India is a vibrant country that has always carried a fevered pitch and fervent excitement for sports. Yet as of this writing if one is to pit the Olympic medals ever earned by the great Michael Phelps against the all-time total of India, the number that separates the two can be counted on one hand—with the disparity between gold-medal totals even greater in Phelps' favor.
Considering India has had a bit of a head start—with the Baltimore Bullet's first Olympic race coming in 2000—it is a sadly comical tale. Different reasons have been insinuated for the country's lack of propensity to stand atop a podium, so let's touch many of the common explanations and then at the end try to offer at least a modicum of solutions for the future.
Mad Men
No one in history has ever claimed any government is perfect. For the most part, the mad men ruling the roost seem to have their own agendas at hand. One need look no further than India, where government officials of the developing country quite literally turn their backs on millions of competitors.
Without ...
Read Complete Article at Bleacher Report - Sports & Society
Article is property of BleacherReport.com