Author: Boria Majumdar

Boria Majumdar in Paris In Tokyo, she was all of 19 years old. And when she failed to win a medal because her gun malfunctioned, Manu Bhaker was viciously trolled. We forgot that she had qualified for the games on her own merit and had never promised anyone that she’d win a medal. No question that Manu most distraught that she couldn’t win. Did we try to find out what she went through? How did she cope with failure? Was she depressed? We forgot that today’s vanquished are often tomorrow’s victors. And make no mistake, Manu is a rare talent.…

Boria Majumdar in Paris The Olympic Games opening ceremony is supposed to be a melting pot of the world. And this time round, with it being out in the open on the river Seine opposite the Eiffel Tower, it was all the more so. As many as 206 national Olympic committees and 1 refugee team showcased all that is good about our world in front of 320,000 people. The build-up was about 100 boats carrying 6800 athletes down the river. About Celine Dion performing. Or so one thought. On the day itself, it all changed. From the morning of July…

Boria Majumdar in Paris Abhinav Bindra is a legend of Indian sport. And now, he has been bestowed with the Olympic Order by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the highest honour in the Olympic movement. Also, he ran with the torch on Wednesday, an experience he called humbling. He spoke to Boria Majumdar, RevSportz’s editor-in-chief, about the experience. Extracts. Boria: Thousands cheered you as you ran with the torch. Tell me about the experience? Bindra: It was humbling to be honest. It was a huge honour for me to be asked to run with the torch here in Paris. I…

Boria Majumdar in Paris I was sitting in the Main Press Centre (MPC) and getting ready for the live show when a voice came up from behind me and said, “Bhai jaan, kaise hain [Brother, how are you]?” I had seen him somewhere, but was not able to recognise him immediately. Seeing my blank expression, he said: “Tokyo bhul gaye [You’ve forgotten Tokyo]?”. And all of a sudden, it came back. He is one of the best photographers in the business and we had struck up a very close friendship in Tokyo, when he would come every day to photograph…

After the 1948 hockey gold-medal win in London, the Indian team, Balbir Singh senior had recounted, went to France to celebrate the win. Now, with the Indians back in France and PR Sreejesh calling it his final dance, the stakes are as high as they were in 1948. Perhaps, it is apt to look back at what happened in that final. It was actually the dream final: Newly independent India, the defending champions from 1936, taking on Great Britain, their former imperial masters who had avoided playing Olympic hockey as long as India remained a colony. That the Indians were…

Sport and politics have always gone hand in hand, and the Olympics are no different. Followers of sport will not forget the Black Power Salute in Mexico City (1968), for example. But we Indians also have our own story, when in 1936, the team refused to salute Adolf Hitler at the opening ceremony, creating a massive stir in Berlin. The Indians were the only contingent apart from the Americans not to perform the raised-arm salute as a mark of obeisance to the German Chancellor. British-loyalist newspapers were more focused on the defiant US contingent, making only a brief mention of…

When we speak of heartbreaks at the Olympic Games, the first Indian name that comes to mind is that of Henry Rebello. He was distinctly unlucky in the London Games of 1948. A 19-year-old triple jumper, Rebello was a favourite to clinch gold, having shown exemplary promise in meets preceding the Games and consistently jumping over 50 feet, the distance covered by the eventual gold-medal winner in London. Highly rated by experts, Rebello had qualified for the finals with ease – a jump of 49 feet, easily clearing the cut-off of 48 feet, 6 inches. But as luck would have…

Twenty-seven years before Chak De! India was released, the first Indian women’s hockey players made it to the Olympics. Perhaps those early pioneers would empathise with the trials and tribulations of the fictional players in the film. When women’s hockey was first introduced at the Moscow Olympiad in 1980 as a medal sport, India were one of the six teams that contested for honours. The other nations in the fray were Zimbabwe, USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Austria. India began their campaign by defeating the Austrians 2–0 at the Young Pioneers stadium in Moscow. Despite the victory, coach Kartar Singh was…

We love to sensationalise, and we love controversy. And, to be honest, controversy sells. A headline which says India is sending 117 athletes and 140 support staff is made for controversy. The immediate understanding is that officials and babus are traveling at government expense and will have a merry time in Paris. With such things a regular occurrence in the past, the media can’t be blamed either. Things are, however, different this time round. A detailed scrutiny of each of the 140 names reveal that more than 85 per cent of the support staff are coaches, sports scientists, medical teams…

At Los Angeles 1984, history of sorts was made when the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) picked five women in a contingent of eight athletes. Of the five, PT Usha had impressed the most, having won the 400 metres hurdles in a pre-Olympic meet by defeating some of the world’s best, including Debbie Flintoff of Australia and Lesley Maxie of the USA. Her timing of 55.8 seconds may have been slightly slower than her best but it would certainly be enough to get her into the Olympic final, especially with the world’s best hurdlers – all from behind the old Iron…