. It is amazing to see these youngsters who are full of hope full of passion. And you know 17 is not a crazy number because there are certain Federation’s in India not all there are doing a lot of things right now sticking with shooting for example. After the committee’s recommendations, the NRAI now spends 60% of its funds into the Junior Programme. So aware we had a few shooters in each category. Now we have hundreds of shooters coming through, especially from places such as Punjab, Chandigarh Delhi, along with, you know, places that were shooting hotspots such as Maharashtra and Mumbai you know, so we’ve just got hundreds in each category now, and I’ve seen the shooters front on so it’s just amazing how this is and yeah, you know, Khelo India gives me a sneak peek into what India’s future is. And it’s amazing to see these youngsters coming through such as Manu Bhaker such as Saurabh Chaudhary Sri Hari NatRaj and the others it’s quite amazing.

Siddharth Kher

So let’s so now that we’re done with that, what else where else the grace note so let’s get back to that prediction. We were We were eight with shooting. And I think what they say for four or five with boxes, you’re absolutely right, they

Siddharth Pandey

said four four in boxing, which is again, a very, very big number. Remember boxing borders, medals in Beijing. It got us medals in London. Just like shooting we Got no medals in Rio. But if they get for boxing, just like shooting is gonna be back literally with a bang. One of the medals they’re saying is going to be that of a certain 38 year old boxing legend from India called MC Mary Kom.

Siddharth Kher

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I think in our books, she will always go down as the goat. And as much as we’ve we’ve celebrated this journey of, of Mary’s and we’ve watched her punch her way through it. It’s also just a bit sad to think that this possibly could be her last Olympics, and I’m sure she wants about with the medal. no two ways about it. You know what Sid had this athlete this wonder, retired in 2010, 11 years ago, she would still have gone down in history as one of our greatest athletes, you know, make no doubt about it. To that decade. She’s added another brilliant decade of athletic performance. You know, the crowning glory, of course, is the medal that she won in London. What was great about that medal, you know, winning any medal at the Olympic Games of any colour is great. But for MC Mary Kom not a lot of people know that MC Mary Kom’s original weight category was actually 46 kilogrammes. That is what where she is to fight. There was no 46 kilogrammes at the Olympic Games. There was no 48 kilogrammes at the Olympic Games, there was no 50 kilogrammes at the Olympic Games. The starting weight category at the Olympic Games in London was 51 kilogrammes. A weight category in which MC Mary Kom had never competed had never competed. Credit again to her coaches to the high performance directors at the Indian boxing. She was taken from 48 first to around 49 46 to 49. I beg your pardon. It was then made 50 in 2011. And finally in the last year, they made her compete in the 51 kilogramme to go from 46 kilogrammes to 51 kilogrammes win a medal and consistently performed against boxers in a combat sport. who are bigger than you stronger than you strike harder than you. For me that’s unbelievable.

Siddharth Kher

Unreal towards the end of of it, it’s not like she did all of this or they were training right at the beginning. If it’s all at the beginning, it’s great. But when you’re when you when you’ve had 10 years of getting yourself beaten up along with beating other people up and then you start switching weight categories, man, I don’t think there’s there’s gonna be another one like oh, have you seen one of those to?

