Why do India not care about The Olympics????

Question

One of the excuses for China leading the medal table is 'well they're such a big country with so many people, it's obvious they're going to do well'.

So why are India so poor at the Olympics??? They have 1 gold and 1 bronze.....and they are a population of 1.1 billion people!

I then enquired, and saw they only entered 56 people into the Olympics.....So why don't they care about them? You can't say India isn't a sporting country, they are cricket mad, have a formula 1 team, and are one of the biggest foreign markets for the English premier league.

You could say that 'well although the economy is growing quickly, many are still in poverty.....but you can say the same about China, Jamaica, Kenya etc.....they do well.

Why don't the Indians seem to care about the Olympics. 2 Medals out of 1.1 billion people is beyond pathetic.

You can say 'the money isn't there in Indian Sport'......well then how come there was enough money to bankroll the insanely expensive Indian Cricket league?

I can understand the 'Indian culture is not suited to the Olympics' but that doesn't excuse the medal haul.

Jamaica (2.8million pop) 5G 3S 1B

India (1.1 billion pop) 1G 0S 1B

I'm not having a dig at India I genuinely want to know.

Answer 1

Being a British Indian, i completely agree with you. It's just the older generation parents brainwashed their children to be doctors.I would dream to be a footballer but Indian parents won't splash out cash on participating in soccer tournaments. They would say ' That is too expensive and you would rather spend your time studying '. If someone said that to me i would say ' f*** off.They have completely no interest in sport ( i do- soccer mad, cricket mad, rugby-mad and tennis-mad)And i have noticed how unathletic most Indians are. Their unhealthy diets of curry and rice have a strong influence in how they perform. To be honest, Indians living in India only show a big interest in cricket. It's also the government would probably invest it's money into big businesses for profit and wouldn't invest in sports facilities for schools or sports centres.During my visit to India i found women live a very simple life. The thing is Indians do what their great-great-great grandfathers used to. This includes jobs such as fishing, farming, warriors. It's become a tradition and so people would be more interested in this rather than sport. I'm a British Indian by the way.

Answer 2

I keep hearing that all India cares about is focusing on education. That's why they haven't made an impact on the Olympics.

So the USA doesn't focus on education?

If that is the case, why are Indians and so many other foreigners trying to come to the USA to attend our top schools?

The education excuse is just that, an excuse.

I will agree that if cricket was a sport in the Olympics, that they would do well. I have never been to India but I know plenty of Indians that live here in the USA. With the exception of one good soccer player, none of them are all that interested in athletics.

Video games are big time in the USA but in South Korea, the best video gamers are like rock stars. Go figure.

My point is that perhaps Indians don't idolize awesome athletes so it doesn't motivate anyone to become one.

Answer 3

First of all:

Sport is discouraged

Indians concentrate on academics more.

And last of all,,, its all about cricket to them.

Answer 4

        sports is not considered a good option as means of bread butter. look around, how many people are into any  kind of sports as a carrier. yes there is1.1 billion population in india but large fraction of this population belongs to middle and lower class who are attracted by standards of leaving of higher class. Every one is starving for quick,easy and big money. With all the industrial buzz most of this talent is being pulled into various industries where it is utilised in making economy grow. even the college students prefer to work in call centers, and marketing feild for extra bugs. we are making our country progress economically at the cost of these medals. I dont know if that isgood or bad. but this really is current situation and it can be changed surely.  

Answer 5

Im surprized india has a medal in a sport other than cricket LOL

Answer 6

Culturally academic achievement has much greater focus amongst Indian people than Sport.....except Cricket.

Answer 7

If India sent people to the olympics who would handle tech support for AOL?

Answer 8

if they added cricket to the games im sure india would have bagged some gold medals ...we concentrate more on academics

Answer 9

Unlike Jamaica or Kenya, who are probably happy with their place in the world, countries like India and China see themselves as the new global superpowers of the 21st century, and when they step out into the world stage they wanna look their best, China is ready but India still has a while to go, they will decide to compete seriously when they feel comfortable.

Answer 10

I think they do care.  It's just that the Indians just haven't had the infrastructure and they haven't built the foundation to make high quality athletes and sports teams.  Same goes with Indonesia, another 1 billion strong nation.  

Yes, cricket and men's field hockey are HUGE there, but the former isn't in the Olympics.

As for academic achievement, yes India cares a lot about it but then so does China and Korea.  They have many of their students traveling to our universities here in the US, and we all know China is good in sports, and so is Korea.  They're still in the Top 10 in the medal count and their country has about 50 million in it.  Not too shabby for a country that stereotypically doesn't care about sports and studies all day.

EDIT: Okay, I get a thumbs down for India wanting to do well in sports...  Well, China cares more about the academics than sports too, and they do well in both!  Their schools are boot camps compared to most of the rest of the world.  Don't just assume that India is bad at sports because they simply don't care, which is false.  

(For some reason a lot of people give thumbs down to answers they don't like to hear.)