More on Bhiwani Boxing Club and Sushil Kumar
I discovered via Sen's Spot this wonderful BBC article on BBC (Bhiwani Boxing Club) and Vijendra Kumar. The video in the BBC article is worth watching, it gives the glimpse of the coach Jagdish Singh at Bhiwani Boxing Club (BBC) and a view of the facilities. I came to know via the article that Vijendra has already done modeling for magazines! No wonder all of us thought he is good looking. Here is what Vijendra said in the BBC article-
Although he is a boxing champion, Vijender Kumar is an oddity in India, a virtual one-sport country where cricket is religion.
The son of a bus driver who worked overtime to pay for his coaching, Vijender is India's unsung champion boxer.
"My blood boils when everybody goes gaga over cricket", says the 22-year-old, one of five boxers in India's modest Olympics contingent to Beijing this summer.
And then Indian Express reported this about Sushil Kumar's training quarters.
In this context the post at Smoke Signals (via Desipundit) makes hell lot of sense.Squeezed into tiny rooms at the stadium’s residential facility, with rats, cockroaches and cobwebs for company, the conditions are not really conducive to breed a champion. But for these men, it’s just a way of life.
...
Even at NIS, Patiala, where India’s Beijing-bound wrestlers were training, the conditions had been difficult. Before they left for the Olympics, the wrestlers had told The Indian Express that the “callous attitude of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) administration could seriously hamper India’s medal prospects”. “Right from filling water-coolers to sweating it out in wrestling halls with not even air-cooling facilities, it was tough for them,” said a local wrestler on Wednesday. “I have seen with my eyes how the wrestling staff practised in the summer heat. But still they managed to get a medal.”
Sushil Kumar won despite the abysmal training facilities provided to him. IOA can take no credit for ... medal. Instead, their noses should be collectively rubbed in our overall results in Beijing.
Labels: BBC, Beijing Olympics, Off Topic, sports
posted by Mridula at 11:13 AM
7 Comments:
I feel so proud because of their accomplishments….thanks for the well written posts….
I think that one of the reasons for the success of cricket as a sport in India is that its administration is not in the hands of the government.
ooo Vijender is quite the hunk ;)
Kudos to our wrestlers who have achieved despite all the odds...
I think if the Indian audience stops going gaga over cricket and its boys then there will be some hope for revival in other sports...isn't it all about demand and supply?
Sujata, this Olympics definitely have been different and so much more better!
I agree Sidhu and Mittal's Champions Trust also seems to be doing good to other sports.
Akira, I thought private sector encouragement would also help as it would be foolish to expect much from the government here!
We are proud of them, but Vijendra would do well to calm his boiling blood because cricket took 25 years to reach this stage - after World Cup victory.
These wins will inspire people to crave for boxing and other sports too. But Cricket doesn't become bad just because you are a boxer. People will watch they like, and they like to see people winning.
Manish, you have a point but then Vijendra is young and it must be really hard to keep yourself motivated with the minimal facilities they got!
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