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A quest for glory

When 50 of India’s leading sportsperson look back at their experiences during the Olympics, they are bound to come up with umpteen interesting stories. From 91-year-old Balbir Singh Senior, to Shiva Thapa, 22, come stories — some heard, some unheard, some are reflections on athlete’s sense of fulfillment, while others dwell on the lifelong hurt of a missed opportunity.

A quest for glory

Milkha Singh



Gaurav Kanthwal

When 50 of India’s leading sportsperson look back at their experiences during the Olympics, they are bound to come up with umpteen interesting stories. From 91-year-old Balbir Singh Senior, to Shiva Thapa, 22, come stories — some heard, some unheard, some are reflections on athlete’s sense of fulfillment, while others dwell on the lifelong hurt of a missed opportunity. 

Through these stories, narrated in first person, a reader gets to know the athletes’ character up-close, their sportsman’s spirit, and sometimes, a peek into their nature, too. 

This being about Olympics, the biggest stage in a sportsperson’s life, there is enough dope on famous sporting rivalries and camaraderie in the Indian camp. 

To begin with, there is the single-minded focus of Abhinav Bindra to his aim. Interesting is athlete Gurbachan Singh Randhawa’s take on Milkha Singh and the ‘Flying Sikh’ looking the other way. Dhanraj Pillay and Jagbir Singh take turns to tear into Pargat Singh, but the former Indian captain is gracious while accepting some of his past follies. 

In the 2012 Olympics, shooters Vijay Kumar, Joydeep Karmakar hunted in pairs but boxers Shiva Thapa and L Devendro Singh got friendly with Londoners. Wrestlers Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt have always shared a brotherly bond. Then, there is the self-imposed loneliness of shuttler P Gopichand.

My Olympic Journey by sports journalists Digvijay Singh Deo and Amit Bose hits the stands at a very opportune time when the Olympics fever is at its peak of a four-year cycle. 

Getting India’s top 50 athletes to narrate their Olympics dream is no mean task and it shows that a serious effort has gone into the making of this book. However, some of the stories, which the reader may have wished to read in detail, are woefully short, devoid of emotional detail and even end abruptly. 

There is a discernible pattern in most of the stories. The athletes start off with how the seed of Olympics germinated in their soul, their struggle in making it to the Olympics, the feeling of awe in Athletes Village, the opening ceremony, time for dining hall stories, followed by the final denouement in the Olympic dream. That’s how it is!

Some of the anecdotes narrated by well-known athletes are largely unknown to public, such as how former Indian captain Balbir Singh Senior was handcuffed in Delhi (1945) and brought to Jalandhar by the then inspector general of Punjab Police, John Bennet, for a recruitment drive against his wishes. 

Legendary Dhyan Chand’s son, Ashok Kumar’s revelation that the wizard of hockey never wanted his son to pursue the game and focus on studies only is interesting.

Starry-eyed Sushil Kumar, double Olympics medallist, was thrilled to see his hero Dhanraj Pillay and touched his feet on his first meeting with him. Legendary pole vaulter Sergei Bubka’s words keep coming back to Sushil’s mind: ‘An Olympics medal is a gift of God and it has to be treasured’.

The story of Sydney Olympics bronze medallist Karnam Malleswari is really heart-warming. The 69kg category weightlifter reminisces that fateful day when she, ‘woke early and went to the ground in front of the apartment and picked some flowers’ as an offering to God.

The 327-page book drills an important fact in readers mind that the new generation of Indian sportsperson started believing in themselves only after Leander Paes (1996 Atlanta Olympics) and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004 Athens Olympics) won a bronze and a sliver in Olympics. Athlete after athlete has cited Paes and Rathore as their inspiration.

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