Is India the worst country in the world of sport?

paki here wrote:

i think pakistan is worse

we only have cricket too. but out athletics records are worse than indias. like our 10k record is 30mins for men.(atleast on the wiki page). this year the winner in national games had a time like 34ish mins

but yeah its mostly due to the culture. people are pretty lazy and not motivated to play sports. i mean 90 percent of the schools in my country dont even have grounds. just a dusty pitch with some swings. and these are expensive private schools.

There was a Pakistani dude on my T&F team for 1 season. He never in his whole life played a sport but was incredibly smart and had a 4.8 GPA. His first all-out mile (required for everyone on the team) was 7:00, but he ran a 2:20 800m by the end of the season.

The thing that always strikes me is how he never played any sports, even as a kid. Absolutely no base or nothing to indicate he would do well at all.

I definitely think there is talent out there, but as you said nobody wants to do sports.

There are some good runners in the US who had parents or grand-parents who were from India. Sukhi Khosla (low 4 min mile, now at OSU) and Niki Iyer (3rd at CA state meet in the 3200, now at Berkeley) come to mind. Also, Monal Chokshi who won an NCAA title in the '90s and Veena Reddy who placed top 10 at the US Olympic Trials.

That shows that there is talent there but it is cultivated better in settings where there is some sports culture.

I know us good self-loathing liberal westerners are supposed to think it's some kind of mystical land of elephant worshiping enlightened, India is actualky a backwater

Indian food is delicious

spicy!

mmmmm

Brian Gates253 wrote:

I know us good self-loathing liberal westerners are supposed to think it's some kind of mystical land of elephant worshiping enlightened, India is actualky a backwater

You need to go to the north, approaching Everest..... Shambhala....magical, mystical, eternal

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face

And stars fill my dream

I'm a traveler of both time and space

To be where I have been

To sit with elders of the gentle race

This world has seldom seen

They talk of days for which they sit and wait

All will be revealed

How has nobody brought up Billy Mills?

RM wrote:

How has nobody brought up Billy Mills?

scalping

Flounder wrote:

You mentioned American football and once proved wrong you are changing to baseball. Maybe you should watch the little league World Series.

You have proved yourself to be a very ignorant person. So please continue to post and prove it for our enjoyment.

Dude, seriously. Having one game annually that people attend for the novelty as an exhibition of americana where they also get to see cheerleaders with pompoms, eat hotdogs and buy rare merchandise does not mean American Football is popular. Tom Brady (he's like the NFL's Ronaldo or Messi, right?) would not be recognised on the street anywhere in the world outside the US. Let the NFL start that European franchise and we'll see if anyone other than American expats would regularly attend.

El Keniano wrote:

Flounder wrote:

You mentioned American football and once proved wrong you are changing to baseball. Maybe you should watch the little league World Series.

You have proved yourself to be a very ignorant person. So please continue to post and prove it for our enjoyment.

Dude, seriously. Having one game annually that people attend for the novelty as an exhibition of americana where they also get to see cheerleaders with pompoms, eat hotdogs and buy rare merchandise does not mean American Football is popular. Tom Brady (he's like the NFL's Ronaldo or Messi, right?) would not be recognised on the street anywhere in the world outside the US. Let the NFL start that European franchise and we'll see if anyone other than American expats would regularly attend.

Valid. Besides, with a name like Flounder, he's gotta be a troll.

They might not be internationally competitive at sports, at the moment, but they're pretty damn good at yoga: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3obvNv0heI&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQ3obvNv0heI&has_verified=1

India is very hot and humid and most of the population has more important things to focus on.

The reasons are cultural

Upper and middle class Indians are solely focused on academics

The masses of poor live in places of grinding poverty where basic survival is difficult much less playing sports.

And cricket is so overwhelmingly popular that every ounce of attention is given to it.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Flounder wrote:

Wrong. People in England seem to like American Football.

England is way down in the international list. The best countries outside the USA are Japan, Germany and Mexico.

Japan is the only country ever to have beaten the USA in the IFAF world championship. USA plays with a handicap, typically offseason post-collegians not headed for the pros, but beating them was still impressive.

Come on, there are a gazillion American football fields in Canada, even in Quebec. They have their own pro league.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Long history of civilization means gene pool adapted for sedentary and intellectual life.

Where's all the great athletes from Egypt? Iraq? Greece?

Top athletes hail from the homes of strong and hardy barbarians.

Good lord, this is such a load of BS.

I bet you are the worst man-splainer in the world, also.

observer_of_things wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

Long history of civilization means gene pool adapted for sedentary and intellectual life.

Where's all the great athletes from Egypt? Iraq? Greece?

Top athletes hail from the homes of strong and hardy barbarians.

Good lord, this is such a load of BS.

I bet you are the worst man-splainer in the world, also.

I once heard the Rev. Michael Usef, who grew up in Egypt, explain that in many cultures it is still considered undignified for men to run, especially as they approach 30 years old. Why would those cultures cultivate a skill that must end in some localities shortly after adolescence.

O yea the prodigal son story.

Ramzeas wrote:

observer_of_things wrote:

Good lord, this is such a load of BS.

I bet you are the worst man-splainer in the world, also.

I once heard the Rev. Michael Usef, who grew up in Egypt, explain that in many cultures it is still considered undignified for men to run, especially as they approach 30 years old. Why would those cultures cultivate a skill that must end in some localities shortly after adolescence.

Did you even watch the video? The Afro-India (Siddi) athletics training program has just commenced. Watch this space, by the 2024 Olympics India will be a powerhouse on the track.

MyKey wrote:

They've got a massive program going to train their Afro-Indian population.

That's true. I trained with an athlete from this program in Mumbai in 2013.

As for the thread's question, this has been asked and answered several times. I've trained under a former Indian national champion, who is now a coach, and he thinks the primary reason is the lack of a sporting culture, and I agree with him.

Very interesting to note is that, at least in urban areas (not sure about rural areas), the quality of athletes has actually become worse. Case in point is the 1500m at the yearly Mumbai district meet. In the eighties (when my coach used to run) you'd need to run sub-4 to win. Now it's more like 4:35-4:45.

swishswishbish wrote:

O yea the prodigal son story.

Ramzeas wrote:

I once heard the Rev. Michael Usef, who grew up in Egypt, explain that in many cultures it is still considered undignified for men to run, especially as they approach 30 years old. Why would those cultures cultivate a skill that must end in some localities shortly after adolescence.

NIce pick up, Sir. I did not recall that I heard him say that within that particular message.