On Payyoli Express Steam

Guangzhou has indeed cemented a continuing trend as an irrefutable fact: that women hold the key to India’s success in track and field events. Otherwise, the Asian Games have mostly been a gloom, shattering the myth of Indian sport being resurgent in the afterglow of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Delhi. The performance of women at Guangzhou is consistent with recent Indian athletics history—at the CWG, the women won seven of the 12 medals India bagged in track and field events, including the only two gold medals. The figures present a greater contrast in the Asian Games: male athletes have won 16 track and field medals from 1986 to 2006; women have won 40. Before 1986, in the four previous Asiads, men had won 56 medals, women only 12. The 1982 Asiad was also the last time an Indian man won a track gold—Charles Borromeo got one in the 800 metres and Chand Ram in the 20 km walk. Now, the men don’t even make it to the finals. What caused this epochal change that made the female Indian athlete much more deadly than the male? There’s no ready answer; nor is there any scientific explanation.

But two of the bigger reasons came to the fore in the early 1980s—P.T. Usha and China. Till China entered the Asian Games in 1974, Japan and India had dominated track and field. China quickly surged ahead, becoming the undisputed No. 1 in overall medals standing and first or second in track and field. Another power to enter the fray was South Korea, which provided a massive fillip to sports in preparation for its Asian Games in 1986 and the Olympics in 1988. South Korea, too, overtook India.

As Indian men lagged behind, women athletes began warming up on the sidelines, led by the indomitable Usha. This isn’t to say there hadn’t been women stars before 1986—Kamaljeet Sandhu won the 400 metres in 1970 and Geeta Zutshi the 800 metres in the 1978 Asian Games. But Usha became the darling of the country when she missed a medal at the 1984 Olympics by a fraction of second. She went on to win four gold and a silver at the 1986 Games and, more importantly, inspired a generation of women to take to athletics in numbers not seen before. No doubt, this fact substantially enhanced their talent pool.

Fortunately for India, the field in women’s events across the world didn’t acquire the same depth as men’s. Heath Matthews, a physiotherapist who has worked extensively with Indian sportspersons over several years, says the country’s sports system gave Indian women an edge. “A large majority of women athletes in India are employed in government entities. They don’t have to bother about holding their livelihood even as they train in high performance centres, like professional athletes,” he says. In the West and other Asian countries, women don’t enjoy this luxury, compelled as they are to “try to find the time to train even as they try to hold on to a job”. This advantage, says Matthews, the Indian woman has exploited well.

Former national tennis champion Manisha Malhotra, who heads sports operations at the Mittal Champions Trust, says Indian male athletes are significantly weaker than the competitors. The disparity is not so significant among women. “Therefore, technique plays a greater role in women’s athletics,” Malhotra says. “Preeja, for instance—#she has an excellent running technique, with great head position, swing of the arms, rhythm of steps. Among the men, this isn’t enough—they must have explosive strength.”

The hitherto passive role for women in Asian societies could be another reason behind the lack of competition in Asia, where Indian women have excelled. Says Dr P.S.M. Chandran, sports medicine expert and hockey coach, “Women from the Arab countries, who do have excellent physiques for sport, #participate in fewer numbers than men. Again, Muslim countries like Indonesia and Malaysia do not encourage participation of women in athletics, swimming etc.”

In India, the numbers of men in athletics are dwindling. Athletics doesn’t seem the first choice for men. “It’s cricket,” says Amit Khanna, former national record holder in 100 metres. “On the other hand, athletics is tough. So we have a situation where boys play cricket everywhere, but more girls are entering athletics.” Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, a legendary athlete from the 1960s, agrees, “In our time, only a few women, from Maharashtra and Karnataka, used to be athletes. There used to be token representation from the north, with some even competing in the cumbersome salwar-kameez.” You could say modernisation has helped Indian women.

Randhawa says Indian men have lagged behind also because of the decline of athletics in the defence services from the 1980s. Indeed, Randhawa, Milkha Singh, Sriram Singh and Makhan Singh were all with the security forces. Sports writer and academic Novy Kapadia, says, “Now, of course, there are greater law and order commitments, which increased from the 1980s.” It was also the time cricket became the nation’s obsession, riding the hysteria of the 1983 World Cup triumph. So much so that Chandran, who has served with the army, notes that you are likelier to see a game of cricket, not serious athletics, at army camps now.

As the supply of athletes from the armed forces gradually declined,  Indian women athletes, led by Usha, simply sprinted ahead, leaving men behind.