India at The Olympics, Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award

 Dear Readers,

Today is the first Saturday of the month and so I will write about current events in India.

I will discuss the following: India's performance at the Olympics, changing the name of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award to the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.

1)

The Olympics:

Today is the 7th of August 2021, the penultimate day of the 2020 Olympics. Therefore I will discuss India's performance in the Olympics this year as it is unlikely that there will be anymore great changes to the medal tally.

India has won 7 medals in these Olympic Games. This is the highest medal tally ever for India in the Olympics. The previous highest tally was in 2012 when India won 7 medals.

These are the medals won by India:

Gold - India won 1 Gold Medal. Neeraj Chopra won the Gold in the final of the Men's Javelin Throw. 

Silver - India won 2 Silver Medals. Mirabai Chanu won the Silver in Women's Weight Lifting. Ravi Kumar Dahiya won the Silver in Men's 57kg Wrestling

Bronze - India won 4 Bronze Medals. The Indian Men's Hockey Team won the Bronze in Men's Hockey. P.V. Sindhu won the Bronze in Women's Single Badminton. Bajrang Punia won the Bronze in Men's Freestyle 65kg. Lovlina Borgohairn won the Bronze in Women's Welterweight Boxing.

This Also this year India won two cricket series - one against Australia and one against England.

I think these are signs of sports growing in India. In September 2014 the Indian Government launched the Target Olympic Podium Scheme to fund sportspersons who were favorites to win medals in the Olympics. 

The scheme provides all requisite support such as:

(i) training from top coaches at well-equipped sport institutions,\

(ii) assistance to purchase sport-specific equipment,

(iii) providing support staff such as physical trainers, physiotherapists, etc,

(iv) aid athletes in participating in Paris, Tokyo, and Los Angeles Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

(v) provide out-of-pocket allowance per month

In 2016 TOPS sponsored athletes PV Sindhu and Sakshi Mallik won silver and bronze medals respectively. 

The Modi Government also launched other schemes like Khelo India (Play India) which is a program that aims at improving sports culture in India through organized talent identification, structured sporting competitions and infrastructure development. 

Under this program sports facilities have been built all over India. There are sports competitions under the program as well. 

The results in these Olympic Games shows that the government's efforts have paid off.

In the modern era wars between nations are very rare. This has caused sport to be a way for nations to express nationalism.

Recently nationalism in relation to sports has been criticized. The Italian football team was criticized after winning the Euro Cup in Football, by liberals and leftists, for not being diverse enough. They said that Italy needed more players who were immigrants. Which is not true. It doesn't matter if the players are immigrants are not - all that matters is that they love their country.

In the U.S the women's Football team won a Bronze medal which was below their expectations. They had been very anti-national - disrespecting the national anthem and kneeling before playing to support Black Lives Matter which is an anti-American organization.

The Indian players did not do any of these things. PV Sindhu has gone to a Durga temple and Mirabai Chanu has credited Lord Hanuman for her win.

The Modi government announced that the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award would be renamed to the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, named after Dhyan Chand, an Indian field hockey player who played from 1926 to 1949. He is regarded in India and around the world as the greatest player of all time having scored 1000 goals in his career. He was the captain of the team. 

I am glad that the award is being named after him. This was done after Indians on social media asked Prime Minister Modi to do so. 

This shows that India is moving on from the days of worshipping politicians, and is now supporting normal civilians. A sports award should never have been named after a politician even the Prime Minister. To do so was a disgusting act of sycophancy of the Congress party.

Sports helps unite a country. It has a powerful effect on nations and their national identity. Nations which have a strong sense of nationalism do better in all areas including sports than nations without such a sense. 

I believe that India's success in the Olympics and cricket this year will herald a new dawn for sports in our country. 

I wish good luck to all sportspersons in India for the future. 

And thank you for your performances.

Chek De India!

Thank you for Reading,

Vande Mataram!