Reflections

The lows

1.    Four women’s doubles badminton teams were expelled from the games for not trying enough and for having performed below potential to get a favorable draw in the medal rounds. The teams were from South Korea, China & Indonesia

2.    Quite a few cases of doping were reported during the 16 days of competition

3.    The quality of officiating in some of the sporting disciplines such as boxing, fencing, wrestling was not up to the mark

4.    Twitter was used as a medium for racist remarks against athletes which was very unfortunate

The highs

As is any Olympics, the highs outnumber the lows by a huge margin.

1. The Baltimore bullet swam into history on the last day of the swimming event – the 4x100m medley relay winning his 18^th gold medal to cap a remarkable Olympic career with 22 medals in all – a dream run that began in Athens in 2004. Phelps would certainly go down in history as the greatest Olympian of our times. The 27 year old has decided to hang up his boots, his trunks rather!
2. Lightning strikes every four years in the form of Usain Bolt who proved beyond doubt that he’s a living legend in the field of short distance running. He managed a triple double while retaining his 100m, 200m & 4x100m relay with consummate ease. The Jamaican team comprising Nesta Carter, Micheal Frater, Yohan Blake and the great man himself smashed the world record in the relay – the final event of the athletics program, to win in 36.84 seconds. One still wonders why he slowed down towards the final 10m or so in the 200m event. He could so easily have finished with a time under 19.3 seconds
3. In Basketball, the American men’s and the women’s team won gold medals re-asserting their Olympic supremacy in this sport. The US men’s team has now won 14 medals in the Olympics – an amazing feat
4. In tennis, Andy Murray steam rolled Roger Federer in three straight sets to win gold for Britain at Wimbledon. He must have wondered what had gone wrong just a month ago
5. Title favorites Brazil were beaten 2-1 by a young and inspirational Mexican side that took home its first gold medal in football. The opening goal was scored by Mexico in under 30 seconds. The Brazilians would have to wait for that all elusive gold medal. May be they’ll win it at home in front of their fans in Rio in four years time.
6. Two future Chinese stars emerged from the swimming pool in the form of 20 year old Sun Yang & 16 year old Li Shiwen. Yang won the 200 m freestyle as well as the 1500m freestyle very comfortably. Swimmers from France, South Africa & Lithuania made their mark in the pool as well. Missy Franklin, the 17 year old from the US made her presence felt winning four medals in her first Olympics. She won the 4x100m medley relay gold with her teammates Rebeca Soni (Breast Stroke), Dana Vollmer (Butterfly) & Schmitt (Freestyle) in world record time. Franklin will be one of the stars to look out for in Rio; The backstroke is her main event
7. The youngest female Olympian to win gold was K. Ledecky in the women’s 800m freestyle beating legend and local favorite Rebecca Adlington. She’s just 15
8. In men’s hockey, The Germans proved too strong for the Netherlands beating their arch rivals 3-1.
9. In archery, the South Korean women’s team stamped their class once again and won gold. The women’s teams have won gold medals in the last 8 Olympics in succession.
10. Mo Farah of Britain won both the 5000 & 10,000 m events in front of his delirious home fans. The Somali born athlete was a joy to watch and was one among several of his compatriots that helped the host nation amass a record 65 medals – 29 of them gold. Britain won more than 60% of its medals in Track Cycling, Rowing, Athletics, Boxing, Sailing & Equestrian.
11. China finished second in the medals tally just above Britain with 87 medals in all comprising 38 gold medals. The country had won a remarkable 100 medals in Beijing four years ago with 51 gold medals and topped the medals tally. As expected, the Chinese dominated their favorite sporting disciplines namely Diving, Swimming, Badminton, Table Tennis, Gymnastics, Weightlifting & Shooting
12. However, USA took back the numero uno position this time winning an impressive 104 medals – 46 of them gold. Bulk of their medals came from Swimming & Athletics
13. The Russian Federation finished fourth. The former USSR was a force to reckon with in the Olympiads gone by
14. And it would be grossly unfair to not make a mention of the wonderful, informative and up to date coverage of all the events on Star Sports & ESPN. The entire team did a fabulous job. Kudos to Alan Wilkins, Vijay Amritraj, Steve Dawson, Sanjeev Palar, Paula Ali, Christie Simpson & Jatin Sapru. These are the names that I could recall.
15. The world came to a party for 17 days and the Londoners can be proud of what they have seen and achieved. Sir Sebastian Coe can look back with joy and happiness for having delivered one of the greatest summer games that saw 44 world records being broken

I have tried to highlight a few major achievements since it would be impossible to mention all the athletes and their laurels across 26 different sports. Many congratulations to each one of them.

See you in Rio de Janeiro. By the way, the Olympic flag has reached the next host already!

Saina Vs China

Saina Nehwal took on world no 1 and top seed Wing Yihan of China in the women’s singles semi-final. She hadn’t beaten her opponent in their five previous meetings in various top events. The talented Indian shuttler had taken three of those encounters to a deciding third game.

Given her current form, one would have expected Saina to take the match to a third game. A win against a superior player always seemed improbable. In the opening game, Saina tried to win points with her trade mark drops and smashes but it didn’t work since everything was coming back at her. Moreover, the pressure of the occasion and the enormity of the task ahead possibly got the better of her.

She had to change her approach and pin her opponent to the baseline and play longer rallies which she did on a few occasions but it was too late by then since Yihan took the first game 21-13. The current world champion looked very sharp and was mentally tougher during the opening exchanges. Moreover, Saina committed around five uncharacteristic unforced errors.

In the second game, Saina ran her opponent close to take a 11-10 lead going into the short break. There were some remarkable rallies with Saina tossing the shuttle back and trying to engage her opponent in longer rallies and force the error. The short attacking rallies are generally not effective against the Chinese given their natural speed and reflexes.

The Indian ace played a delightful drop shot to level the score at 12-12. From then on, it was Wing Yihan all the way. Her discipline, control and mental strength were on display as she won the game with a similar score 21-13 ending the Indian’s hopes to make it to the gold medal round.

All said and done, she was beaten by a better player on the day. As usual, our news channels were quick to react with their usual frenzy with tickers such as “Saina fails to make it to the finals”, “Olympic Heartbreak” etc. Her poor father had to face a barrage of questions. I wonder how our media treats our sportsmen. There’s either too much hype or excessive criticism. I feel there is scope for being a lot more mature and balanced with their comments and judgments.

However, there were some meaningful and intelligent insights from former stars such as Vimal Kumar & Anup Sridhar. The legendary Prakash Padukone chipped in too.

All these three gentlemen felt that Saina should have been a little more patient and should have slowed down the pace of her game and tossed the shuttle a lot more. However, the support in the stadium for our Indian star was heart rending. She did give it her very best. We can only hope she recoups quickly enough so that she can focus on her bronze medal match tomorrow.

On other factor that was baffling was the scheduling of the event. Saina played a late match last night and was back on court this morning (9 am – BST). May be some rest would have helped. She now faces another Chinese opponent Wang X whom she has beaten in the past. Given Saina’s level of form and fitness, she must return from London with a highly creditable bronze medal and nothing else. We wish her success in her encounter tomorrow.