Abhinav Bindra, by winning the gold in shooting, becomes the first Indian individual gold medalist ever.

A lot of media has been bemoaning the past disasters by India at the Olympics. It is important at this juncture to realise that we are seeing a new India.

Our shooting team is very strong and I have been expecting them to come home with 2-4 medals. Saina Mehwal is not doing too bad either for one so young. These are small but important steps.

We still lack behind in track and field and swimming but there is a lot to look forward from India. The progress will be slow but steady - and that’s the key thing.

Every one expects China to do well in the 2008 Olympics including me. A question of course is ‘exactly how well will they do?’ How close will they come to the USA in the medals tally and will they even topple the USA?

China had a great Asian games but the people who matter are pushing the athletes much more. That is not all which is being done though. China is focussing on the grandeur as well - so the Olympic torch will climb the Everest. Beijing 2008 is being taken very seriously by China as we all know and we are seeing what China is doing towards this end as these news items come to the fore.

While Sydney 2000 was one of the most spectacular in recent Olympic history, Beijing 2008 might just be the most memorable. More than the boost to the rapidly growing economy, Beijing 2008 provides the chance for China to come closer to the world via the quickest of ways - sports. So, China should focus on building and growing upon an image which will reap tremendous long term returns.

The medals tally will be just one of the many things the world will be watching and how much China is able to to seize Beijing 2008 at this interesting juncture in it’s growth will be fascinating to follow.

The 10th Pan Pacific Swimming Championship is over. The highlight was the number of world records broken - six which is huge considering the number of swimmers missing the event.

The biggest star of the meet was Michael Phelps who makes a statement of sorts and sets up things for next year’s World Championships and then the Beijing Olympics nicely where swimming is concerned.

SI has more:

In Victoria, he lowered his world marks in the 200-meter individual medley and 200 butterfly, and led off the world record-setting 400 freestyle relay.

“It’s pretty much the first meet where I have been happy coming off of last summer,” he said.

The way records have been broken in swimming in the last couple of years has been astounding. With many more young stars coming through, the records will keep tumbling, possibly even faster in the next couple of years. A few young guns from Times Colonist:

Emerging American star Cullen Jones, who reportedly signed an endorsement deal with Nike potentially worth $2 million, won the men’s 50-metres freestyle in a meet record 21.84 seconds …

… Tae Hwan Park, the 16-year-old Korean high school sensation, won his second gold medal of the meet — the first two golds ever won by Korea at a major international swim meet. Park took the men’s 1,500 metres in 15:06.11 while 17-year-old Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, who graduated last spring from Claremont Secondary, turned in a solid showing by placing fourth in 15:13.44.

Cullen Jones is already being called the Tiger Woods of swimming and though that may be an exaggeration, the younger brigade cannot be ignored.

As far as the medal tally goes, US was the handsome winner. However, Australia wasn’t in full force for the event but do not forget China who finished number seven and had measly two medals to show for their participation was very weak as well.

The stage for some tough battles in the pool has been set.

In 1936, Hitler’s Germany finished with 11 golds and 33 total medals more than the next best - USA. As we inch closer to Beijing, we realise how real the USA versus China battle is going to be.

Every sport has the Chinese imprint on it now. As 2008 draws closer, the imprint grows bigger. There was the world record in 110 meter hurdles a few days back. Now, it is the turn of tennis. Tennis has already seen the Chinese women take the doubles at two earlier grand slams this season - Australian Open and Wimbledon. Now, they Chinese are raising the bar in singles as well.

As CNN reports:

China will now play in the eight-team World Group in 2007 while twice champions Germany were relegated to the second tier of the team competition.

The victory was another first in a breakthrough year in which Li became the first Chinese player to reach the singles quarterfinals at a grand slam and Zheng Jie and Yan Zi secured the country’s first major titles in the women’s doubles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

That Germany is being replaced by China in the world group bears symbolism more than any thing else. The Olympics have always been the global stage where political statements have been made as this piece from The Economist [Via India Uncut] talked on among other things:

Over its long history, success at the Olympics has usually been a fairly accurate measure of global political power. Although the world now remembers the snub that Jesse Owens delivered to Nazi theories of racial superiority, the Germans came top of the Olympic medal table in 1936, reflecting the Nazi regime’s growing power. During the cold war, the United States and the Soviet Union repeatedly struggled to gain a symbolic victory, by winning the most medals at the Olympics. Already a similar, politically charged battle for supremacy between America and China looks likely in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

If you keep your eyes and ears open, the results have started showing for China. It was one thing to achieve supremacy in an era when sport wasn’t as competitive, hence standards not as tough in 1936. It is a completely different ball game to compete against a super power like USA in the sporting arena - a country which has been very much unbeatable. That is essentially China’s challenge in the world stage as well, isn’t it? To compete with the best in the world markets in products by reducing the cost of production while mass producing as good if not better goods?

History has shown - what you do at the world stage, you do it first at the Olympics. So, 2008 will be a time to make statements. The process was started when the athletes and sports persons were nurtured. The results have already started flowing in.