The Fastest Men at the Olympics

IT TAKES YEARS TO SHED SECONDS OFF RECORD TIMINGS, and that has been the order of all major sports event, especially the Olympics Games. "Faster, Higher, Stronger" (Latin: Citius, Altius, Fortius) is the motto of the Olympics events, and whilst it absolutely lives up to that expectations, the bar thus raised however poses faster, higher and stronger challenges to the human capacities; every single time. (Mr. Ketan J. Patel, founder and head of the Strategic Group at Goldman Sachs, in this very interesting book "The Master Strategist" published earlier this year provides a very interesting analysis and analogy on the topic of such a human endeavour where Patel observes that we indeed live in the age of extremes.)

Usain "Lightening" Bolt of Jamaica is clearly my hero of the 2008 Summer Olympics games at Beijing, as with many others. Here is an athlete in what is called a championship form - with spirit exuberant that "no one can beat me today" - and to borrow the simile from Abraham Maslow - "Peak experience" in motion...

Three times, in three days, shattering three world records - Human spirit at its foremost, for, unlike a machine-like race for the next milestone, one did pause to marvel the moment and live in its spirit.


[Usain "Lightening" Bolt of Jamaica betters his own word record by 0.03 seconds at Men's 100m sprint race - the event that virtually decides the "fastest" man on earth. Bolt not only took a convincing lead among the pack, but maintained it all along and started celebrations even before the finish line was ten meters away; all this within sub-10 seconds time-frame. Above: Take a look at this footage from the stadium.]
And then there is Michael Phelps of the USA, the most decorated athlete of all times at the Olympics, winning eight Gold medals in eight aquatics events - getting a Gold in all events in which he participated at 2008 Summer Olympics games, and setting a record for doing so also. Phelps is special in more ways than one.

[Steve Parry finished on the podium beside Phelps at Athens 2004. While Phelps captured Gold and set a new WR, Parry at the same time set a new Commonwealth record for the same event in aquatics. Above: Parry analyses how Phelps is 'special' in the pool.]

[Go here for the Amazon book reviews of "The Master Strategists" by Ketan Patel.]
[Go here to watch Bolt during his M 100m final on the official YouTube broadcasting channel of Beijing Olympics. These clips have very little chance of being removed.]
[Go here for the detailed analysis by Steve Parry for BBC.]

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Golden Gift for India at 2008 Summer Olympics

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN THE HISTORY OF MODERN INDIA as well as modern Olympics, the Indian National Anthem was sounded for the podium Gold position in an individual event. A moment of pride for any Indian national/origin anywhere. The German media person standing nearby the Indian supporters' stand at Beijing Shooting Range Hall was as perplexed as the Indians themselves. The German was stumped for his lack of knowledge of India never making it to the Gold in the history of the nation or the games; the Indians were stumped and elated of course because their shooter finally made it!

It is perhaps the best gift that India ever received from a peaceful sports event thus far. Abhinav Bindra, the 26 year old businessman from Chandigarh, an MBA from USA and CEO of his own video-game company, at his third Olympics appearance aimed a near perfect bullseye in 10m Air Rifle event and brought India home with its first Gold in an individual event at the Olympics - classic or modern. And when asked by a TV channel during an interview, the medal barer didn't mince his words while saying, "I wonder why it took [India] so long..."

[Left: Abhinav Bindra’s Swiss coach Gabriele Buhlmann congratulates him at the Beijing University Gymnasium. Source: in.news.yahoo.com]

It is a gift to the nation because this self-financed, self-trained, self-sponsored effort by an individual from an affluent background comes from trainings in South Africa and Germany with the help from a Swiss coach. "Gaby" Bühlmann, the personal coach of Bindra, participated in 10 shooting events at five previous Olympics for Switzerland; the last one being at Athens 2004. Bindra has his personal Olympics-standard shooting range facilities built by his father in their own backyard, and he has been training far away from the official, government provided, and Indian Olympics Association sponsored facility at Tughlakabad outside New Delhi that has not received any upgrade to the equipments since 1980's.

And while most predictably as Bindra becomes the new darling of the news desks across India, interestingly two Chinese national daily also featured him on full-size front page coverage - albeit, the headline read, a rather tongue in cheek, "At Last!"