Siddharth Pandey

Well, it’s it’s really very, very big boots to fill. I’m really excited about some of our boxers coming through. But to compare every one of them at this stage in their career is just unfair to them. You know, it’s like comparing anybody to say a Sachin Tendulkar or Dhyanchand the answer is not it’s not possible. Right. These athletes come around once in a while and they take your breath away. Let me give you another stat on MC Mary Kom. Mary Kom is the only boxer male or female to have won a world 8 championship medals, eight medals at the World Championships. I’m talking about legends such as Cuba’s Felix Savon. She’s won more World Championship medals than Felix Savon, Felix Savon was known as The Muhammad Ali of amateur boxing. They were contemporaries and people wanted to see Savon and Ali fight. That never happened, unfortunately. But she’s in that league. Yeah, you know, and it’s, it’s just crazy. I mean, after the Olympic bronze medal, she has not stopped 2014 Asiad Gold 2016 she had a blip in Rio came back just like a champion would won the gold at CWG Asian boxing championship goal. And just a few weeks ago, she lost the final by a split decision otherwise she would have been the best boxer in Asia at 38 years of age. That’s just quite ridiculous. Apart from MC Mary Kom They have gone on and said we are going to win three more medals at Tokyo in boxing. I think they have missed a trick there. And I’ll tell you why. I think they have missed a trick there. Because they have missed out on one boxer who everybody in the Indian boxing scene is saying is going to win a medal I’m talking about Vikas Krishan Yadav Vikas Krishan Yadav is the last remaining boxer from our golden generation of boxers. The bunch of boxers that came post Athens I’m talking about Akhil Kumar, I’m talking about Vijender Singh, Jai Bhagwan, Neeraj Goyat, from that batch game Vikas Krishan Yadav,Vikas Krishan Yadav was actually roommates, which with Neeraj go out and It’s unbelievable how as yet he’s not won a medal. He’s that good. He really is that good. And if you speak to anybody in the boxing fraternity here in India, they are amazed at his physical conditioning right now. He is an amazing physical condition. He is going all guns blazing for that medal. Amit Pangal has been our most consistent boxer over the last two, three years. He’s been Well, number one, I think he still is world number one, he is hovering around that gold medal, which is massive. He’s hovering around that gold medal. Chances are that he’s going to get it. He needs to have a very, very good Olympic Games goes without saying you don’t win an Olympic gold medal if you’re not spot on at the Olympic Games. But we are all very excited about Amit Pangal. But I think because Vikas Krishan Yadav is one of those metal contenders that not a lot of people are giving serious thought to so watch out for Vikas Krishan Yadav.You heard it first here first at Sportified.

Siddharth Kher

Thats just what I was gonna say,I was gonna say , a disclaimer. That’s the secret that you heard here first. So right so that’s it with shooting forward boxing that puts us at 12. What do you say next? Where we at?

Siddharth Pandey

Well, I think we should go to a sport where they have not predicted India will get a medal before we go back to our main learning or all our secrets first. Okay. Let’s do that. Let’s do that. Okay. And I think grace note really has missed a trick with the Indian men’s hockey team. And the Indian men’s hockey team they have missed a trick with because the Indian men’s hockey team last medalled at the Olympic Games. 41 years ago last year 2020 was the 40th anniversary of India’s last Olympic gold medal. We won it in Moscow.Mohammed Shahid,Vasudev Bhaskaran,Zafar Iqbal great team that won that Olympic gold back in Moscow. Since then, we’ve not not just not won a gold in Olympic hockey. We have not medalled in Olympic hockey, various reasons. There’s no need to get into that. I think right now. The Indian hockey team, the Indian men’s hockey team is a medal contender. And I’ll tell you why. Also, one of the reasons why grace note has not predicted India will win a medal is because when India finishes first, second, or third, or even fourth in our pool, which I don’t think is going to happen, I think India is going to finish first or second in our pool. The other pool has Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Belgium and Netherlands are going all guns blazing group of death. Yeah, it really is a group of death. Germany is not very far off from those two nations either. And they have a knack of hitting their best form at the Olympic Games. Yeah. So if we get out of a pool, second, third or fourth, we will be meeting one of Netherlands, Belgium or Germany and grace, note things we are going to lose that game. I don’t think so. We stumbled at the quarterfinals in Rio. I think we learned a lot from Rio, I think we learned a lot from the mistakes we’ve made in Rio. What we did wrong what we did right. And in the last two or three years, the Indian hockey team has been consistently winning against the best teams in the world. proof of that further proof of that game last month when we went to Argentina to play the FIH Pro League, Argentina being the defending champions, we went to Argentina played four games. The performances and the results were quite outstanding. So I think Finally, after 40 years, the Indian men’s hockey team, the Indian men’s hockey team will medal at this Olympic Games. I think they’re gonna go one step further, one step more than Rio and they’re going to make it to the semi finals. For the Indian women’s hockey team. I think Tokyo comes a little early. I think we’ve got a fantastic team. I am saying that we are a golden decade of hockey. women’s hockey is upon us. It’s going to be a great decade for Indian women’s hockey. Yeah, I think we are also going to be right up there with the medals for the Junior World Cup, the Women’s Junior World Cup which is coming up. So I think a great decade of Indian women’s hockey is upon us but Tokyo for this batch with eight, eight hockey players making their debut in the women’s team. Eight of them have never been to the Olympic Games. Remember, our team went to the 2016 Olympic Games again for the first time since Moscow. So that would not have been easy, right? I am of a firm opinion Siddharth that any high performance structure that is put in place takes 10 years to deliver results. For the men’s hockey team, we put a structure in place in 2010. Jose Brasa came in legend in coaching circles world over, we put a high performance structure in place, which now I feel finally is going to bear fruit. We are going to finally medal after 10 years. For the Indian women’s team, if I were to put a date to when a high performance culture was put into place, I’d put that date to 2014. And so we still a bit short, we are still a bit short. But still Fingers crossed, fingers crossed. Yeah. Shake off the pressure and just show up on the world stage.

