For many people like me who have grown up watching Indians in sports being considered also-rans and not serious contenders (leaving aside men’s cricket of course), the last couple of years have been a revelation. 

And yes, we may likely end up with fewer medals at Paris 2024 than we did at Tokyo 2020. We are as a nation discussing and dissecting an empty haul from badminton – which is absolutely and colossally unjust to the last man standing, who gave it his all, never mind a brutal draw.

This is not about just the badminton medal (while I feel we are being unbelievably harsh and judgemental). More on that later. 

What I am talking about now is the depth we are seeing in multiple sports and the mindset that we can take on the best in the world. That was the belief that led us to win the Thomas Cup in 2022 – beating first Denmark and then Indonesia (the most successful Thomas Cup nation ever), that too with a 3–0 margin. And this is a sport played at the very highest level by at least double the number of countries as cricket. To come agonisingly close to beating the Chinese on home ground in the team event at the Asian Games in Hangzhou would have been unthinkable a decade or more ago. 

We as a nation have individual brilliance – from Ramesh Krishnan to of course Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand. But now we are seeing the benefits of systematic investment in sports and of course a change in our ethos as a nation – we will not be content being second best. A great example is the hockey quarterfinals against Great Britain. Down to ten players for most of the match, yet we held our nerve and won in a penalty shootout. 

Now coming to shooting – the sport that gave us our first individual gold at the Olympics. Indian shooters in Paris made the finals of six events – double our previous best at London 2012. Given the wafer-thin margins in shooting (borne out by three of our shooters achieving fourth place), this increase in performance is a very very welcome sign. Not to forget, the 22 medals that shooting got us in the Asian Games with some world records to boot.

We have historically obviously been strong in cricket and have excellent bench strength in chess. However, the India that I grew up in was not recognised as an athletics power even at the Asian level, PT Usha notwithstanding. From there to second place in athletics medals at the 2022 Asian Games, ahead of nations like Japan and South Korea, speaks of a change for the better and how! 

Admittedly, there is a lot more to be done – sports administration needs to be far more professional, and there are several pockets of lack of accountability, but the last few years have proved that when the government, the sports ecosystem and the private sectors come together, wonders can happen. India today boasts of world-class infrastructure in badminton and no wonder we today are serious contenders on the world stage.

And yes the miss on the Bronze does not in any way take away from that. What matters is the maturity we display as a sporting nation, the understanding that there will always be misses, that the road to sporting success is brutally hard. We deserve to be a world power in the sporting ecosystem but only if we look long-term and resist the temptation to lash out on every social medium possible about how we have ‘choked' how we are ‘ also rans;’ how we cannot handle pressure, etc. 

Celebrating medals is easy (and not in any way taking away from those who got there). But as with everything in life, character comes out in times of difficulty. And the character of us sports fans is now on test. 

I am as big a fan of cricket as most Indians, but until we start treating other champions on a par with our cricketers, we will always do these people injustice. Let's look beyond the medals, let's look at the matches won with back-breaking effort, and let's look at the agony the fourth-place finishers will be going through. Especially when the expectations of an entire nation are on their shoulders. Cheer for them, be there for them – the better times will come.

The author is head of communications and fund-raising, CEGIS. She is also on the advisory committee for Manifest.

Views expressed are personal.