Rio 2016: 6 instances of official apathy towards Indian athletes that will make your blood boil

It's hard to put oneself in the shoes of an Indian athlete in Rio. But imagine that after working hard for years, you finally make it to an Olympic event. You've overcome societal pressures, poverty and beaten thousands of others to get where you are only to discover that the officials who are supposed to be there to help you don't give a rat's a$#$# about it at all. The average Indian bureaucrat!

From the reports that have emerged from Rio, it seems like Indian officials treat being part of the Olympic contingent like a fully paid vacation. Whether it was Vijay Goel’s unruly entourage, lack of facilities for marathon runner OP Jaisha, no physio for Dipa or doctors who knew nothing about sports medicine, our officials certainly kept the Indian flag flying high at Rio.

Here are some of the ways they made us very 'proud'. 

Where's the doc? 

Vinesh Phogat after her injury in Rio (Getty Images) 

India’s Chief Medical Officer at Rio Pawandeep Singh is a radiologist as was the other doctor in Rio, Col RS Negi. In fact, according to an Indian Express report, Negi has never attended a sporting event including national championships, National Games or any inter-services meet.

Both the appointments hinted at nepotism, as Pawandeep was IOC vice-president Tarlochan Singh’s son. Singh tried to defend his son by saying his son wasn’t illiterate but we don’t know how his medical degree helps if he can’t help injured athletes.

Singh had told India Today: “He (Pawandeep) isn't illiterate. He was official medical head of the SAF Games, a member of the Commonwealth Games Medical Commission and a reputed international polo player who has represented India on many occasions.”   However, he was unable to explain why his son was selected and passed the buck to IOA president N Ramachandran. Negi it emerges is a distant cousin of IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta.

This meant that athletes who got injured like wrestler Vinesh Phogat, marathon runner OP Jaisha, hockey player SV Sunil and even badminton player Saina Nehwal had to find other means to treat their injuries.

While Sunil was treated by hockey team physio Shrikant Iyengar, Saina needed to consult IOC doctors. On the other hand, OP Jaisha claimed she wasn’t even given water or energy drinks and fainted at the finish line of the marathon. Her coach Nikolai Snesarev was in the news for an altercation with a nurse, following which he spent half a day in jail but it emerges that it was due to his over-anxiousness to get Jaisha treated quickly.

If Team India really sent two doctors who weren’t even sports doctors, someone needs to explain why our athletes were left hanging high and dry like this.

The many misadventures of Vijay Goel

Vijay Goel (PTI)

More often than not, Vijay Goel’s appointment as sports minister feels like a joke, made by the Centre to test our patience. Just like an unruly kid who tries new tricks in the book to see how far his parent is willing to tolerate, some appointments by the Centre certainly seem like tests to check how far they can test the voters’ patience. Like Pahlaj Nihalani or Gajendra Chauhan, Vijay Goel’s appointment felt like a cruel joke as he did everything to make India look bad.

Goel was pulled up for his ‘unruly entourage’, who were reportedly ‘aggressive and rude’, and tried to enter areas where they didn’t have permission to enter, perhaps mistaking Rio for Delhi.

In fact, he even received an official warning from the Olympics Organising Committee. That wasn’t all, Goel was also pulled up for his social media game which earned him the sobriquet Panauti (Bad Luck) Goel. He also tweeted pictures supporting athletes where he decided that the best source of encouragement would be to put his own picture instead of the athlete’s and misspelled Dipa Karmakar’s name. To top it off, he confused athlete Srabani Nanda with Dutee Chand and by a cruel coincidence, India only won medals after Goel had left Rio.

The OP Jaisha  water fiasco 

Marathon runner OP Jaisha claimed that during the women’s marathon event, she wasn’t even provided with water or energy drinks.  She said: “It was very hot there. The competition was at 9am, I ran in scorching heat. There was no water for us, neither recovery drinks nor food. Only once in 8kms did we get water (from the Rio organisers) which did not help at all. All the countries had their stalls at every 2kms but our country's stall was empty.”

