Watershed Olympics for India?

3 medals in 1 Olympics is the stuff of Indian dreams.

Looking back, perhaps, India's confidence at the world stage has been slowly building. Since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Indian athletes have brought in at least 1 medal. In 1996, it was Leander Paes winning the bronze in tennis singles, followed by weightlifter Karnam Malleshwari's bronze at the 2000 Sydney Games which was then upgraded to a silver in shooting by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

After four years, India's athletes have brought back three medals. While Abhinav Bindra shot gold and Sushil Kumar wrestled a bronze, Vijender Singh brought home India’s first boxing medal: a bronze.

For once, India was part of the world's largest sports extravaganza. For once, when people gush about Olympic medals, we Indians will do some gushing of our own. Granted, that the Chinese, Americans, Brits, Aussies and Europeans, would consider all the Indian gushing a bit underwhelming. But then, only a nation of people who have cracked the codes for success in every field but sports, can fathom the unbridled pride that we feel when talking about these three wonderful young men.

Some commentators (notably Gaurav Kalra of CNN-IBN) have called this the 'Miracle Olympics'. I disagree with that notion.

Because Bindra, Kumar and Singh would disagree. These men did not win because of luck or retirements. They won because they beat their opponents fairly. They won because they persevered when no one had even heard of them. They won because they kept faith when their own dismissed them and their sports. They won because success was the only way to survive in a country which seemed comfortable with settling for far less. These three men won because it was their destiny. A destiny which they earned through dint of sweat and toil and hurt and a quiet dignity.

I will not belittle them and their achievements by calling them a 'miracle'. Nature had no hand in their success. It was raw talent and hunger that saw them stand on the world stage and not blink. Abhinav, Sushil, Vijender, Akhil, Jitender, Saina: They showed no fear. There was only courage, heart and hope. And that, even more than the medals, will be their legacy.