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SPORTS:
OLYMPIC SPECIAL
Weighed
Down
From being
sureshot contenders for gold, India's women lifters face an uphill battle
for medals
By Sharda
Ugra
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| Sanamacha:
Lost her momentum |
Here
are a few simple facts to be digested before venturing any further into
the world of Indian women's weightlifting: Firstly, it's been known that
women's lifting would make its Olympic debut in Sydney for, oh, about
four years now.
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The
Fighter They Left Behind
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Over
a career spanning 15 years, Nampeirakpam Kunjarani Devi has sparked
off a revolution in Indian women's weightlifting. The CRPF inspector
from Imphal, Manipur, has beaten the odds to win an astounding 46
medals at the world and Asian level. The title of world champion
has eluded Kunjarani several times: in 1993 she arrived in Melbourne
a day late for her own weight category event because of a delay
in getting her Australian visa. She was allowed to compete in a
higher class and won silver in the 50 kg. She recovered from knee
surgery in 1996 to return to sport, stronger than ever with an eye
on Sydney, lifting world record weights in practice. "My last
ambition is to compete at the Olympics and win a medal for India,"
she said days before she found herself cruelly axed from the Indian
squad.
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Secondly,
when the above announcement was made, India had a world champion in Karnam
Malleshwari, and the country's other lifter N. Kunjarani Devi was a silver
medallist at the world championships several times over. If there ever
were any sureshot Olympic gold medallists for India from Sydney, this
was the discipline and these were the women.
Thirdly,
and finally, there were months-about 48 of them-for the Indians to get
ready for their sport's big coming-out party.
Facts digested,
now try and stomach this: that party is two weeks from now and, as the
world's strongwomen tighten their grip on history, their Indian sisters
are left wringing their hands. Barring a miracle, the country's most experienced
weightlifter, Kunjarani Devi, will not make it to the Olympics. Barring
an act of providence, a gold medal in women's weightlifting, once a cinch,
now appears as elusive as the notes of a half-remembered song. Of the
two women selected for Sydney at the end of a tempestuous year, Malleshwari,
two-time world champion, has switched categories as she has grown too
heavy for the 63 kg class. The other, Sanamacha Chanu, is a rookie who
stands accused of costing India an additional berth at the Olympics.
Do not for
a moment imagine that this is the result of divine conspiracy; true to
Indian tradition it's all crafted by the human hand. The entity in charge
of operations in these critical pre-Olympic years, the Indian Weightlifting
Federation (IWF), changed coaches after the 1998 Asian Games. A year later
it stood suspended because its last elections produced two presidents
and two secretaries. One of those secretaries is also accused of running
a nice line in "fund duplication", i.e. receiving aid from the
government as well as from private sponsors for the same set of expenses.
It was just too darn difficult to keep the mind on slipping standards
and a city called Sydney, see. So ladies and gentlemen, two weeks from
now, at opening night, it will be time to reap the whirlwind.
Every morning
for nearly five years, Kunjarani climbed out of bed, washed her face and
went hunting for hibiscus. She would carry the flowers in her blistered
hands to her hostel room, she would set them down before an assembly-line
of gods and "ask them to give me strength". She should have
asked for some forbearance instead. This week she was dropped from the
Olympic squad and told that she, ranked among the top five women's lifters
of the 20th century, was "not good enough". And would "not
be able to give a good performance". This to a woman who has made
an unprecedented comeback from knee surgery to lift world-record weights
in training. The roots of this sorry sequence of events lies deep inside
the Indian training camp.
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The
stock markets are humming, and it's feel-good time once again, writes
INDIA TODAY Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in 