Jaisha collapsed at the finishing line and had to be rushed to a hospital, and her coach Nikolai Snesarev got into an altercation which saw him being detained by cops for half a day. While the major news was about Nikolai being arrested, Jaisha’s confession explains why her coach acted over-the-top. She added: “I don't know where they were. I was in very bad shape. My coach was blamed for misbehaving with doctor but he was told Jaisha has almost died, what could he have done?" she asked.

AFI however tried to shift the blame saying it was ‘the responsibility of organisers to provide water and energy drinks’ but the coach or athlete didn’t inform them. Meanwhile, sports minister Vijay Goel passed the blame on to the AFI saying it was their responsibility.

Update: 

Refuting Jaisha’s allegations the AFI said: “Each team is allowed to keep their own personalised drinks on the booths, marked in a colour as per the choice of the team and athlete. Accordingly, as per the rule, on the night ahead of women's marathon race, Indian team manager carried 16 empty bottles, eight each for Jaisha and Kavita Raut and visited the duo and their coach Nikolai Snesarev in their room. The team manager asked them to provide their choice of personalised drink which would then be sealed in their presence and handed over to the organisers for installing them on the booth along with a placard as per the requirement of the athlete. In this case, the two athletes, Ms Jaisha and Ms Raut declined the offer and informed the Indian team manager that they didn't require personalised drink, and if at all they required it during the race, they would use the drinks available at the water booth and refreshment booth provided by the organisers," the AFI said. 

The AFI said that as per rules, an athlete can to be disqualified if he or she accepts a drink from any other person or official standing along the course except taken on their own -- be it personalised drink submitted to the organisers in advance or the drinks provided by the organisers on the water and refreshment booths respectively.  "Therefore, it is an incorrect statement made by Ms O P Jaisha that the Indian officials accompanying the team did not provide her water or any other form of tonic drinks.

 "Further, it is also informed that Ms Jaisha had declined to use personalised drink in another event, the 2015 World Championships held in Beijing and the coach informed the Indian team management that she wasn't in the habit of using personalised drinks."

No physiotherapist for Dipa Karmakar

While all of us have been bowled over by Dipa Karmkar’s amazing story where she beat unimaginable odds to come fourth in the vault gymnastics final, she was also a victim of bureaucracy at Rio 2016. Dipa’s request for her long-time physio to travel with her deemed wasteful, and it was only after she reached the finals that SAI rushed her physiotherapist to Brazil.

While everyone is now falling over themselves to congratulate Dipa for her unimaginable feat, the apathy she faced earlier on, even after becoming the first Indian woman to qualify for the gymnastics final shows how little her achievement meant to the bureaucracy.

Give them peanuts

Another bizarre incident was the beer-and-peanuts incident at the Indian Embassy in Rio on Independence Day. Apparently, at a reception for the athletes on India's 70th Independence Day, they were only served peanuts instead of a proper dinner. While some have claimed that this was a communication-gap, forcing out athletes to forgo dinner when they are in need of fuel and proper rest seems either like a cruel joke or gross negligence.

Haryana ministers Rio ‘vacation’

Anil Vij (File Photo)

At a time when Vijay Goel’s misadventures were garnering attention, Anil Vij and some more Haryana ministers went to Rio to 'learn and encourage' their athletes. It cost a neat sum of Rs 1 crore and they still missed their athletes’ events. We’d have to assume they got lost because the delegation of ministers missed events of Haryana pugilist Vikas Krishan, discus thrower Seema Poonia and Greco-Roman wrestler Ravinder Khatri and were instead seen spending time in their beach hotel and exploring the city. 

All in all, when you come to terms with the callousness of our officials at a major event like Rio shows just how lightly they seem to take their jobs. If this is how they behave in major events when the entire world is watching, imagine how they go about their daily business day in and day out. The lack of empathy that our athletes face might make us feel incredulous but that is another reason for our terrible record in Olympics. Our athletes seriously deserve a medal simply for putting up with these officials.