Siddharth Pandey

You never know you never know. You know, Ireland were the second lowest ranked team and women’s hockey at the World Cup, the last Women’s World Cup, they went right to the finals and lost to the Dutch team. So in sport, you never know. The way Rani has led her team there is a whole bunch of youngsters such as Lalremsiami, Sharmila that are coming through, some veterans in the team, Vandana has been around for a long time. Savita the goalkeeper has been around for a long time Gurjeet has been performing consistently for a long time. There are others in the team who have been playing very well, it’s a very good team make no doubt about that we’ve got a very good coaching staff to back them up, I just feel with the lack of competition has really hurt them, or may hurt them. In the past year, there’s been a lack of competition. And it’s just a little bit too early for them to go out and perform at their best in a tournament like the Olympic games with that amount of lack of competition. But bright future awaits. And it is exciting times for women’s hockey in India.

Siddharth Kher

We’re still going to be supporting you. And we’re still gonna be hoping that you come back with any colour Medal is cool, we’d still be here. So now let’s get back. What else did these guys predict? Where are we at where we are wrestling? What’s happening with wrestling Jesus Christ. Why did I even say that? Anyways? But yes, so they’re predicting a medal out of wrestling. We’ve always we’ve always shown up. But unfortunately, this year, we’ve had we’ve had a blemish on the sport. And I don’t know whether anyone’s gonna say it or not say it, but that’s the way I look at it. And I am talking about Sushil Kumar, a sportsman whos represented India to Olympics, and he possibly would have done it a third time. He could have created history. Unfortunately, the sport has taken a hammering over incidents that everybody is quite aware of. That does put the sport and the Federation, I’m showing in a bit of doubt and the questions being asked. Sid, your, your, what do I mean? I don’t know. I’ve just been so taken aback with this whole thing. That I don’t know will the rest. He’s been such an influential figure in the wrestling scene that does the contingent feel positive negative? Do they feel like one of our biggest heroes or someone that they’ve been inspired by has gone so horribly wrong? Does that energy go with them?

Siddharth Pandey

So I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you the way I look at this Sid. Again, before we come to Tokyo, let’s rewind to Rio. Rio was an absolute disaster save for Sakshi Malik. Had she not won that medal Indian wrestling was just down the dumps in Rio. We had a great prospect and Vinesh Phogat everybody was backing her we were wondering where our medals are gonna come from she was gonna get a medal. She crashed out with an injury. All our hearts broken. Sakshi Malik out of nowhere Wins medal saves the day. But what went on before Rio, the entire Narsingh Yadav doping controversy in which Sushil Kumar was heavily involved was just such a dark cloud over our wrestlers. It just threw a lot of them off Yogeshwar Dutt has spoken about this in public. wrestlers could not concentrate on what lay ahead of them. That is not ideal preparation going into an Olympic Games. Fast forward five years from now, Tokyo and we all know what’s happened with Sushil Kumar, it does not need to be repeated. But I’ll tell you the way I look at this is the most motivated athletes at Tokyo are going to be our wrestlers. Because what you spoke about Sid is so true. This blemish this blot on Indian wrestling can only be wiped out by one thing and one thing only super performances at Tokyo with medals hanging around our wrestlers neck. Coming back to India. We’ve got a bunch of extremely talented next gen wrestlers. grace note says three. I will go one ahead and say more than Three one more secret. We’ve got Bajrang Punia, Deepak Punia, Ravi Dahiya, Vinesh Phogat, now these are for top class wrestlers Vinesh just less than a week ago I think just won Gold just confirming that in her weight category she is second to none.

