New Delhi [India], April 5 : The Indian Tennis ace and six-time Grand Slam champion Sania Mirza on Friday said that the country need to "support" athletes for many years to expect a gold medal in the Olympics as for each marquee event players spent many years working hard with or without getting recognition.
A gold medal has always been an elusive dream for India in the Summer Games. In the previous iteration, after putting in years of hard work 'Golden Boy' Neeraj Chopra bagged the sole medal for the nation.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Sania reflected on the years of hard work it takes for an athlete to compete in the world's biggest sporting event and the need to back the athletes throughout the years that are spent in preparation.
"I think every time the Olympics come you can't expect the gold medal if you are not supporting them throughout the four years that have gone by. I think the first and most important thing is to first understand that gold medals are not made overnight. Gold medals are made by years and years of tears and sweat. The athletes are putting in years of work with or without recognition. People notice it for two to three months before the Olympics," the three-time Olympian told ANI.
The three-time Olympian, who retired from Tennis last year, highlighted that even though India have reached a new highest in the world sport there is "always room for improvement" and the people need to support the athletes for "throughout many years."
India finished their Asian Games 2023 campaign with a record haul of 107 medals - 28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze with 7 medals, India records its best-ever Olympic performance.
"So I think the first thing is to support throughout the journey not just in an Olympic year. And when you invest in your athletes you will get a lot more medals. We are improving everything we go to the Olympic or Asian Games. And this is a very encouraging sign. But there is always room for improvement so you have to support your athletes throughout for many years," she added.
Sania expressed her satisfaction that many athletes are coming out and opening up about the pressure, and depression they face in their lives and commonalities in the stresses that athletes face regardless of the sport.
In recent times, many players have come out and revealed their side of facing stress and handling pressure one of them was a decorative player in tennis, Naomi Osaka. The former World No.1 and four-time Grand Slam singles champion ahead of the 2021 French Open on social media announced that she would not take part in any media interaction to protect her mental health and well-being.
"The fact that you have the biggest athletes coming out and saying that pressure is real and mental health is real. Sometimes people kind of forget I think that as athletes we are also normal human beings, who have the same feeling, feel sad, upset, happy, excited and depressed. I think that is very important that the human side of it has been revealed in many ways. I am all for being real. I love the factor that we are actually talking about it. I think that mental health has always been part of every athlete's journey. I just think that they didn't really understand how to speak about it. I think over the last ten years or 15 years, there's been a lot more conversation about it," Sania said.
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