Showing posts with label Olympic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympic. Show all posts

Monday, August 8, 2016

How Insensitive? Shobha De gets trolled for her pathetic tweet on Indian Olympic team

Its easy to criticize sitting from a comforting home chair and judging players without acknowledging their hard work behind it, Famous Columnist and Author, Shobha de tweeted a pathetic tweet about the Indian Olympic team and as expected started getting trolled.
She tweeted,“Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity,”
While former Olympic Gold medalists Abhinav Bindra tweeted back politely, Shuttlers Kashyap and Jwala Gutta and actress Gul panag didn't take it lightly

Kashyap termed the tweet 'Stupidity not deserving a reply from Bindra'
Jwala Gutta questioned the attitude

Even the common public trolled the author,



Although the author seemed to repair her mistake with another tweet supporting Abhinav Bindra
by calling him the Dependable, champion and the only hope, it just irked the people even more. The damaged was already done after the previous tweet.


While the trolling continues, the Indian olympic teams journey has been topsy turphy so far. While it has been a heartbreaking loss for Women's archery, Indian Hockey team and Abhinav Bindra, with one losing the game in quarterfinal by shootouts. other with 3 seconds to go and latter one just finishing outside the top 3, there has been some encouraging performance in other games. Earning a point after 36 years in Women's hockey, First Indian Gymnast to qualify for the finals, Indian Olympic contingent has managed to get some positives. With Wrestling, Boxing, Gymnasts, Badmintion and some Hockey still to come, the chances of improving previous medal tally is still on.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Olympic legends #3: Indian Hockey Team

With the silver medal performance in the recently concluded hockey champions trophy, where the Indian men's hockey team lost in the finals to mighty Australians in the Penalty shootout, there is a renewed hope that this time the team would be coming with a medal from the Olympics. There was a time up until the late 1950's when India was the boss of the world hockey, Winning Gold in its first 6 attempts and a total of 8 golds in all, along with 1 silver and two bronze. last of which, was a gold medal that came in 1980 Moscow Olympic, since then the once great hockey team is yet to come up with a Olympic medal.

The first Gold medal winning team
The greats of the game like Dhyan Chand, Balbir Singh Sr., Leslie claudius, Ajit Kumar and many others have been instrumental in winning the gold for the country, Showcasing not just their talent but also creating a name all over the world. During the first half of the the 20th century, India was at least sure of one gold medal whenever there was an Olympics, that surety was given by its Men's hockey team.
Indian team in action
The fine dribbling of ball through a stick by the Indians not just mesmerised the crowd but made the game popular all over the world. The teams strong defence along with the goal thirsty forwards, was one of the reasons why it became closer to impossible for even scoring a single goal against the Indian team. 29 goals scored against none in 1928 Olympics, 35 scored against 2 in 1932, 38 against 1 in 1936, 25 against 1  in 1948, 2 goals against while 13 scored in 1952 and 38 against 0 in 1956 Olympics. Overall in the span of 6 Olympics games, only 6 goals were scored against India while they Pumped up a staggering 168 Goals. Surely a Legendary Hockey team.

Time to get the Glory days back
 It has been 36 Years since India last won the Olympic, for a country that once produced a team of unbeatables, It is sad to see the team struggling to get even in the Top 5. And that is one of the reason why the game lost its shine over the years, while there is no lack of talent in the present side as shown by the team in last couple of years, It only needs the right mentality and Temperament to perform at the big stage. 

Its Time we bring back the Glory days.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Olympic legends #2: Carl lewis

Frederick Carlton "Carl" Lewis is an American former track and field athlete, who won 10 Olympic medals, including nine gold, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996 when he last won an Olympic title and subsequently retired.

Inspiring runs
Lewis was a dominant sprinter and long jumper setting world records in the 100 m, 4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m relays, while his world record in the indoor long jump has stood since 1984. His 65 consecutive victories in the long jump achieved over a span of 10 years is one of the sport's longest undefeated streaks.

From 1981 until 1992, Lewis topped the 100 m ranking six times (seven if Ben Johnson's 1987 top ranking is ignored), and ranked no lower than third. His dominance in the long jump was even greater, as he topped the rankings nine times during the same period, and ranked second in the other years.

Emulating Jesse Owens
At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Lewis was entered into four events with realistic prospects of winning each of them and thereby matching the achievement of Jesse Owens at the 1936 Games in Berlin.

