Athletes around the world tend to work around Olympic cycles, syncing their training to four-year blocks. Sandwiched between them is the Asian Games, a prestigious pitstop that doubles up as a checkpoint a couple of years ahead of an Olympics. The Hangzhou Asian Games, in that sense, are an anomaly. Pushed back by one year as China wasn’t ready to play host shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic, the 19th edition of the Asiad comes with a little over 10 months to go for the 2024 Paris Games. This makes the stakes higher than before, particularly for a country such as India that is on the rise in non-cricket sport. For many from India’s sizeable contingent, the 2023 Asian Games present an opportunity to not just deliver at the continental multi-sport showpiece but also take stock of where they are and where they need to be, come next July.
Heading into Hangzhou, and then onward to Paris, the storylines could be as captivating as they are contrasting. Neeraj Chopra, the 2018 gold medallist in javelin throw, has graduated from becoming the Asian champion of five years ago to the Olympic and world champion of today. PV Sindhu, India’s first-ever Asian Games silver medallist in badminton of 2018, world champion of 2019 and two-time Olympic medallist of 2021, has been trying to break free from the shackles of dipped form and confidence in recent times. Bajrang Punia, the 65kg champion of Jakarta, has spent more time on the streets of New Delhi in a long-drawn public protest than on the wrestling mat.
A lot can change in sport in five years. From the 11 individual Indian gold medallists in the 2018 Asian Games, only five will compete in Hangzhou. Four of them are in track & field, which has traditionally been India’s most productive discipline on the Asian stage. Wrestling and shooting — India’s next best in the medals chart — have been through issues related and unrelated to the sport as such, and will look to reset the narrative. So, in many ways, as is often the case with Indian Olympic sport which has suffered over the decades from apathy and anarchy, our athletes in Hangzhou will be out to turn the spotlight back on themselves.
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