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I would have to say that the number one reason why certain countries are far and beyond others is that they provide excellent funding to their athletes. Take for example the United States. Their population is around 10x that of Canada at all times, but in summer Olympics, they take far more medals than Canada does. They fund them entirely, whereas in Canada alot of the top athletes have to rely on steady income from a working job to sustain their lives. Its obscene the amount the US spends on just winning medals.

I don’t know Heppler, I wouldn’t mind donating a couple of bucks in taxes out of my salary to see Canada win something at long last. It’s pretty sad how we keep getting 4th place.

I find it hard to believe though that a certain type of people is better at something just because they’re from a certain country or of a certain colour. A lot of people buy into the stereotype that Asians are better at math, but I don’t think so. Maybe they have more people, or maybe the education and culture makes a big difference. But I don’t believe that one race is inherently smarter, or better in athletics, than another.

You have to look at the system, both government and private sides, and things like climate and altitude that can influence sports training. It’s also a national principle sort of thing- the US and other places like to support the stupid people and help them out, and they also put a lot of emphasis on sports and extracurriculars and leadership and other trash, while India and other countries encourage the smart people to excel more in academics (at least that’s what I find as a person who lived in different places and sort of near the top). I think they’re both bad attitudes and need to be combined.

True oLahav. I believe too that there is nothing like someone excelling in something by virtue of being a member of some ethnic group or race or whatever. It may be a romantic notion of some people but has no practical relevance. My point of view was different actually.

As pointed out by Heppler and you, probably Indians perform well in academics because the Government of India invests heavily in this area, at least in comparison with the funding for sports. And, all facts seem to indicate that this is indeed the case.

The point was not why Indians excel over others but why few Indians take interest in sports and prefer academics instead. So I’m not trying to say Indian Vs The Rest of the World. Rather, Indians in academics Vs Indians in Sports. After all, I’m sure well to do Indians abroad have no problem raising funds if their kids wanted to excel in sports. But they seldom seem to go in that direction.

Ysridhar05, you bring up a good perspective, Indians in Academics Vs. Indians in Sports. Maybe RP Singh’s position as both a cricket player and an MBA aspirant will bring a new light to the distinction.

I think culturally speaking, there may be something there. I’m not an Indian myself, so I can’t really say much, but I know that in some culture education is just a lot more important than physical fitness and sports.

Take a look at the US- obesity is skyrocketing because nobody cares about physical fitness, but at the same time everybody thinks about how important education is and college enrollment is on the rise. Maybe it’s just the notion that intellect is more important than sports, but looks like we’re raising a generation of fat smart slobs. They may be geniuses, but they’ll die of a heart attack before they can make any major discovery.

I’m not sure India works the same way (obesity probably isn’t as high), but it does seem like people put more emphasis on education than sports, which is a shame. It would be much better if we let everybody do their own thing- those who like sports wouldn’t have to give up their dreams just because their parents want them to go to IIT and become professionals, and things like that.

Oh, I never knew this bit of info about RP. Thanks Krista. But RP is a Cricketer and India is one of the top teams in this game. Other than Cricket, Indians have nothing much to show in sports. May be some occasional victories in Tennis (Mixed doubles / doubles, not singles) and Hockey. Consider these facts:

1. India didn’t even qualify for Soccer World Cup.

2. Not even an also-ran in Boxing, Weight Lifting, Track and Field events, Swimming, Equestrian or other sports.

3. Probably was never represented in Cycling, Gymnastics, Pole Vault etc.

But this does not mean that Indians do not watch other sports. Steffi Graf, Boris Becker, Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Mike Tyson, Maradona, Ronaldo and other such iconic players are well known to many urban people. And, we do not hesitate to say that we love them.

I wouldn’t say India doesn’t excel at sports, they are culturally a Cricket nation – Indian’s are good at, and love Cricket. Compared to many many other countries, they are easily one of the best countries in the world… by far better than Canada or the United States or many Euro countries. Ranked among Australia and the UK.

I wouldn’t say the US people are “fat and smart”, I think their fat cause of all the McDonald’s they eat… a lot of educational students get through their higher education on sports scholarships.

Yes, lechuck. I agree that India does well in Cricket. But why not play other major sports ? When it comes to Cricket, every one considers himself/herself an expert here. I too :-)

Obesity is not a serious problem here in India because firstly, we haven’t yet fully caught up with American standards of living and secondly, people in many parts of rural India face food shortages (high unemployment, inflation, lack of purchasing power). So malnutrition dominates rather than Obesity.

The reason I mention this is because Sports (tourism and the like too) can help even people without good education to come up in life. But our mad obsession with academics doesn’t open up alternative career paths to the masses and has a detrimental effect on the efforts to eliminate poverty.

Here are my 2 paise. I believe we (I’m an Indian) will never really amount to much in the atheletic sport world. The reason? Genes. There is no getting around this (unless of course, we go sci fi and start talking genetic modifications or spurts in evolution or mass homogenization). There is a reason for the fact that Caucasians and Africans are faster and stronger. We evolve within the confines of the environment and our geography is important. We cannot deny this, because then we are rejecting the premise that different environments lead to different evolutionary narratives. Polar bears are white and you know it.

Of course training can overcome some of these limitations, but they are still limitations. The Americans are not going to get lax in their training anytime soon either, so how much do you think we have to train to overcome our limitaions and outtrain them? “Look at the Chinese!!!!1111”, you say. “I said atheletic sport”, I say.

Coming to the issue of calling ourselves Einstein’s chosen people and enjoying a thousand year old, one billion strong circle jerk, “BULLSHIT”, I say in all caps. I totally agree that we are not genetically stupider than anyone, but we seem to be everywhere ONLY becase we are so many. Statistically, per-capita, we are so far behind any developed nation in any academic metric it’s not funny.

Let’s stop fooling ourselves.

xmonkee, glad to know that you are Indian and that you are not another ultra-nationalist. Now, irrespective of the merits or demerits of your argument, you have shown us all one fine example of the Indians you were talking about !

Thank You.