This may be Indian sports coming of an age. The public-private partnership is evident yet again, with reports of the steel tycoon and the richest man in the UK, Laxmi Niwas Mittal funding at least 14 Olympian hopes for India, including Bindra. Mr. Mittal runs his Mittal Champions Trust from London, and reportedly employed a physical trainer, a psychologist, and supplied ammunition for practice for Bindra when India ran out of bullets for the Olympics team.

There were no bidders for the 2008 Olympics telecast for India, and the rights for the entire event were finally picked up, with a bare minimum chance of breaking even, by the I&B ministry for national career DD Sports for USD 3mn (which was the price for just a couple of icon player at the Indian Premier League Cricket auction. The broadcast rights for India for the IPL event as a whole were sold at slightly over USD 1bn).

Formula One was a no-show in India only five years ago until Karthikeyan came on the scene as the first Indian driver for the Grand Prix race, and F1 has picked up since then in the country - with India sporting its first ever full fledge racing team - Force India - starting this year. Moreover, an F1 race circuit at Noida (near New Delhi) is under construction for inclusion in the F1 calendar by 2010 season.

Could Bindra's feat do something similar for the Olympics in India?
Perhaps.
How about Indians' call for Cricket's inclusion in the Olympics?
A Twenty20 Olympics... Why not?

[Related post: 08.08.08 - World Watches as China Arrives with the Olympics]
[Go here for an eyewitness account also mentioning Gagan Narang, Bindra's team mate at the same event.]
[Go here for the official athlete profile of Abhinav Bindra at the Olympics.]
[Go here for the China Daily front-page coverage on Bindra's gold.]

Edit: new links have been added for "Gaby" Bühlmann , Laxmi Mittal's funding for Bindra, and others.

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08.08.08 - World Watches as China Arrives with the Olympics

ONE OF THE MOST MESMERIZING EXPERIENCES OF RECENT TIMES, the live performance of the opening ceremony of the 29th modern Olympics at Beijing surpassed all expectations. Even the foreign correspondence who have been in Beijing since a few months, measuring the air-quality, spying, and commenting on the build-up, and covering the unveiling of the Olympics, in spite of having stolen away a video footage from the rehearsals a week ago, were neither aware of nor prepared for the enthralling experience of the pinnacle event - lighting of the Olympics torch...


[Above: Li Ning "walks" on the walls, with the backdrop of video panels on the edge of the roof of Bird's Nest, on his way to light the 29th Modern Olympics torch at Beijing on August 8th, 2008 at 08.08pm CST. Here is this footage on YouTube.]

Unquestionably, China has arrived. Hello World!

As they say, well began is half done... And going by the analyst reposts, I suppose the icing on the cake for them would be the closing ceremony with China bagging most Gold medals!

[Related post: The Dalai Lama meets with the Mahatma]
[Go here for the official games schedule, and here for the medals standings.]
[Go here for a guide on How to watch the Olympics online.]
[Go here for the BBC coverage of the opening ceremony.]
[Go here for the list of "the ten Chinese people you should know about" - including Li Ning who is the biggest sports brand in China.]

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Lama meets Mahatma

I FOUND IT VERY SYMBOLIC SEEING the Dalai Lama paying homage to Mahatma's memorial at New Delhi. And, rightly so. Mahatma Gandhi, who always advocated for equanimity of all religions, was not a Buddhist, yet, without any exaggerations, he was a perfect example of one. Mahatma brought independence to his people through practising non-violence, and that is what the Lama teaches the world.

[Left: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama throws rose petals at Raj Ghat, The Memorial to Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi on March 29, 2008, to attend a public inter-faith prayer meeting for those who lost their lives in Tibet. Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Jain leaders offered prayers along with The Dalai Lama and hundreds of Tibetans and their supporters at the cremation spot of Mahatma Gandhi. - tiskali.co.uk]

The Dalai Lama is a defacto (though dethroned) King of the Tibetan people. And he is at his Kingly duty while he takes on China with respect to the rights for the Tibetans. In doing so, as always - and as Bodhisattva incarnate - he has taken the peaceful (middle) path, and his 'meeting' the Mahatma was more than a statement to this effect.

On the other hand, there is this 'fraction' made up of Tibetan students, who have taken the route of giving the Chinese military a taste of their own medicine - in an equally violent manner. It's rather natural. But they should be under an effective leadership, and should better know what they are doing, else they would likely end up damaging the mission of the Dalai Lama rather than China. History has it that every peaceful protest or uprising is accompanied by a violent one, and vice versa. After all, not everybody who would want to attain the same aim would consider one path as the only path.

