Race is all about RACE

2008 Beijing Olympics is over and was full of record breaking moments, most noted among them were in swimming and athletics events. I remember the discussion which I had with my friend last weekend regarding the correlation between race and medal winning. I opined that people of African origin has got many innate qualities which gives them an edge over athletes of other race. My friend didn't accepted this conjecture straight away, probably because he is a hardcore egalitarian and simply doesn't believes in counting race as a factor in any argument, he believes in "equality". As this Beijing fever is over now, now I have the chance to support my opinion with some data. If we have a look into the medal standings' athletics section we would find that 90% of the track events', which only deals with proving ones running capabilities, gold medalist's are of African origin, either a native or diasporic African. Look into the USA's case, it topped this particular section and all of the gold medalists were black(I am not a racist but I guess referring people of African origin as Black is not offensive). Leave aside the count of golds secured by nations like Jamaica, Ethiopia or Kenya, even the lone gold winner from Great Britain in women's track events is black. Look into the history of running and you will find this turf ruled by many great black sprinters, some deified and some humiliated after doping scandals. Michale Johnson, Carl Lewis, Marion Jones are few names from the past which comes to my mind because I grew along with their records and controversies. No doubt, the rise of African-Americans from slavery to the status minority group and then contributing to the nation as Olympians is attributed to the pluralistic society of USA but there must be some other factor which helps this minority group to emerge as creme de la creme athletics.


Having put forward all these pieces of information and opinion, I am not trying to make you interpret that race is the deciding factor in all sports but it is, and it must be, one of the factors which makes a champion. Race determines ones genetic, sociological and metabolic factors and all these are as important as training and socio-political support to any sport. Lets have an analogy here. Even if you put in your best Labrador against my Grey hound for a sprint, I am not going to be worried at all. But yes, when your hound is pitted against mine, I get worried. If we have a look into the finalists of men's 100m event you can't help but notice that almost all of them are blacks. It's not that the selection system of countries like USA and Britain deliberately picks black athletes due to their ethnic lineage but because of the fact that blacks are naturally gifted or rather are evolved to perform better and hence they emerge as gold winners. Probably, it is time for us, read India, to capitalise on our diversity, and the greater responsibility now lies on the hands of state governments. But what should be the course? A systematic and diligent approach, like China, should be the key to reach a respectable position in the Olympic medal tally. Of course, Punjab should focus more on boxing, wrestling, weightlifting and others which demands more from sports person's strength and power. Needless to say that folks from north-eastern states can also prove to be Olympic winners in many events, especially women. These are just some examples. All states can contribute to India's success only if they act wise and prudent and for that the important thing which we all have to do is discover our potentials, of course based on race, and focus on that.

What so ever may be the extent of belief of egalitarian folks and proponents of the so called equality, denial of the fact that nature has moulded us differently, depending on myriad factors, will be tantamount to fallacy. To me it's a great paradox. On one hand, we have millions being poured to check on doping and on the other we have the nature, the perpetrator in this case, who has already doped a few. Expecting an all-black race in the men's 100m final event in London Olympics will not be racism but truism. While thinking about the future of Olympics one wonders, how it would be 50 years down the line? Will it really hold any value? What will happen if mankind moves ahead with the implementation if genetic engineering. Won't nations use genetic engineering to produce men and women with hyper abilities, which might undermine the crux of any sports event. Probably I would stay alive to see it myself, but as of now all I can say is that the world is not all about being equal and running the race, it about knowing that there are differences, and the privileged few may have both overt and covert edge, and one has to put in more effort to reach the summit.

Get more Golds

What it takes to be a super Olympian like Michael Phelps? It seemed to be an elusive combination for us Indians, until Abhinav Bindra gave us few clues. One clue which we I take from this ribbon cutting gold medal is that to be a successful sportsperson one must have high emotional intelligence. It won't be too difficult to imagine the surge of emotions in a shooter while taking the final shot or in a swimmer who is about to plunge for a 100m freestyle. It must be tremendous, tremendous enough to un-nerve a normal person. But fine sportsperson must know how to control these emotions, and use this as a tool for the best outcome. Lets have a look into the case of Bindra, one wonders, how being an Indian Abhinav managed to be such a fine shooter and grab a Gold from Beijing! Abhinav seems to be a blended incarnation of Arjuna and Yudhistira, a perfect combo of skills and calmness. But there must be something more than that to be the best. As we all know, by now, that Abhinav is not an ordinary Indian, he son of a millionaire business tycoon, spending millions in trainings and equipments. Instead of government's apathy towards sports, cricket being an exception, this man managed to get all the supplements which were very crucial and arguably of utmost importance.

On the other hand, if we look into the case of Michael Phelps, we get very different cues. Phelps was born to swim. In his early childhood, he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) which meant he had tremendous amount of surplus energy to be spent. And this surplus was channelized properly; he started using all of his extra energy kicking and slapping water since a tender age of five. Look at his structure and you will probably know why he is breaking all the records. His arm span is disproportionally wide and so is his feet size, moreover his body produces lower amount of lactic acid compared to other athletes, which means his muscles will get tired later and also recover quicker when compared to others. Hence we can say that the case of Phelps is a fine example of identifying the talent and moulding it to a world champ.( This guy is so abnormal that I have started to believe in a conspiracy theory, conjectured by myself. This theory suggests that Phelps is a prototype of USA's genetic engineering project to produce men with higher physical qualities... :-D )

The most influential factor, with which most of you will agree, i believe, is the nations system. Until and unless a country's system doesn't promotes and provides support in a right way, it will not be able to produce world champions, irrespective of the vastness of its talent pool. The antipathy of our political and social system is the main reason of failure of sports in our country, cricket being an exception. Definitely much more is expected from a humongous and quickly developing countries like ours. As i write this blog, I can still find India's position lower than other third world countries like Zimbabwe, Mongolia and many more. First of all, we seriously need to validate the capabilities of those who are going to determine the future course of India's sports, the neta's. We need to get right people over there before we begin our quest to find a few more Bindras and few Indian Phelps. Otherwise one won't be surprised to find advertisements coming in newspaper daily's which may read:

WANTED! Tall and slim children, preferably suffering from ADHD, for Indian Sports association. Age no bar. Son of millionaires are more welcome. Selected candidates will be given ration for whole life along with a stipend of Rs 1000 per month. HURRY!

P.S: This ad has been written keeping in mind the creativity and ingenuity of our bureaucrats.