Siddharth Kher

And I think all all the competitions leading to the Olympics, she’s just been killing it.

Siddharth Pandey

Absolutely apart from these four, and I’ll repeat their names Bajrang Punia, Deepak Punia, Ravi Dahiya and Vinesh Phogat, I see another exciting wrestler coming through Anshu Malik. Anshu Malik’s career trajectory has been very much like that of Geeta Phogat. If you see the parallels between the two they are quite quite similar. She is a tigress Anshu Malik. She’s got a big wrestling career ahead of her She just needs to put her head down work hard. Tokyo maybe a bit too early, but I’m really optimistic about her chances. So grace note says three I think there is another metal lurking somewhere in Indian wrestling. So yeah, you know, I think they are going to be highly motivated. It’s Indian wrestling is where Indian cricket was after the match fixing scandal where a lot of our cricketers said, you know it’s it’s these are bashed, I said it straight you just have to you just have to set this straight. And so you saw Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, people have impeccable integrity just doing their best or winning Test series against Australia going abroad beating teams. Years later, you know, they’ve the base was already there, we win the World Cup, and the match fixing scandal is forgotten. We win the team when he woke up years later, a couple of years later, we win the 50 or World Cup, the IPL starts and the match fixing scandal is forgotten. I think Indian wrestling is there right now. You know we it’s it’s the biggest scandal to ever hit Indian wrestling, NarSingh Yadav doping scandal was bad enough it left a really bad taste in the mouth. But this is going beyond that. This is worse than that. And I think the most motivated athletes in Tokyo are going to be India’s wrestlers grace note says three I say three plus.

Siddharth Kher

Excellent. I mean, I love the optimism and I’d love to believe that there’s this fire burning in each one of their bellies to want to set the record straight to wipe the slate clean and put wrestling right back where it belongs to this country and like we’ve always shown up it’s due. what is left I think there’s one more weightlifting Yes, sir. I know you I know you’re you love this athlete. So I’m going to leave it all up to you since since been watching this one really closely. So I’m not I’m not going to take this one up. Let them in on the weightlifting.

Siddharth Pandey

No, absolutely. Mirabai chanu is an athlete I only have immense respect for. I adore her for what she’s achieved and what she is achieving. I think winning a medal is only going to be fair, because she’s just brilliant. She has been brilliant. Why does Grace note say she’s gonna win a medal? It’s fairly obvious. It’s between Mirabai Chanu who has been winning bronze or silver? More often than not bronze in her weight category. And ahead of her are two Chinese weightlifters. At least one of them is definitely ahead of Mirabai Chanu she’s definitely ahead of Mirabai Chanu there’s no doubt about it. Along with Mirabai Chanu there was a North Korean weightlifter. These four this quartet is the Quartet who used to fight for medals in this particular weight category, the weight category of Mirabai Chanu. North Korea has pulled out of the Olympic Games, they’re not sending any athlete for health and safety reasons. The weight lifters who are usually placed fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth are way behind this quartet. So all that Mirabai Chanu has to do is be herself and perform the way she and show up here perform the way she has been performing which is exemplary. There has been no weightlifter that this country has produced that is anywhere close to Mirabi Chanu and I say this with a lot of respect for Karnam Malleswari. What she did in Sydney was amazing. She won a bronze she well almost sink that has the only medal we won at Sydney you know so credit to her what she’s done for Indian weightlifting is amazing. But I think we are reclaiming lost ground in Indian weightlifting. Indian weightlifting has got a lot of bad press in the Federation got banned there have been doping scandals there have been x y Z that has gone wrong with Indian weightlifting. This is not the time to get into that it’s time to be optimistic. Also another talking about Khelo India. One weightlifter that I spotted at Khelo India Watch out for him in the future is Jeremy comes from Northeast Watch out for Jeremy. He is quite amazing future of Indian weightlifting in the men’s category but let’s not take away from Mirabai she had a bit of a shoulder problem. She’s gone to the USA to correct that the Government of India weightlifting Federation sigh all pulled in said we are going to support her in every way possible. Let’s send her to USA or she’s there working with experts as we speak competing there. She just has to be herself in Tokyo and Mira Chanu will return to India with a medal it will be nothing short of what this perfect athlete what this great athlete fantastic weightlifter deserves.

