GUTS AND GLORY

1.3 billion Indians take their eyes off cricket and invest their faith in athletes who go about their sporting business in quiet glory. There is a fond hope that they’ll bring home a medal. As boxer Pooja Rani says, “Everyone is like ‘ (Just get a medal in the Olympics)’. Like medals are just being handed around. Few know the hard work it entails.” Just to qualify for the Olympics, an athlete has distances to clear, timings to go under and rankings to attain. For that, one needs to compete in events. Most of them were cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19. Mercifully, 16 months of uncertainty have yielded an unexpected result. India heads to Tokyo with its biggest-ever contingent—120 athletes—across 18