Persisting medal drought

Pakistan fails to add to its tally of 10 Olympic medals won over the years

The entire Pakistani nation is immensely proud of all the athletes who competed at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, especially Arshad Nadeem and Talha Talib who showed great resolve and came very close to clinching a medal.

Nadeem stood fifth in the men’s javelin throw with his best throw hitting 84.62m in the final round — 2.96m short of the gold awarded to India’s Neeraj Chopra. Talib, who was there without his coach, also came in fifth place after successfully lifting up to an impressive 320kg — 12kg short of the gold that went to China’s Chen Lijun. Our athletes have given us much optimism and hope amid such testing times. Irrespective of winning or losing, it is one of the few occasions that we, as Pakistanis, can hold our heads up with pride.

Pakistan has, therefore, failed to add to its tally of 10 Olympic medals won over the years, and is to return empty handed from Tokyo. Most of these gold medals -- 3 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze – have been won by the hockey team, while a bronze medal each has been brought by wrestler Muhammad Bashir way back in 1960 at Rome Olympics and boxer Hussain Shah in 1988 at the Seoul Games.

The last time Pakistan won a medal was a hockey bronze in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. So, about three decades later, Pakistan’s Olympic medal drought persists. However, this year’s Olympics is a testament to the fact that despite all odds, Pakistan still remains a seedbed of raw talent who are waiting to be honed into professional world-class athletes. Regrettably, no one is ready to take them seriously.

The Pakistan Sports Board and the Pakistan Olympic Association, headed by decadent leaderships, remain hollow institutions that have failed miserably at promoting sports and supporting athletes. Lack of support, coupled with nepotism and power politics, has vitiated our sports culture. The absence of the country’s once-internationally-renowned hockey team from this year’s Olympics is a case in point — despite hockey being our national sport.

One wonders why a staggering amount of Rs440 million remained unutilised and returned to the government by the sports board when it should have been used to provide professional training and resources to our competing athletes and to revitalise the disintegrating sport of hockey. Yet, after Talha’s performance both institutions had the audacity to resort to a blame game of pointing fingers at each other’s negligence.

The unfortunate reality is that many of our previous contenders have to resort to menial demoralising jobs in order to make ends meet. It is the job of our top leadership, especially the PM who is ironically a sportsman himself, to appoint visionary, sincere and patriotic professionals at the helm of sports institutions across the country. Anyone with a fairly rudimentary understanding of the sports scene in Pakistan knows that development at the grassroots is essential for long-term progress.

Promotion, training and scouting should start at the school level. Professional trainers should be deployed in schools and colleges around the country to seek out and upskill young talents so that they can become well-rounded athletes upon graduation. It is time to move beyond our cricket frenzy and give a chance to other lesser known sports. Sports officials must chart out a cogent plan to develop and train potential athletes for the next Olympics. The earlier we start the better. We must not let the travails of our athletes go in vain.