NEW DELHI, Aug 12:
India would be returning with its best ever medal haul in the Olympics from London, though without a gold in its kiity, prompting Sports Minister Ajay Maken expressing satisfaction with the performance of the athletes and hoping that the country can win 25 medals in 2020 Games.
India had won three medals at the Beijing Games four years ago and the country’s athletes have improved the medal count by two ahead of the final day of competitions at the mega event, and Maken lauded the athletes for their performance.
“If you compare India’s past performance, I think this is India’s best Olympics so far we have ever had. We have improved on all counts,” Maken said.
“You should compare, how many medals India could win except Hockey ever since Olympics started. It was only seven medals. This time alone we have got four medals (at the time of interview),” he said.
“It is not only in comparison to last time, if you take last time and this time together we have won seven medals (at the time of interview) so far as compared to seven medals India ever won since Olympics started.
“By 2020 we can get 25 medals, and this is a achievable target. Out of it, it can be 5 or 10 golds. We cannot specify the number of gold,” he added.
Before the start of the final day’s events, India were placed at 56th in the medal tally, with one silver and four bronze.
Maken feels India cannot expect to win more medals when the country has a poor Human Development Index (HDI) and low Per Capita Income.
“As per as Human Development Index is concerned, India is 134th in the world and as per as Per Capita Income is concerned, India is 129th and as of now (at the time of interview) we are 46th in the Olympics. Sport is not only about the number of people. It is not only in terms of total GDP we produce, it is the HDI. All such things do matter,” said Maken.
“It’s a big achievement for the athletes and the country. There are only two countries who have worse Human Development Index but are above India in Olympics. All the countries (on top of medal tally) has better HDI or per capita income than India. All such things are related to each other. Any kind of surveys done by any such agencies does not take into account such factors.
“HDI is not politics. HDI is a reality. Whatever it is, the reality is per capita income and HDI play a very important role and it is something that is reflected in the number of medals too,” he added. (PTI)
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