Agencies
New Delhi, August 25: Top golfer Anirban Lahiri, who competed in the Rio Olympics 2016, has hit out against the officials who run sporting bodies in the country as well as those that went to the Games and have called them ‘anti-nationals’ and ‘traitors’ after watching how various sports disciplines are administered in the country.
“It is sad to see how an Olympian is treated in our country,” Lahiri has been quoted as saying by a website, Thursday. “I know it is making waves now in the media because we have had a bad Olympics, but it’s the same thing, whether you look at golf or any other sport. Every single sporting achievement in this country is in spite of and despite of the system; nothing is because of the system.”
Lahiri, who along with SSP Chawrasia took part in the golf event which returned to the Olympics after a gap of 112 years, was critical about the way athletes were treated by the Indian officials. “When I arrived at Rio, there was no official car to receive me. I had to go in a taxi to the Games village. Then again there was no one at the gate. The guards were not allowing me entry, because I was not in an official car. After much persuasion, I managed to get in,” informed the golfer.
Lahiri said he was inspired by meeting India’s Olympic athletes from other sports and hearing their stories, but was appalled by the hardships they endured and the handicaps they overcame simply to pursue a sport or discipline that often fails to reward them monetarily.
“We are a privileged lot, those of us who play golf, as compared to a lot of what these guys do for a living. Some of them are technically not even sportspersons professionally, because that is not what puts bread on their table,” said the World No. 63.
“Me and SSP (Chawrasia) were convinced that if we were not playing golf, we couldn’t be Olympians. Not in India. I don’t think we would have been able to put ourselves through all the pain and discipline that it takes to be an Olympian and the further pain and aggravation it takes to deal with these guys (officials),” he added.
No Olympic campaign is ever complete without the question of why India doesn’t win more medals, and Lahiri said he had a tough time explaining to athletes from other countries about the system in place in India.
Lahiri recalled an incident where he was telling a golfer about the Narsingh Yadav dope controversy and the wrestler’s accusations that his drink was spiked with steroids to prevent him from competing in the Rio Games.
“He (the golfer) just looked and me and said, ‘Stop, don’t tell me anymore. I don’t want to hear. I can’t believe this is what happens. I don’t want to believe you. How can someone do that to their own people’?” Lahiri narrated.
“This is literally anti-national. We have been crying hoarse over intolerance, but what about our sporting bodies? Has anybody looked at them? Ego (is what motivates these people); ego without any reason to have one. What happened with Narsingh is anti-national,” he asserted.
