Perform or perish

Bengaluru: A new set of ‘selection criteria’ for the 2026 Asian Games laid down recently by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has become the hot topic of online conversations among the Indian sport-loving community. Naturally, what followed were opposing viewpoints with arguers split between the result-oriented pragmatists and process-driven idealists. Those who oppose the new guidelines, however, refuse to spell out their reservations for obvious reasons.  

To summarise in short the five-page guidelines announced by sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya a few days ago, an athlete (in measurable individual sports) will make it to the Indian squad only if he/she has matched or bettered the 6th-place performance from the previous edition of the Asiad. For example, at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, the sixth-placed runner clocked 10.16 seconds in the men’s 100m final race which now becomes the qualifying time for an Indian sprinter aspiring to fly to Aichi-Nagoya in Japan next year.  

For non-measurable sports, the athletes must have finished within top-6 at the most recent Senior Asian Championships or his/her world ranking is among top-6 of Asian nations in international rankings as of 10 days before submission deadline of the final list. For team sports, it is made mandatory for them to have produced a top-8 finish or ranked inside the top-8 in Asia. 

The same standards apply for other multidisciplinary sports events such as Para-Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Indoor Games, Asian Beach Games, Youth Olympics, Asian Youth Games, Commonwealth Youth Games, similar events in para-sports and winter sports. Out of the 12 clauses mentioned, the fifth specifies relaxations with justifiable reasons for consideration while the 12th states that only those sportspersons, coaches and support staff cleared by the government will be part of the contingent and bars any extra member even at no cost to the government.

It is a ‘perform or perish’ approach which U Vimal Kumar, former badminton player and now a coach, is completely in support of and opines that the selection criteria, despite looking/ sounding harsh, will move sport in the country in the right direction.

“We need to understand that these guidelines have been made clear a year before the start of the Asian Games,” Vimal tells DHoS.  

“That way you are keeping the athletes also on their toes. They need to be alert and know that they cannot take things for granted. Because in my opinion, the elite athletes are getting every support these days and there is nothing wrong in expecting podium finishes,” says the Olympian and an Asian Games bronze medallist from the 1986 Seoul edition.

The 62-year-old is reminded of how the 1988 Seoul 100m Olympic champion Carl Lewis finished sixth at the US trials for the 1992 Barcelona Games and failed to qualify and defend his title at the showpiece race in Spain. 

“I was representing India at those Games in badminton. I went to watch athletics because we thought Carl would be competing. Turns out, he hadn’t made it. Instead, Carl won the gold in long jump. 

“I remember thinking the US selection trials are very harsh because they pick the squad based on that one trials. But then you understand that it is good to put systems in place if we require good results. We need to take these guidelines positively,” explains the Dronacharya Awardee. 

On the contrary, many believe, in an unpredictable sporting world picking only sureshot medallists will rob potential winners who could be sitting just outside the top-6/8. As for the athletes, who understand the paper-thin margins between winning and losing, the bar being raised is an indication for them to accept that the race to wear the Indian jersey at big-ticket international events is primed to get more heated up. 

“Our selection into the Indian squad would be guaranteed based on the finishing positions at Open Nationals and a few other domestic events or trials prior to the Asian Games. From now on, it will be purely based on timings,” a track and field athlete, who didn’t wish to be named, tells DH.

“Yes, it will become tougher and the competition will be cut-throat. The pressure to perform and to prove worthy of our place in the Indian team has definitely increased. But, I guess, it’s good,” adds the athlete. 

Pradeep Kumar S, swimming coach and Dronacharya Awardee, is looking at the bigger picture and explains why there is no reason for panic and the new criteria will help sport in the country scale new peaks. 

“Of course matching sixth or eighth positions will not be easy, especially in swimming. But then, we need to do something to improve our standards,” feels Pradeep. 

“Asian Games is not an exposure meet, Asian Games is a performing meet. There are many other international competitions where we can experiment and consider as exposure meets. But at the Asian Games we need to go and perform and you know I feel the majority of those people who are going in should at least enter the final. We are talking about matching the 6th-place timing that happened four years back. It is fair because there should be improvement with all the technology and new training methods. So we should be able to cope up with those timings,” points out Pradeep. 

India have won a total of 778 medals - 183 gold, 238 silver and 357 bronze - in the 19 editions of the Asian Games till date since its inception in 1951. Athletics has contributed the most with 283 medals - 85 gold, 102 silver and 96 bronze - ahead of shooting with 80 medals - 16 gold, 30 silver and 34 bronze. 

The country has never topped the medals tally with a second spot on the table as their best finish at the inaugural edition hosted in New Delhi in 1951 and a third-place finish in 1962 Jakarta, Indonesia.

At the previous continental bash held in 2022 Hangzhou, China, the Indian contingent comprising 661 athletes breached the 100-medal mark for the first time by returning with a haul of 106 medals - 28 gold, 38 silver and 40 bronze - to claim the fourth position on the table behind hosts China (383 medals), South Korea (190) and Japan (188). 

Aimed at challenging these Asian powerhouses and surpassing the above mentioned numbers, a refined approach has been set into motion. And the outcome of this “trimming” will be known 12 months from now.