The Sports Authority of India (SAI) Director General Jiji Thomson admitted that India has not progressed as an Olympic nation even after its best ever haul of six medals at the London Games in 2012 and the main reason is lack of bench strength.
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"I don't think we have made a lot of progress since 2012 London Games. I believe, we have a lot to worry about the bench strength in a lot of sports. Look at badminton. After Saina (Nehwal) and (P V) Sindhu, we don't have another player of that caliber whom we can look up to," Thomson said.
‘No cost to government’
Thomson said sailor Upamanyu Dutta's shoddy performance at the ongoing Asian Games is the reason why SAI had objected to athletes travelling to the event on a ‘no cost to government’ basis.
"Look at sailor Upamanyu's performance. He finished last in his event. He got a court order in his favour and travelled to Incheon at his own cost. This is why we don't want to encourage 'No cost to Government' policy," Thomson said.
"The flip side of travelling on one's own cost is getting those 10 points that one gets if he or she represents the country at events like Asian Games and Olympics.
"A lot of people will use this 'own cost' thing to their advantage. If this is encouraged, you will see a lot of poor yet talented kids getting deprived," Thomson said in his side of the explanation.
‘We lost out on a number of medals’
The SAI DG said initially, they had set the medal expectation at 70 but now it seems that "we will be getting around 50-52 medals which is not bad at all".
"Look, you have to understand that we lost out on a number of medals. Had Somdev Devvarman been there, it was a case of sure-shot gold medal. Sushil Kumar was another gold medal contender.
"Had BCCI agreed to send even their 'B' team, there were two gold medals there for the taking. Our athlete Dutee Chand was a contender to win a gold medal in 100m sprint. So in a way, we lost out on at least 5-6 gold medals," Thomson said.
