By Rajesh Kalra - Follow Rajesh Kalra on Twitter 

For a nation so starved of glory in almost any field, the performance of Indian athletes at the just concluded Olympics in London has given a cause to feel good. Almost everybody who has met or dealt, howsoever brief it might be, with those who have done our nation proud, is taking credit for their performance.

Mind you, there is no Gold medal performance here. Our pride consists of two silver and four bronze medals. Which means, even if we compare our performance with the other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations, who we consider our peers otherwise, our performance is the worst, with Brazil (3 Gold, 5 Silver and 9 Bronze), Russia (24 G, 26 S, 32 B), China (38 G, 27 S, 23 B) and South Africa (3 G, 2 S, 1 B).

But this is not to belittle the performance of those who have done us proud. I am sharing with you the FB status message of my friend and awesome singer, Remo Fernandes on India’s performance at the Olympics: The people who ask our sportspeople 'Why only bronze?' must be those who've never won a medal in their lives. Or else they'd know what it takes to be THE 3RD BEST INDIVIDUAL IN THIS WHOLE WIDE HEAVILY POPULATED WORLD... specially when winning in spite of corrupt and incompetent Sports Departments and Ministries, and when competing against sportspeople from rich, developed countries with the best and highest qualified training on the planet. Proud of our Bronze - for now! If we really want Gold, WE ALL have to fight corruption - not put down our sportspeople. Three million cheers for them!

This one status message captures the essence of what and how our champions achieve what they do better than perhaps any long winded analysis that you are likely to see anywhere. Having observed sports and sportspersons for a couple of decades, I can safely say Remo has been kind to the officialdom. Even junior officers, not just of the sports ministry, but even the Sports Authority of India, think they are the athlete’s lord and masters. 

I have seen elite athletes wait hours outside the rooms of these, good-for-nothing officials, waiting to get two minutes of their time to complain about their kit or somehow curry some favour for being selected. Obviously, they too realise that the selection process is often a charade and if you want to realise your dream of representing your nation, this act of sycophancy is more important than all else. To complete this pecking order, this officer would be made to sit outside a deputy secretary’s room, who will wait outside a joint secretary’s room, who would be waiting outside the additional secretary or secretary’s room, who probably would be waiting outside the minister’s room, not necessarily to meet the minister, but some of his flunkies, if they are fortunate.

For these ministers and all flunkies and sundries to now strut around as if they are responsible for the performance of these athletes is abhorring, to say the least. Please understand, these achievements are despite you, not because of you.

And it is against that backdrop that ones appreciation for at least four of the six medallists grows even more. Sushil, Yogeshwar, Vijay Kumar and Mary Kom, all come from extremely poor and humble backgrounds. Please understand, Gagan Narang and Saina Nehwal are no less as champs, but the four mentioned earlier have really struggled. Even Narang and Saina haven’t had it easy. All of them have been made to run from pillar to post for something or the other. Narang’s famous run-in with the authorities at being ignored for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna is well-known. He had complained that this constant looked over by those who control the destinies of sportspersons was affecting his motivation. How true! And he is not alone!

Just this morning, I had a visitor, 32 year old Narinder Singh from a small, poor village in Haryana. Singh is an adventurer who has climbed Everest and spent an hour at the top without Oxygen, just so that he could do something different. He has also cycled from the Everest base camp to Kanyakumari, all in 60 days cycling an average of 200 KMs per day. For me, the unassuming Narindra is no less than the boxers and wrestlers from small villages in India who have done us proud. He may not have won an Olympic medal, but had the same determination to excel, to achieve against all odds. He is a champion too. None of them may have won the gold, but for the conditions they have endured to get where they did, their medals and achievements are more than a mere gold medal.