Indian Olympic Association longing for a bigger squad for swimming and athletics at the Commonwealth Games
The names of the athletes that will be a part of the Indian squad of swimming and athletics have not yet been disclosed by the Indian Organizing Committee because of security reasons. It has been revealed however that the Indian Olympic Association want
more players for swimming and athletics to represent India in the Commonwealth Games. This is being done because the IOA wants the host team to increase its probability of winning more medals by increasing the number of contenders.
Unlike other countries, India did not set very high standards for the qualification of swimmers and members for the athletics squad to be selected for the Commonwealth Games and thus the teams that were formed already had a good number of players. The deadline
for the submission of NOCs and names of the swimmers and athletes for the Commonwealth Games was the 3rd of September. Hence, the officials of the Swimming Federation of India and Athletics Federation of India were taken aback when they got a call
from the Indian Olympic Association, demanding some more entries in the host team for the swimming and athletics events. It is very surprising that the Indian Olympic Association would want more swimmers and athletes for the host squad. The experts see it
as a step towards winning more medals for the host nation.
The strength of the swimming squad that will be playing for the host country at the Commonwealth Games is based on 26 swimmers, out of which 17 were added later on. The final team had to go through a series of thorough exercises and training. Their performance
and swimming techniques were closely scrutinized by the officials and trainers of the Swimming Federation of India. The performances of the swimmers in the senior and junior national championships and the Federation cup were also considered while choosing
the team. The selection of the final swimming squad of India took about 2 years. The fact that is bothering the Indian Olympic Association the most is that the Australian swimming team consists of 52 members and despite India being the host country, its swimming
team comprises of 26 swimmers. The Swimming Federation of India also dropped out two of its athletes Richa Mishra and Jyotsna Pansare after they failed a doping test and were found positive for the prohibited chemical known as methyl hexamine. However, two
other swimmers replaced the dropouts of the squad.
The secretary of the Swimming Federation of India, Virendra Nanavati said that the selection committee had to look for deserving swimmers in the country due to pressure from the IOA. Nanavati also confessed that he was actually not very confident about
the performance of the 17 new swimmers that were picked up later. He justified his apprehensions by giving the instance of the poor performance of the two eleventh hour selected swimmers at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune two years ago. The two swimmers
failed the events miserably.
Visitors and spectators are in a fix as the Organizing Committee has not officially published any schedules of the matches. When the spectators buy the tickets, they have absolutely no information about the event that they will be attending. The whole international
community is still in suspense as to how the Games will work in the Indian capital. The host country has still not been able to live up to the expectations of the Commonwealth Games Federation and the delegates from 71 participating nations.
From the Games Village to the security conditions in the country, everything has been bothering the athletes and the Missions. Some officials of the Olympic Federations and the teams of the participating countries have even declared India unfit for hosting
such a mega event. The officials of Team Scotland called the Games Village in New Delhi as a place unfit for human inhabitation due to the stray dogs in the vicinity and the filthy conditions of the rooms in general and the bathrooms in particular. Less than
a week left for the Games, and the spectators are clueless of the sequence of the events.
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