Lewis started his quest to match Owens with a convincing win in the 100 m, running 9.99 s to defeat his nearest competitor, fellow American Sam Graddy, by 0.2 s. In his next event, the long jump, Lewis won with relative ease. But his approach to winning this event stoked controversy, even as knowledgeable observers agreed his approach was the correct one. Since Lewis still had heats and finals in the 200 m and the 4 × 100 m relay to compete in, he chose to take as few jumps as necessary to win the event. He risked injury in the cool conditions of the day if he over-extended himself, and his ultimate goal to win four golds might be at risk. His first jump at 8.54 m (28 ft 0 in) was, he knew, sufficient to win the event. He took one more jump, a foul, then passed his remaining four allotted jumps. He won gold, as silver medalist Gary Honey of Australia's best jump was 8.24 m (27 ft 01⁄4 in). But the public was generally unaware of the intricacies of the sport and had been repeatedly told by the media of Lewis' quest to surpass Bob Beamon's legendary long jump record of 8.90 m (29 ft 21⁄4 in). Lewis himself had often stated it was a goal of his to surpass the mark. A television advertisement with Beamon appeared before the final, featuring the record-holder saying, "I hope you make it, kid." So, when Lewis decided not to make any more attempts to try to break the record, he was roundly booed. When asked about those boos, Lewis said, "I was shocked at first. But after I thought about it, I realized that they were booing because they wanted to see more of Carl Lewis. I guess that's flattering."

Following the footsteps of the great


His third gold medal came in the 200 m, where he won in a time of 19.80 s, a new Olympic record and the third fastest time in history. Finally, he won his fourth gold when the 4 × 100 m relay team he anchored finished in a time of 37.83 s, a new world record.

Numerous Accolades
Best in the world
He has been voted "World Athlete of the Century" by the International Association of Athletics Federations and "Sportsman of the Century" by the International Olympic Committee. "Olympian of the Century" by Sports Illustrated and "Athlete of the Year" by Track & Field News in 1982, 1983, and 1984.

Life after games
After retiring from his athletics career, Lewis became an actor and has appeared in a number of films. In 2011 he attempted to run for a seat as a Democrat in the New Jersey Senate, but was removed from the ballot due to the state's residency requirement. Lewis owns a marketing and branding company named C.L.E.G., which markets and brands products and services including his own.

Despite being embroiled in controversy over failed drugs tests during US team trials for the 1988 Olympics and Character misconceptions, Lewis stunning career demands an enormous amount of respect. He won four gold medals and was undefeated for over a decade in his favored event, long jump, while he also managed to set world records over distances between 100m and 4x100m with the American relay team.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Olympic legends #1: Jesse Owens

The Buckeye Bullet
  With 72 days to go from today for the World's biggest Sporting spectacle, Its time to Know about some of the greatest sporting legends to be a part of this event. While I have already written about Karoly Takacs, one of the biggest inspiration in the shooting sports or in any difficult life experiences, this post is regarding another such inspirational runner, who overcame racism, poverty to become of the greatest in track and field games.


The Buckeye Bullet
Also known as,"The Buckeye Bullet" Owens won 4 gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic, that included 100m, 200m, 4x100 and long jump. For Hitler and Nazi's this event was the stage to showcase the world its Aryan race supremacy and inferiority of other races, But Owens proved it wrong, winning 4 medals and breaking two records along the way.

Defiance in the face of Evil
During the games and afterwards, there were even reports that a furious Hitler, after witnessing Owens 100m win left the stadium without shaking hands with the winner. Although years later Owens himself denied this reports. But even then he wasn't fairy tale story back home for Owens, After having lived all his life in poverty and struggling to ends meet by working at young age, and training without Scholarships despite being eligible. Owens was disappointed although not entirely surprised that he was not even congratulated by his own president.

 “I loved running because it was something you could do all by yourself, and under your own power.” - Jesse Owens

After the 1936 Olympics, Owens opted out of few games to earn some financials gains through advertising and using his physical talents by racing against cars and horses. As a result of this he was never picked again. Later in his life, he was appointed as the goodwill ambassador of US.

One chance is all you need - Jesse Owens
In 1980 Owens died of cancer having played only one Olympic Games.
Legacy
The dormitory used by Owens during the Olympics has been fully restored into a living museum, with pictures of his accomplishments at the Games, and a letter (intercepted by the Gestapo) from a fan urging him not to shake hands with Hitler.

In the London 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, just after the Olympic cauldron had been lit, the 80,000 individual pixels in the audience seating area were used as a giant video screen to show footage of Owens running around the stadium.

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