It's a bit early, but I decided to create this Olympic thread for Indian fans. Discuss India's Rio Dreams. What should we hope from Rio? What are our realistic chances? What are the important events leading to Rio and finals? How are our players doing and preparing? Why couldn't 2 indian MS players make it? Things like those.
Haven't checked in it yet. Probably after with... Can't see more than one in badminton... (But then nobody saw Leander's, Chilly's or Vijay's medals in ATL, ATH or LON... So for all we know Manu-Sumeeth.... You get the drift, however comical it sounds, since the former two had longer odds than all 7 shuttlersat this games... Kudos to BAI, Gupta and Gopi for that) No events left. @badmuse and @Baddyforall can chime in on prep regimes... Because our rankings weren't good enough as Prannoy will testify.... Don't know his handle to tag him.
Who is Chilly? You mean Rajyavardhan Singh Rathode? I have to agree that one medal in badminton is probably the realistic expectation. Not sure what colour to expect. We have send 7, but for all practical purposes it's 5, because the 2 doubles pair are confined to just one event each. I believe a medal is more likely to come from singles. But there are some bad signs. Sindhu hasn't really shone since Macau. I hope she will be 100% fit before Rio. And Srikanth has been only a pale shadow of the player he was from late 2014 to early 2015. But he managed to reach semis in Australia, which is a silver lining. As for Saina, her form in Australia was impressive. But that she hasn't beaten TTY and LXR for a long time is a minus. I still can't get over the fact that we only managed to send 1 MS. Our chances would have been much better with 2 MS. I think Kashyap getting injured was a big factor. In fact, Srikanth has been one of our least impressive MS in recent times. With 'events' I didn't exactly mean tournaments. A lot of things can influence India's results. For example which players China selects or the fact that Rio Olympics has Indian Food on The Menu. And what about total medals for Team India as a whole? How many do you expect? Everyone was saying after London that in 2016 india might reach the magic figure of 10 medals. But with Mary Kom and Sarita Devi not qualifying, and Sushil Kumar likely to miss out, things are looking bad. But the hockey team has improved and has an outside chance of medalling.
I EXPECT ZERO.... Other than Bolt, Phelps, Lochte, Korea Archery, Kookaburra Hockey, Biles, CHN and NKR WL and US Gym team; no one is GUARANTEED a medal... In badminton not even Lin Dan, LCW, CL, Noise Pollution and the Chinese ladies are guaranteed a medal and each can PRETTY EASILY and BELIEVABLY be KOed by the QFs..... Who was that Indonesian girl that won bronze at the worlds last year?? No one is talking about her now.... Marin was 81 at London IIRC... I EXPECT ZERO, hope for 22 off (won't mind all 66 winning ofcourse lol)... 4 seems realistic, achievable and would make me happy.... I would eat my cinco de mayo hat if we win 10... Plus I would be happier with 1-0-0 than 0-22-0
Saina is no where near a "realistic expectation" for me.... She has had the hype train behind her every year since 2009-2015... And is just 2/7 in these... She was more highly favoured in 2009, 10 and 13 and was going on in better form and with better prospects.... She would have been a realistic expectation had her worst performance in the past 12 months been an SF..... That's why I don't consider any one other than the ones I have named as guarantees.... Not even Djokovic... Any one who has finished outside medal positions at any event in the past 1 year in any event of any sport is fully capable of repeating it at Olympics.... Don't take this as an attack on Saina, as you are touchy in her.... I would want her and Sindhu to meet at Rio finals too... But it's just the way I see it.
That's good. Expecting zero is always the safest thing to do. As they say- hope for the best, but expect the worst. Though I was speaking more along the lines of realistic expectations, than personal expectations. When I said one medal is realistic from badminton, it wasn't meant specifically from Saina, but the whole Indian badminteam. (Although Saina is definitely our best bet.) This time our badminton team is certainly stronger than last time. But then the competition has also grown this time. But yes, ideally, every Indian would want Saina vs Sindhu finals. (However unrealistic that may be.) Thanks for your views. I hope others (like @badmuse , @Baddyforall , @nilesh123 , @arjevo, @paroxysmal, @Oldhand and others) will also chip in with their views. BTW, despite all the big names missing, there are some positives. This Indian Olympic team is still the largest ever. And the fact that golf makes its debut in OG increases our medal hopes. What do you think is going to happen to Babita Kumari?
