Vinesh Phogat story
Dr P S M Chandran
When the Indian contingent for the Paris Olympics was announced there was a surprising element in it. For the first time in Indian Olympic history, the 117 strong contingent included a 13 member medical and sports sciences support team to take care of the athletes which was a path breaking initiative.. In addition to this support team which was directly selected by Indian Olympic Association, there were separate personal physiotherapists for athletes who were medal prospects and also with high profile teams like Hockey, athletics etc. The credit for sending such significant numbers of doctors and sports scientists goes to the President IOA, P T Usha who had suffered enough during her glorious career in sports due to the lack of supports staff to take care of her.
The Indian contingent for the first time included in addition to doctors, physiotherapists and masseurs, some sports scientists also like nutritionists, mental trainers and sleep therapists who were supposed to help the athletes to enhance their performance .. The criteria applied to select these professionals for their inclusion in the contingent was not made public especially their past expertise and experience of working with elite athletes . It is ironical now that India stands deprived of one gold/silver medal because of the failure of the nutritionists who were sent with the contingent as they were found wanting to help Vinesh shed a meagre 100 gms of body weight to qualify to compete for the gold medal in 50 kg body weight category . 100 gms of weight is equivalent to less than the weight of 7 table spoons of water.
Nutritionists are the ones who are supposed to monitor the weight of the athletes and advise them on what to eat and what not to eat before, during and after the competition especially in weight category sports. The fact that Vinesh was found over weight by 100 gms clearly shows that she was not monitored by the two nutritionists during the past 3 weeks when the Indian contingent was training in Paris preparing for their events. Reducing couple of kgs of body weight of athletes is not any rocket science. Ask any wrestler in Haryana, they will teach you.
The whole country knew that Vinesh Phogat is a medal prospect and as such the failure of the support staff attached with the contingent needs to be dealt with all seriousness. In addition to Vinesh personal loss and the country’s loss of an Olympic gold medal and the pride which goes along with the loss , the monitory loss to Vinesh is enormous to the tune of 10-20 crore of rupees in terms of prize money, sponsorship, advertisement, modeling etc which all are shattered now.
Before Usha took over as the President of IOA, the selection of supports staff to Indian teams were all subjective where the sons, daughters, uncles and aunts of sports officials used to get selected. They used to enjoy a jolly good trip to the Olympics , Asian Games and Commonwealth Games and make merry of. The Paris Olympic Games brought an end to such favoritism in Indian sports. But the Vinesh episode reminds that we have still a long way to go in finding the right professionals who have experience and expertise in dealing with athletes and entrust with responsibilities which they are capable of handling.
The Vinesh Phogat story has found its echo in the Parliament and also in the nook and corner of the country. To mark the seriousness of the issue, the two nutritionists who are attached with the contingent and who have failed in their commitment with the wrestler Vinesh Phogat should be recalled from the Games and a proper enquiry should be ordered by the Ministry of sports.
That reminds us of another professional , the Sleep Therapist who is with the contingent. Has she succeeded to make her presence felt with the athletes by putting them to sleep or keeping them awake? Our position in the medals tally indicates that Indian sports is still in deep slumber.
—————————————————————————————————–
Dr P S M Chandran was doctor of Indian Women wrestling teams for Olympics and Asian Games in the past. He is also former Director (Sports Sciences), Sports Authority of India. Tel : 9810881691, drpsmchandran@gmail.com
××××××××××××××
Telegram Link :
For latest news, first Hand written articles & trending news join Saachibaat telegram group
https://t.me/joinchat/llGA9DGZF9xmMDc1