Siddharth Kher

Just a small piece of advice for this weightlifting Association. Contact the NRAI, take a leaf out of the book. And maybe you could turn the page, give some athletes some due turn things right, set it straight. If you don’t do it, we’re going to keep reminding you herer. That’s what we’re going to do here. Now, let’s talk about one that we’ve been watching closely all this while I’ve I personally watch it I have not followed it as much. Every time the Olympics is around is Archery. It’s interesting to watch. And I always feel that we’ve we’ve always been so close, so close, but we’ve not been able to cross the finish line.

Siddharth Pandey

I could not agree with you more Sid every four years now this time of course it’s five years, every four years that the Olympics comes around. We’re really optimistic about the sport saying okay, you know archery is a sport where we can definitely get a medal. It has well flattered to deceive. It has tried its best out there. The archers have tried their best but they have always come up short. grace note says there’s a medal there. And there is a real I would back that up by saying we have a real prospect of a medal in the mix team. In the mixed team category. It will be Deepika Kumari, along with Atanu Das as they will be India’s archers at Tokyo in a mixed team. I think they have the best opportunity that we’ve had in a long, long time to get a medal for India in archery. So yeah, you know, it’s a great great opportunity for them to finally put archery where it belongs amongst India’s medal prospects. And let’s see if they are able to do that they It’s never happened. We’ve not got a medal in archery. But well, yeah, you know, it is possible that Atanu and Deepika, they get us a medal in the mixed team in Tokyo. And it’s a newly introduced event, the mixed team event has not been a part of the Olympic games ever. So it’s a newly introduced event. And biggest prospect comes in this newly introduced event, which is the mixed game category in archery. So good luck to Atanu. Good luck to Deepika, you will be breaking new ground if you get a medal. And yeah, it will be fantastic if you can do so.

Siddharth Kher

Speaking of breaking new grounds, I think it’s it’s only right where we do, like Sid said earlier, give credit where credit’s due. And that’s something that if you if you follow us, you’re going to know that we’ll be running this remember the name. And these three names, I think, are really important to be remembered, because it’s the first time the country’s ever going to be represented at these events will be representing for the first time in fencing, sailing, and equestrian. And all these athletes Bhavani Devi for fencing, Nethra Kumanan, for sailing, and Fouaad Mirza for equestrian salute to you guys wish you all the very best win, lose come back nothing. It’s participation in these events that this country’s never seen. Y’all are going on to turn the page for something that hasn’t been done before. And that in my eyes is great enough. So we’re here rooting for you. First, last anywhere you stand. We’re standing with you.

Siddharth Pandey

Massive respect for these athletes. That’s incredible what they’ve achieved.Yeah. They’ve done what no Indian has ever done before. You know, I go to Bhubaneshwar a lot. It is the epicentre of Indian hockey currently. And the last time I was there I was I got my accommodation at this institution called the Kalinga Institute of Technology. It’s called the KIIT’s at KIIT’s is enrolled Bhavani Devi, and while I was there, the news came in that she had made the cut to Tokyo on the made the cut for Tokyo, and they were euphoric. Wow. The scenes there were unbelievable. They were posters put up of Bhavani Devi, they were cutouts of Bhavani Devi wherever you Went, they were celebrating her achievement like the country should be celebrating our athletes achievements. It was so good to see they rarely took to Bhavani Devi and whoever you would speak to she really was the talk of the town basically at KIIT’s as an institution goes out of its way to support athletes from Odisha Dutee Chand on the rolls at KIIT’s. Wow. So yeah, it’s a full blown organisation that is supporting athletes there. Bhavani Devi is from KIIT’s and it was just so good to see people coming together to celebrate an achievement by an Indian athlete that no Indian athlete had ever done before. To have an athlete in fencing at Tokyo is is pretty unbelievable.

