Appearing on a podcast that was published last month before the Paris Olympics started, Chhetri was asked a question on the lack of medals won by India in the Olympic Games, where the country has only two individual gold medallists besides the hockey team’s ‘golden’ run betwen 1928 and 1980.
Chhetri said the reason for a country of 1.5 billion not winning enough medals is because of failure to spot and nurture talent.
“We don’t win medals (at the Olympics) despite a population of 1.5 billion is not factually correct because we are not able to identify and nurture the talent of 1.5 billion people. China, US, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada — the ones who do well in the Olympics — are miles better than us,” said Chhetri on the podcast, and the video clip went viral on social media.
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India have so far won two bronze medals at the ongoing Paris Games, which have come from the shooting contingent led by Manu Bhaker, who won an individual bronze in women’s 10m air pistol event and a team bronze in the mixed team air pistol event alongside Sarabjot Singh.
“When people say, ‘talent ki kami nahi hai hamari country mei’ (there is no dearth of talent in our country), it is 100 percent right. A five-year-old kid in Andaman, who was good in football or javelin throw or cricket, he didn’t even know. Threw it once or twice and then disappeared, working in a call centre,” Chhetri added.
“In identifying the talent and nurturing the talent at the right time and with the right procedure, we are way behind. And I don’t care if people want to kill me for this; this is the reality.”
Including the two bronze medals won so far at the Paris Olympics, India have clinched a total of 37 medals in the history of Summer Olympics, which includes 10 gold, 9 silver and 18 bronze.