Gold.... 112 years later

Indians love gold. We are the world’s largest buyers of gold. However, the Olympic gold has always eluded us especially since it can’t be bought. For a country of a billion plus people, it has been kind of shameful. As of 48 hours ago Michael Phelps had won 8 more individual golds than India ever had. We won the occasional bronze, the rare silver. For the last quarter of a century we had not even won any team golds.

All that changed on Sunday when Abhinav Bindra finally won one for shooting. One gold - still pathetic for a country of a billion plus people but a start nevertheless.

As a counter point, you may think that a poor country like India does not spend enough on sport to make a dent on the world stage. But the amount of money and time and tears spent on cricket dwarfs what most other countries spend on all their sports combined. So that excuse does not hold any water.

Hopefully this win changes the sports structure in India.

Congrats Abhinav!