One of the common most dividing range among peoples of all kinds and cultures - An apparent generation gap.

The twist truly comes in the way the 2008 Olympics games are entwined into this ethnic issue. China could have done without it at any rate, but the Tibetans saw a 'global' opportunity to capture world-attention. It appears that they were also backing upon the by now well-known oppressive nature of the rule that China imposes under its regime. A little provocation by a certain bunch of Tibetan students in Lhasa, and China happily obliged by moving in its armed forces. And when it realised that it was rather a lure to the dragon into the cave, it started calling foul on the Dalai Lama for allegedly 'master-minding' the 'violence'. Too late to figure, I suppose.

[Right: Police pull down a demonstrator along the route of the Olympic torch in London. Protesters advocating Tibet's independence disrupted the torch's path in London, Paris and San Francisco. - time.com]

The bad aspect of the Olympics being dragged into this is, as I observed in certain online forums, that it has confused as well as divided people world over in terms of their support to the Tibetans, and in doing so, have lost some good souls to the opposite camp. Someone said, "Keep sports out of it, whatever it may be... [Sports] is probably only place left with some spirit...", Someone else, "Olympics does not belong to China, it belongs to the world, are they [Tibetans] boycotting the world?" another said, "Let's boycott USA for its treatment to the Indians, and Russians for this, and German's for that, and Britons for another, and... You would not end up having any place [wealthy enough] to host Olympics... " These people are generally sympathetic with the oppression that the Tibetans have been through, like they do for Israel/Palestine, Iraq, Darfur, or any other place...

On the beneficial part, the Tibetans gained world-stage to put-up their protests, largely peaceful ones, and attracted the attention to their cause. The media, though it appears remained shrewdly divided, have had multiple field-days. While they 'worded' condemnation for the Olympics boycott-calls, at the same time, they gave certain people and nations the arm-twisting opportunity against China. That said, it is not for the first time that the Olympics face a boycott issue; the world has seen it thrice already. But in all those cases, the issues were international and political rather than ethnic.

[Above: Countries that have boycotted Olympics - Montreal-1976 (yellow), Moscow-1980 (blue) and Los Angeles-1984 (red).]

At the end of the day, however, China would remain unstoppable, and the chances of the Olympics being deferred/called-off and next to nil. And the reason is simple: Economics.

Economics and the numbers involved in this Beijing Olympics event does not favour either deferment or cancellation. Sports is a huge business globally. With all due respect to its international 'community spirit' and all that, the Olympics is after all an economic event of the largest scale in sports today. While it requires a huge investment, it also promises to bring in a mountain worth of foreign exchange within a very short run of about a month. Perhaps, the Bird's Nest has some golden eggs!

China has a lot at stake, for, along with it's investor 'friends', it has infused billions into infrastructure development in/around Beijing to host this event. China's business plans in terms of first breaking even, expand infrastructure at the cost of tourists' money and hyper-consume it's own products in the process, and then make billions in profit, had not accounted for Tibet - Or might have underestimated Tibet, because that's what it seems now. And I suppose that is where China is at its most vulnerable (numbers are not released by China; for London 2012 the budget is £ 9bn = ~USD 18bn). After all, it's all about Money. Threats to Beijing Olympics were first proclaimed by China (not the Dalai Lama, as some media had first reported, and then corrected. The Dalai Lama has rather favoured the Olympics, calling them a peaceful event.). One of the reasons why China had to sound the bugle could be for all those US/EU investors to help cover the grounds. It is supposed to be a very effective strategy if executed properly - let those 'western' investors resist anti-Olympics (i.e. anti-Chinese) propaganda in their respective home-land for the sake of their own invested money.

The Olympics would go on, on schedule, as planned, and we would get to see everyone falling in line as well.

And at that rate, Tibetans seem to lose out; on one hand they could not dislodge the Olympics, they might have made enemies out of innocents, and the 'uprising' remains oppressed. (Also, any uprising has to be from within, and not without.)

This is perhaps the toughest time for the Dalai Lama since his exile. And I hope the Mahatma had a word or two of respite for him...

Update: The 29th Summer Olympics begins with a bang at Beijing on time.

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