Please find attached: My Olympic medal
The social responsibilities on an Indian Olympic athlete
Neeraj Chopra winning India’s first Gold in athletics, Tokyo 2020.
Image Courtesy: Reuters / Aleksandra Szmigiel
To anyone reading this in the future, first of all, hello! I hope people have taken the damn vaccines, and the pandemic is now an endemic, or even better, completely eradicated. It is 7th August 2021, India has created history by winning its first Athletics gold medal! (Courtesy of Neeraj Chopra)
India is having a dream season with 7 medals at Tokyo 2020, the best one yet! But all along this buzz of medals won and lost, only a few have been able to look through the noise. The noise of underdevelopment, casteism, social status, and the other responsibilities these sportspersons carry on their shoulders.
India is a status-driven country. India’s most used used currency isn’t the Indian Rupee. Far from it. The most important transactions, the ones that actually matter, happen through social currency.
What does it mean to be an Olympian in a status-driven country? Every medal won is a new school built in the hometown, or a new road to connect your village with a nearby town. Every medal lost is casteist slurs being hurled at your family, and being called a bad omen just because you belong to a certain community.
For someone not from India, having to win an Olympic medal to help the government realise that they've not paid attention to your village/community, might seem weird. But in reality, it is the norm. For so many athletes, winning isn't just personal. It is also to ensure that the government builds a school/road in the village. So much pressure!
Olympics are not only to prove their excellence in the sport, it also helps the sportspersons earn social currency that they can spend once they’re back in the country.
To,
Head,
Local municipal body.
Subject: Building a school in the village for a better education.
Dear sir/madam,I know what will nudge you to take action. Please find attached my
Olympic medal and certificate from the International Olympic Committee.
Regards,
Sportsperson
Attachments: Medal & Certificate.
To,
Sportsperson,
Re: Building a school in the village for a better education.
Dear sportsperson,
Received 👍
Don’t get me wrong I am in no ways a spoilsport (pun intended), trying to ruin the historic moment in Indian sports. Contrarily, what I mean to bring to your attention is that Indian Olympians will perform a lot better when they’re focusing on doing their best and not busy worrying about the schools/roads not built if they lose. Or their families being attacked (verbally) when a bronze medal match is lost, even after creating history!
Being an Olympian from a status-driven country is a high risk, high reward situation. Indian Olympians are probably not trying to primarily change the world. They are trying to build a better future for themselves, their communities, and their fellow villagers. Changing the world is a by-product for them. Changing their own lives is a priority. That tells you a lot about status-driven countries.
Signing off,
Frodo Mercury
Lord of the strings