I guess we ( me and Fan123)have already covered almost all the points relevant to this thread in the all sports thread. As he says Zero I expect Zero too, OTOH like everyone's saying this year will be the biggest medal haul I think I kinda agree with that too! I expect around 3 in shooting (Jitu isn't as sharp as last year though)... It would be shame if we can't get atleast 2 in wrestling (Vinesh isn't as sharp as before too)... With a good qualifying round Ind Archery team (Women) can clinch atleast a bronze (Provided Dipika don't go 'Savage' again, like she has recently been).... Extremely delighted with so many qualifiers in Athletics (No Medal Expectations 'Course)... With some mercy from Aiba Vikas or Shiv can win a bronze too.. I have full faith on Saina but equally opposite on her faith (the draw).. I still count her as a 'bright' prospect.. What else do we have, Prarthana Thombare (might've misspelled) and Rohan will pour entire Siachin glacier together on Sania's chances... Lea will be thrashed in "very early" rounds.. What an achievement FOR TEAM INDIA as Deepa qualified... And those judokas and rower too... I am afraid but I Just can't find anyone stable enough to expect GOLD.. In short our "RINGS OF GLORY" will have to wait another "4 years"
I advice u not to expect anything from golf, Aditi is a prodigy but she isn't ripe yet! As far Babita is concerned just pray she gets into repêchage after her guaranteed early exit.. Same goes for Sakshi, Narsimha, and the Greeco-Roman Olympians
Also however harsh this may seem our badminton team isn't at par let alone better then our prev OG team! We have KS atleast 4 GPA below to 2012 PK (who troubled LCW throughout we have SN (who got 3 players to spoil her dreams unlike 2 last time) Ashwini/Jwala were wayyyyyh better in LOG then they are now.. What can somebody expect from Mannu/Summeeth well u know the answer PV is a muster
Not completlely sure how to interpret that. I guess you are saying that realistically India will do better overall, but worse in badminton? Well, India has been medalling in BWF events (Olympics and world championships) every year since 2011. It will be sad if India fails to win even a single medal at Rio. Especially after all the promises that Srikanth, Sindhu and Saina have shown in the last few years. Perhaps I am a bit optimistic, but I also noticed some positives. - We are competing for 5 medals compared to 4 last time. - The nation quota has been reduced to 2, which definitely helps a little. No doubt that the loss of Kashyap to injury was a big one. But I disagree that Kashyap did better against LCW than Srikanth. The scorelines are closer for Srikanth, and in fact, although it doesn't count, KS actually won the last encounter in PBL2016. He also won his last encounter against LD, eventhough it was a long time back. And most of the recent KS nemeses - Kento Momota, THW, HKV, Iskandar Zainuddin etc are not in Olympics(most likely). Plus he should gain some confidence from Australia, as long as he remains fully fit. It is true that Sindhu hasn't done so well since Malaysia and Macau GPG, but part of that was due to injury. With the addition of Sindhu, at least our Singles squad is definitely stronger than last time. And not that we ever won a doubles medal at Olympics. I don't think it is unrealistic to expect 1 medal from badminton. May be I will change my mind after the draw, but right now I don't see any reason to be so pessimistic. But yes, the draw is an important factor. More than Aditi, I was thinking of Anirban and SSP. I don't think it's too unrealistic to expect a bronze from golf. Especially given the country quotas in OG. What I meant by mentioning Babita Kumari was this: It seems that she may be missing out. http://www.firstpost.com/sports/oly...s-rio-games-major-blow-for-india-2883622.html but this article is more positive http://www.newindianexpress.com/spo...ta-safe-for-now/2016/07/09/article3521505.ece
Babita will participate in Rio... And cricket or Kabaddi has better chances at Rio medal than men's Golf.... I am a very, very keen golf follower... Follow 13 tours week in, week out... Anirban Lahiri has never in his career won (or finished in top 3 outside Asian Golf courses), His last win was in Feb 2015.... We have better chances with SSP and Aditi than Anirban.... I know part of it is my personal frustration, given how he contends in every 3rd tournament against the best in the world (against fields thrive as strong as the weak Olympic field) and then habitually self destructs.... Lesser golfers keep on producing better results than him.
I I will eat my Cinco the Mayo hat and post a video here if we return with our best ever medal tally.... We were in much better form going into London. Trust me, been in the Oly train since 1996.... Our CWG and AG performances always set a trend... And we did better in 2010 than in 2014
Hope Aditi surprises..... HOPE is the key word... And hope she enters Tokyo as the World Number 1 with a Grand Slam (by that I mean, champ of all 5 majors and not one single major)
Like London we have one realistic hope.... Saina (as was true in Beijing and all WCs since 2009).... Unlike London, she is in a worse shape... Going into London only WYH and LXR were her threats... No one else was good enough to even take a game from her (I know if sounds funny given WX did)... Now she has CM, 2 Chinese, TZY, RI and two Japanese who can rout her... Yes Saina can win Gold easily, but she can just as easily be KOed in the QFs.... (as is her wont in majors).... But atleast she is out only guaranteed QF this year.
I must admit I don't follow golf regularly. But an eternal optimist. I am really hoping that day will come.
Don't go dont go by Indian MSM news for updates on Babita... Follow the horses mouth.... Eds on newspapers know nothing about sports... Contact journos directly.... And better still go to UWW's website or Twitter or FB which clearly states "reinstatement won't affect NOCs which were awarded in lieu of the dopers" (paraprashed quote, not verbatim, but that's the jist)
@Airos You know I have been the biggest backer of KS here... predicted him to be W#1 and AE champ in 2011.... much before London and Thailand GPG vs TMN.... Yet he hasnt been ABLE to build upon his 2013, 2014 and early 2015.... FACT.... Yes he possesses the game to make CL, LCW and LD look like Ratnajit Tamang.... But he hasn't acted on it yet.... So forget expectation, even hope is too strong a word.... Given his performances, my rational and neutral EXPECTATION from him is group stage exit, however painful it seems.
