A Punjabi or Maratha gold?

Caste or religious chauvinism is a team sport, as is provincialism. When Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal at the Olympics, Prem Chopra and Priyanka Chopra were bursting with special pride — a Chopra ends India’s 100-year wait for a medal at the Olympics! Punjabis celebrated, for aren’t Chopras Punjabi Khatri? The Punjab government announced an award of Rs2.51 crore for him. Haryana, the home of Chopra, was delighted — after all, Chopra emerged from a village in Haryana and picked up the sport in Panipat and honed his skills in Panchkula. Online, stray Rajputs claimed Chopra as their own, and some Gujjars did the same. The Rors said no, Chopra is a Hindu Ror! The Marathas said Chopra is a descendant of the Maratha soldiers who fought in the third battle of Panipat in 1761 — defeated, they found refuge in the rough scrubland of the present-day Haryana and settled here.

With greater and completely verifiable evidence, the farmers claimed him too; the Army had an equally demonstrable claim on the winner. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Twitter: “He performed like a true soldier at the Olympics.”

An aside — an equally verifiable farmer-soldier from Haryana, boxer Amit Panghal, lost in his first bout; did he or did he not perform like a ‘true soldier’ at the Olympics? War imagery in sport is tempting but not ideal.

The most heart-warming story about Chopra’s lionisation and ownership comes from a village in Germany, where a biomechanical expert, Dr Klaus Bartonietz, lives. Dr Bartonietz has worked with Chopra for the last few years after being brought to India by Uwe Hohn, India’s head coach for javelin throw. Dr Bartonietz told a newspaper that in his small village of 130 residents, Oberschlettenbach, ordinary people, coaches and athletes are calling him and asking him about Chopra. That’s provincialism, too — they are proud that one of their own has coached an Olympics gold medallist. Dr Bartonietz has put Oberschlettenbach on the map, just as Chopra put Khandra, Panipat, India, on the map of Olympics athletics.

The debate over the ownership of Chopra — and the casteist abuse of hockey player Vandana Katariya, allegedly by upper caste but economically depressed neighbours in Roshnabad in Haridwar — tells us much. Separatism is deeply etched in individual and social consciousness. Mythical origin stories are still believed, even by the educated. Absence of scientific knowledge — which tells us there’s only one human race, the Homo Sapiens, of whom different groups have different characteristics — is absolute.

Are losers Indian, too?

A Pakistani, Arshad Nadeem, finished fifth in javelin throw in Tokyo. Pakistan’s chef-de-mission at Tokyo put the blame for this ‘failure’ on the athlete. “Nonstop social media usage by Arshad and his coach in between the qualifying and final rounds turned out to be the main reason behind this failure,” said Brig Zaheer Akhtar. Pakistani sport is blighted by retired armymen, for whom heading sports associations is a great pastime — just as Indian sport is blighted by politicians at the top.

Do they really understand sport? Just whose bright idea was it to assign a shooting physiotherapist to wrestler Vinesh Phogat?

Vinesh, who was expected to win a medal in Tokyo, returned empty-handed, having lost in the quarterfinals. The story she’s narrated — of her failure and abandonment — is weird but not shocking. For Tokyo, she had been requesting for a dedicated physiotherapist but her request was denied. Only one physio was provided for the seven male and female wrestlers. She was then assigned a physio from the shooting team. Unsurprisingly, says Vinesh, this physio was of no use to her during the most critical time before competition, the last day, when she was losing weight, as is the norm for wrestlers. On her return to India, Vinesh was handed a temporary ban by the wrestling association on three charges of indiscipline. Vinesh has won medals at every stage except the Olympics. She suffered a horrifying injury in Rio 2016; struck twice by Covid-19, she was enervated and anxious in Tokyo. After the Tokyo heartbreak, she should have expected support from the wrestling association — but she didn’t expect it and she didn’t get it.

Name-dropping

The removal of ‘Rajiv Gandhi’ from the name ‘Khel Ratna’, the highest award for a sportsperson in India, is welcome because the late politician’s name has been replaced with that of Dhyan Chand, the world’s greatest hockey player. Awards and stadiums must be named after great sportspersons, not officials or politicians. Maybe it’s time to rename all the Nehru and Indira Gandhi stadiums across India, as also such venues as Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium and Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium.