The best ever!

So, the 33rd National Games of India just concluded in Gauhati, Assam yesterday. Assam is a state in the north-east of India and coincidentally I was born in the city of Gauhati :) and thus I was very proud when Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, who is the President of IOC - the Indian Olympic Committee, at the closing ceremony said that "The 33rd National Games were the best in the history of the country".

I am personally a big sports fan and a big supporter of sports, of all kinds and in all forms. I think a rich sporting tradition goes a long way in building a strong nation. Thus, I was following the games as much as I could, considering the fact that the broadcast on TV was of very poor quality and most of the sports pages in newspapers were dedicated to the upcoming Cricket World Cup. After reading Mr. Kalmadi's statements I decided to dig in a little more and gather some facts about the games.

For those who do not know what the National Games are, they are an event just like the Olympics where athletes and sports men and women from all over the country participate. They represent the different states of the country.

I think numbers paint a fairly accurate and un-biased picture, so I decided to rely upon them to find out what makes these Games the 'best ever'. So, here are some facts about the 33rd National Games -

6,872 Athletes - the most ever in any National Games
426 Gold Medals were given out at the Games
32 Disciplines - ranging from Aquatics to Fencing to Sepak Takraw to Rugby 7s. Yes rugby Frances :)
1 new National Record set

1 National Record broken in 10 days of competition! Is this as alarming as I am trying to make it out to be or it is not as big a deal? No wonder an Indian has never won a Gold Medal in an individual Olympic event. The last time we won a Gold Medal in the Olympics was in the 1980 Moscow Games in Field Hockey.

I am not trying to be another skeptical Indian who can't stop talking about the sad state of affairs when it comes to sports in India. It is a well known fact and our past performance speaks for it. But very little seems to have been done over the years and that very little is clearly not good enough. An average urban 9 year old has far fewer open, grassy fields to play on today than I had when I was 9, which was 17 years ago.

Development over the years has solely been focused on economic progress and is only being measured in economic terms. Some would argue that this is rightly-so, since millions are still homeless and hungry in the country. I believe being a sportsman helps develop very important leadership characteristics in individuals and thus goes a long way in building a strong nation. We as Indians need to address this with a certain amount of urgency, if we hope to have the desired cultural influence in the world that we deserve.

Kudos to Veerdhaval Khade who set a new national record in Men's 200 Meter Free-style Swimming at the 33rd National Games of India.

(I tried to search for the number of new National & World Records that were set at the last National Games of the People's Republic of China that were organized in October 2005, so that we had a relative figure, but was unable to find the exact number.)