India’s Olympic Struggles: Investment Gaps, Childhood Malnutrition, and Cultural Barriers Hindering Female Athletes

India, which is considered to be the most populous country in the world with a population of over 1.4 billion people, performed poorly at the Olympics in Paris.

India won only six medals at the Paris Olympics. This number is actually a reduction from the seven received at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

The United States, which has less than a quarter of India’s population, took first place at the Olympics in Paris with 126 medals. China followed with 91 medals.

India, ranked 71, was even behind countries with much smaller populations, such as Georgia, Kazakhstan, and North Korea.

Since India first participated in the 1900 Olympics, they have won only 41 Olympic medals.

CNN reported on the 15th (local time) that experts cited India’s lack of investment in sports as a major reason. Experts pointed out that there is a lack of funding for Indian athletes and access to sports facilities is limited.

Boria Majumdar, author of ‘A Billion Dream: India and the Olympic Games’, said, “It is a completely wrong headline to say that 1.4 billion people have won only six gold medals. “Because 1.39 billion people don’t have access to sports facilities,” he said.

The number of people that India sends to the Olympics is much less than the number of other countries. Majumdar explained that while the United States sent 600 athletes and supporters to the Paris Olympics, India sent only 117.

Severe childhood malnutrition is also thought to be a major factor in not producing exceptional athletes. India ranks 111 out of 125 countries in the 2023 Global Hunger Index report. It has been found that more than one third of children under the age of five in India have stunted growth due to malnutrition.

Patriarchal culture has a negative impact on the development of female athletes’ skills. Indian wrestler Sakshi Malik, who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, said, “When I started wrestling as a child, people used to make fun of me and ask why I joined sports men when I was a woman. Some wrestlers quit wrestling because of sexual harassment by their coaches, Malik said.