Is this going to be the sole medal again for India?

11th August 2008 will be etched in the Indian Sports History in Golden letters. And why not!! After all this was the first ever Individual Gold medal India has won in its 108 years history in Olympics. Kudos Abhinav Bindra, the man who made it possible!!

But the question that all the Indians must have in their minds now must be, Will this be the only medal India will manage to win this time as well? Just like the last 3 occasions!

The picture does not seem to be very bright as all the Indian athletes are losing their battles one by one, Mangal Singh Champia being the latest one.

Do we go to the Olympics only for filling up the numbers? When will there be the time, when we can give the Sporting powerhouses like USA and China a run for their money? The question is not of ability for sure. You can see an NRI "Raj Bhavsar" winning a Bronze medal for USA. So, we have the ability. The problem lies in the resources/facilities that we get. Abhinav Bindra could manage to win because the family was kind enough to get him his personal shooting range. He probably has never visited the "Tugalakabad Shooting range". The government has to stand up and do something about the facilities we provide to our sports persons.

Hockey team getting Rs 1000/- per goal they score is another example of the sick mentallity of the authorities. That's a whopping Rs 62.50/- per player in a team of 16.

How would a parent then have the courage to ask their kids to go and play hockey for the country!