Olympics States Fare in Their Olympic Share

A India at the India has sent its largest ever contingent to the London Games. But not every region is equally represented. Aabhas Sharma looks at how the Olympics states fare in their Olympic share REUTERS Wrestler Sushil Kumar is one of just two Olympic athletes from Delhi this year THE SPORTY STATES NEITHER FOR THE RICH THE ZERO STATES URBAN-RURAL DIVIDE TOP CONTRIBUTORS NOR THE POOR Share of country’s population (percent) TOP CONTRIBUTORS Haryana 13 HIGH-INCOME STATES Bihar 8.58 Per capita Punjab 12 income (FY11) Athletes Gujarat 4.99 URBAN Delhi 1,16,86 2 2 Northeast 10 Rajasthan 5.67 42 athletes Maharashtra 83,471 1 from cities Karnataka 9 Jammu & Kashmir 1.04 and towns Tamil Nadu 72,993 0 RURAL Andhra Pradesh 5 Chhattisgarh 0.09 Gujarat 63,961 0 41 from Kerala 5 Himachal Pradesh 58,493 1 villages or Tw West Bengal 5 small towns m LOW-INCOME STATES a Per capita income (FY11) Athletes th It should not come as a surprise. Known Bihar 20,069 0 States constituting more than 20 per cent Numbers show that sports which call for “ for a strong sporting culture, Haryana takes Jharkhand 29,786 1 of India's population have no strong infrastructure, like badminton, R the lead in the number of athletes it’s sent Orissa 36,293 1 representation at the Olympics. Take, for tennis, table tennis and shooting, attract to the Olympics — 13 out of the 83. Chhattisgarh 44,097 0 example, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu athletes only from big cities. Not one shooter b Expectedly, boxing (Vijender Singh) and Uttarakhand 68,292 1 which have sent only one athlete each to or a badminton player in the contingent is e wrestling (Yogeshwar Dutt) are its forte. the Olympics. These states account for from rural areas. Hyderabad has become the T Saina Nehwal (though she grew up and almost 12 per cent of India's population. hub of badminton with players like Jwala a lives in Hyderabad) and drag flicker The numbers indicate that having a high What we see instead is that sports are Gutta and P Kashyap. From Bangalore come h Sandeep Singh also come from Haryana. per capita income is no guarantee that becoming region-centric, like boxing in Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna. le Punjab comes a close second with 12 the state will produce great sportspersons. Haryana and shooting in the northern From rural areas, we see representation in a athletes. Known as the cradle of Indian Else Maharashtra and Gujarat would not region. Most track and field athletes come archery, boxing and track-and-field a hockey, it has given eight players to the have scored so poorly in their from Kerala, Karnataka athletes. These are not sports which require in team. The North-east too scores high at representation at the Olympics. Mumbai or Haryana. Even too much investment or high-tech h 10 with boxers like MC Mary Kom and and Pune, in fact, also have an impressive badminton and tennis — infrastructure. Tintu Luka, the 800m runner z Devendro Singh to watch out for. infrastructure for sports. Delhi, which was sports played in urban is from a village in Kerala as is triple jumper n Karnataka follows at a close nine and then the venue for the 2010 Commonwealth areas — don’t seem to Renjith Maheshwary. Seema Antil and o come Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and West Games, also scores shockingly low with find too many takers in Krishna Poonia come from small towns in T Bengal with five players each. only two athletes at the Olympics. Poorer states like Maharashtra Haryana. Track and field events are clearly in states like Jharkhand and or Gujarat. Maharashtra being pursued by athletes from c Bihar also fare no better. which is home to about 9 small towns. d Clearly money and resources per cent of India's r don’t seem to make a population has sent only C difference. two athletes to the “ contingent. d h r Name : Sania Nehwal fi State: Haryana/Andhra B g 1 ti m m w Name : Vijender Singh Name : Deepika Kumari N State: Haryana State: Jharkhand c r ti a In PHOTOS: REUTERS m m a in ty g it lo T r a th a r — c m g p N u a p e T b.

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