Where the greatest athletes live

The façade of the town hall of Paris, France, decorated for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games

I was ecstatic to follow how well India would perform at this year's Olympics. I always expect more than we walk away with, but maybe I'm just an optimist. I do this whenever the games come around, staying up at night wondering if we will get one bronze medal or two. Cynics may wonder why a nation of over a billion people can only generate sportspeople who play cricket, but they aren't concentrating on the big picture. They don't understand that we don't do well at the Olympics because we have more important things to worry about. You don't become a country with the world's tallest statue if you're spending all your time worried about running, swimming or shooting. It's why the results still bring a smile to my face even though I know we are consistently among the world's biggest underachievers.

Having said that, I have reason to believe our perennial drought at this most amazing sporting competition will soon be at an end. I recently found out that the government of India has allocated most of its sporting budget towards India's most athletic states, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. For those who haven't read the report, the two states received R438 crore and R426 crore respectively, for sending a massive number of nine athletes to the Olympics. Punjab and Haryana sent 48 athletes but received Rs 78 crore and Rs 66 crore instead. This caused a bit of anger, which I believe was misplaced, even though funds released for the development of sports infrastructure were part of a scheme called Khelo India. I assumed the implication was that all Indians were meant to play better but, then again, I must have misinterpreted the message.

It's time we recognised the true worth of states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, because too many years have been spent maligning them as places that don't contribute much to India's story. How can this be, I often protest, when everyone around the world knows what Uttar Pradesh has long been capable of? I can't be more specific, unfortunately, because as a Bombayite, I have only been witness to people from that state entering Maharashtra, never the other way around. I'm sure there must be a million reasons to visit it though, and just haven't stumbled upon any yet. Who knows, there are probably scores of potential gold-winning athletes just waiting by the side of the road in Agra, Kanpur or Jhansi, and these crores being sent their way will unlock all that potential over the next few weeks or so.

As for Gujarat, I don't need to say anything to justify the government's largesse because we all know it is now the only Indian state that matters. Until a decade or so ago, I suspect most of India thought of Gujarat only as the most patriotic state in the nation. This wasn't because Gujarat sent the most fighters to the border, obviously, because we all know it barely sends any. No, it was because of how residents of the state spent all their waking hours thinking up new tax loopholes or how to add Nutella to a variety of snacks.

We had no idea that the allegedly dry little state was home to men of great intellect: tea sellers with a keen understanding of how radar and cloud technology worked, fighters capable of taking on large reptiles with their bare hands, intrepid travellers capable of finding the fastest illegal routes into the United States, or people who could manage national cricket boards without having played the game professionally in their lives. It was all a pleasant surprise.

Paris 2024 saw Indian sportspeople take part in everything from archery and athletics, to badminton, boxing, hockey, golf, judo, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling, among a couple of other sports. It goes without saying that these events will be dominated by participants from our two favoured states soon. I also believe they will start to turn up in lesser-represented competitions related to rhythmic gymnastics, canoe slalom, lacrosse, trampoline and equestrian.

I believe we are on the cusp of change, with something profound and revelatory in store at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. I predict a tsunami of gold and silver from Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat or, at the very least, a record number of accompanying government officials ready to do what it takes to bring home one more bronze medal. I just hope P T Usha will have retired by then.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira
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