I think India should now actively start thinking about a long term Olympic Strategy. I'm not saying have 1000s of training centers and build 20 year olympic programs like China & US from the get go, because these things take time.

But at least focus on the sports where we have already created a name, and expand from there. Sports like Javelin, Shooting, Weightlifting, Wrestling.

We don't seem to have junior athletes making a mark at the international stage. In 2022, at the U20 World Athletic Championship we weren't even in the top 5.

Also, Neeraj will be around 30 at LAGames. But I have been following the sport for a while, and athletes peak at 25-27, and then quickly fall off the grid. If you look at the last 20 year record of gold medalist you'll also realise how athletes who've won gold, hardly ever win a gold again. It's things like body recovery that make a huge difference.

For example, Arshad Nadeem had major surgeries through last year. In fact he had a knee surgery earlier this year and was expected to be out of the tournament. 4 Weeks back he couldn't lift a javelin, and started training 3 weeks before Olympics. As the commentators also mentioned at the medal ceremony, it is unheard of to have such an impressive recovery journey, that too for a knee surgery.

But I doubt this type of recovery will be possible for Arshad when he is 30-31 at LA games.

Even if we all think that Neeraj will fetch the Gold in LA, we should still prepare 4-5 kids for the future. As a nation, we should distinguish between celebrating a hero like Neeraj, and bollywoodifying everything and being disappointed. We've done the same mistakes in cricket. We make sports people bigger celebrities than the country, and then just expect them to meet unrealistic expectations.

 "Conversely, the javelin throw, which appears to have the fastest rate of development, also has the quickest rate of decline in performance" - (Coach T., 2020)

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