Siddharth Kher

Yeah yeah I think and you know I think celebration and celebrating you know these athletes when I mean it’s not about when they go there and if they won a medal and came back Oh, that’s when we all get together and celebrate and then all the all the sponsorships and other Federation’s want to come and you know, grab a piece of the pie. I think it’s important that these guys are known as athletes around the country where before that happens. And like I’ve said it before in the introduction, if you’ve not heard our introduction, the clip, go check it out. It’s a small little one. I think that’s what’s missing. We as a country, and we as a people need to get behind and rally behind these athletes and know these athletes, like we do on a first name basis have asked you the cricket team, or if I asked you the sport that you love, if you if you you know the athletes at the back of your head, but these athletes, you never remember the name. And that’s what’s gonna change, you’ve got to remember the name. Speaking of as much as all of it is good, with the new entrance to the Olympics, theres also curtain calls are a possible one shocking Curtain Call that we all know Saina Nehwal is not going to make it to the Olympics. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t put together the points that were required. The last tournament got cancelled in Singapore. And she couldn’t make up her points and she’s not going to be there. It also could be the last opportunity that she had to be at the Olympics. So what are we how many other Curtain calls we know for sure. MC Mary Kom this very well could be her last. This could have been Sainas last. Am I missing? Is there any?

Siddharth Pandey

Yeah, sure. You know that there are quite a few in other sports. There will be Indians competing across 18 disciplines, right? Which back than three more than Rio? I think we Indians competed in 15 disciplines at Rio. For example, in men’s hockey. It is Indian. I think he’s the best goalkeeper we’ve produced in the last 30 years to be honest. Sreejesh is going to be his last Olympic Games. But the name that you took Sid Saina Nehwal She is yeah she you know she made badminton players in this country believe that it was possible to go to the Olympics and win of course credit to that massive credit to that goes to her coach Pullela Gopichand no doubt about it. But 2008 Beijing where she was within touching distance and London where she actually won the medal. Yeah, she really made people believe that this is possible. She did to Indian badminton what Vijender Singh did to Indian in boxing he made people believe and before we get to Tokyo, you know and talk about badminton just let’s do a rewind. And Rio was actually India’s Best Performance in badminton at the Olympic Games. We got a silver right PV Sindhu did what no Indian had done before she went one step ahead of Saina Nehwal grace note says no medals for India at the Olympic Games. Now when grace note had made this prediction, Carolina Marin was still in contention, right? She’s pulled out you know she’s got a knee injury. She’s not going to be in Tokyo. That has changed the field quite a bit. The others with I think first of all to start with the Indian badminton contingent is really really light. Saina Nehwal was not made it in the Women’s Singles Kidambi Srikanth has not made it in the Men’s Single right B sai praneeth is the only Indian men’s player to have made it he’s ranked 13th it’s going to be very very difficult for him to medal in Tokyo, true Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have made it in the men’s doubles. Nobody in the women’s doubles nobody in the mixed doubles.Satwik Sairaj and Chirag Shetty have the firepower to make it to the medal category. Will they make it they’re currently ranked eighth in the world at the Olympic Games you just never know. True, but there’s no denying the fact that our biggest chance is PV Sindhu. Can she make it especially now that Carolina Marin is not there? We don’t know. We just don’t know with way things are gone. I’ll tell you what, though, to our listeners in Sportified. Again, we promised to get an in-depth on badminton before the Olympic Games, so stay tuned. What are the chances of PV Sindhu? What are the chances of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy,j Chirag Shetty can B Sai praneeth pull out and upset. Well, we’ll know and we will talk about this in depth later. But it there is reason to be optimistic PV Sindhu is the best badminton player in the women’s category that we’ve ever produced. She’s a silver medalist come the Olympic Games, she will be raring to go.

Siddharth Kher

And I think she also at the back of her head, she knows at the fact that Saina has not made it and pressure, no pressure. But it’s going to be that about back of the head, you know. So yeah, having said that interesting one. We’ve let a few secrets out. We’ve let you to know what we think about the grace note prediction, the upcoming stars to look forward to the names that you should remember, as well as some of them might just bow out but with this final showdown at the Olympics, so having said that, that’s all we have for today. We will come up with another special it could be hockey, it could be badminton, it could be weightlifting, it could be boxing, it could be anything, maybe all of them, maybe all of them, which if we just never know. So it’s unscripted drama man. So that’s that’s all we got for you today. Stay tuned and we’ll catch you on the next one. This is me Sid Kher. This is me. Siddharth Pandey signing off. Goodbye. Please do take care stay safe. And we see you on the next one.