Why does a country like India fails at Olympics?

[Gambler420]

Olympics is the Mega event held in which thousands of athletes from all over the world participate in individual or in a team format. These athletes come from around 200 nations and perform their level best for pride of their Nation.Olympics is originated from Olympia which was held in Ancient times. This Modern Olympics has gained a lot of name and fame.
Before investigating the reasons for the failure let's have a look on performance of India in Olympics. India firstly participated in 1900 and the first athlete was Norman Pritchard, he received silver medal in both the games that he had participated. Then after India sent its first team in 1920. Dealing with such Mega events wasn't a joke hence an association named as Indian Olympics Association was established.

Well here comes the most Informative paragraph of performance of India in Olympics. Till date India has received 9 gold medals, 6 silver medals, 11 bronze medals totally accounting to just 26 medals in a span of 1 century..!!! In Gold medals received 8 medals are won by Hockey team and just 1 Gold medal by Abhinav Bindra in Beijing Olympics 2008. While compared with U.S.A. or China we are no where near to them.This is ridiculous..!!

There is an alarming need to investigate in to the reason for failure in Olympics.

[Betfairalfie]

The BBC story on this subject has a few conclusions. Lack of funds, priority given to academic study the caste system and the dominance of cricket.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36941269

[Peter Portman]

I vote on poor health and povetry. India is a specific country.

[nors]

We have seen in the UK the investment made on certain sports has reaped rewards. Cycling, Gymnastics, Swimming have all flourished.

The lottery money has made a big impact in Team GB success. You can hear the GB competitors when interviewed the effect lottery funding has had.

I suspect you need a joined up programme and aim to start turning around countries fortunes + plenty of cash.

Many countries have other more pressing concerns than gold medals.

[jmstocka]

The Lottery Funding has indeed had a big effect on numbers of medals won by Team GB but playing Devils Advocate, is it worth the investment and could that money have been spent more effectively, say in regenerating inner city areas, where some kids wouldnt know what green grass was like.

After a miserable 1996 games in Atlanta, with one Gold and just 15 medals for GB, Lottery funding was used to boost funding for sports.

The figures quoted on the BBC were as follows

2000 28 medals £69 million £2.46 MPM
2004 30 medals £86 million £2.86 MPM
2008 47 medals £265 million £5.63 MPM
2012 65 medals £313 million £4.81 MPM
2016 Estimated 56 medals £347 million £6.19 MPM

The funding clearly shows a positive effect on number of medals won but I estimate the cost per medal for this years game could exceed 6 Million Pounds per medal, at that cost, I would rather see that money spent elswhere.

[Betfairalfie]

jm - good info but im not clear if those figures are just from the lottery or if they include govt funds and sponsorships.

I think all the Brits should buy another lottery ticket to celebrate.

[jmstocka]

Bfa not sure on the money split from Gov and Lottery but good to see that my occasional Lucky Dip on the Lottery has helped those winning Medals

[Peter Portman]

Still India has got one got medal! And the award is very good:)

[Aurearea]

I have a feeling that India has this love cricket and it just overtakes any other sport in their country. I do hope that they partake in other sports because there are a lot of possiblities for the country. They do have some elite athletes in cricket but if they can do that for football or even basketball, you can expect that India will be a power for Olympics. There are a lot of sports that they can make because they do love cricket but there are still some possible sports that they can get into. I love that they are so dedicated to their cricket but it will be hard to break away from that kind of love in the future but they have a lot of potential with other sports.