Why can’t we win a single medal in Olympics?
What is the population of Pakistan? It’s been long since the census had happened but rough estimate is around 200 million. Now, what would be population of New Zealand? It’s around 4.5 millions…What would be medal tally of both the countries? New Zealand had secured 13 medals in the previous London Olympics whereas Pakistan failed to secure a single medal. What is so different between these two countries that despite being such a burden on earth (as far as population is concerned) Pakistan can’t win a single medal whereas New Zealand is standing on 4th position in medals per capita with 340,970 people earning a medal for the country? Who is at fault? Government or People? I guess both!
Let me tell you a routine of a normal person in Pakistan; A person who has a job wakes up at 7 o clock, goes to office and comes back at 2 o clock, extremely tired. He swallows the lunch and then jumps onto the bed to take a nap. He wakes up at 5 o clock…Now this is the time for activities, but NO! He prefers tea over physical activities. Now it is time for Maghreb and our people have this thing in mind that whatever happens, no going out after the Maghreb prayers. So he watches TV, goes through all the channels until dinner is served. After dinner, Facebook,twitter and Whatsapp is necessary. Now it’s 12 AM and he has to get some sleep. Every day for the rest of their lives, they have the same routine. Do we still expect to win a medal by following this routine? No sir…please lower your expectations.
Let’s not just blame the public. Government of Pakistan has equal hand in this medal dryness. Existing sports facilities are being sold for the construction of Cafeterias, hotels and restaurants etc. I have an example: In Kohat there were 3 football grounds adjacent to each other ( during the time in which I wasn’t born. My grandfather used to tell these stories). Now those 3 grounds have no traces whatsoever but only concrete structures of Liaquat Hospital are visible. Isn’t is unjustified? Making a hospital on a place which promotes physical fitness is stupidity to me. Someone please talk some sense into the Government. Government should not only provide facilities but also promote such activities by social media hype and by granting hefty prize money. Kohat had a great football team then but now, even if someone wants to play, he can’t because no football grounds are present in Kohat city in particular.
Another reason is that there is no money in sports in Pakistan. No one can take sports as a profession. Sports talented people often wash trucks or fill our gas in stations just because their parents asked them to earn some real money. Whole nation is skewed towards cricket (only sport which has money in it) which is a pretty bad thing for our country to progress in sports department. The Government should invest in other sports as well and wages of each Olympic sport should match the wages of cricketers.
I think the Government doesn’t realize that promoting sports could lead to increase in the foreign investment in our country. Well organized events should be organized every now and then so that international brands like NIKE, EA etc should sponsor those events. Domestic system should be made very strong and foreign players and coaches should be hired. I was very impressed by the Indian Badminton League. Playing against a senior international player gives a lot of confidence to the young domestic level players.
It is dark times for Pakistan as it faces a scare of not fielding a single athlete on merit. Pakistan might just have to field the athletes on wildcards which is absolute humiliation for any country. Serious and drastic measures have to be taken if Pakistan has to progress in the future Olympics and by progress I mean entry without a wildcard. Winning a medal is a far cry. Not to mention our last medal (bronze) was in 1992 and that too in field hockey.
Fingers crossed for a good future of Pakistan sports.