New Delhi: After a forgettable outing by the Indian speed walking contingent in Paris, one of India’s best known speed walkers has stressed the need for athletes to elevate their mental game, saying that physical fitness alone was not enough for success.
Manish Singh Rawat also came out in support of Priyanka Goswami, who is especially being targeted online, even as he expressed bewilderment at her below par performance in the Olympics.
He noted that despite the young athletes, Suraj Panwar and Paramjeet Singh Bisht, demonstrating promising timings of 1:19 hour and 1:20 hour in practice, compared to his personal best of 1:26 hour, they struggled to replicate this form on the bigger stage.
Rawat reiterated the need for mental toughness again. “They have to be more mentally fit to perform at the bigger stage,” he told ThePrint. “To obtain results, we have to work on a stronger and larger foundation where we have more athletes in the future.”
The athlete from Uttarakhand had finished 13th in the men’s 20km walk way back at the Rio Olympics 2016, ahead of Olympic record holder Ding Chen.
Contradicting claims of inadequate provisions, Rawat defended the government’s support stating that since 2018, athletes have had access to comprehensive facilities, including physios and nutritionists, in Bengaluru. “In the present time, when I went to the camp in Bengaluru last, everything had changed, there was nothing that wasn’t provided to us unlike before.”
Online criticism is growing against India’s speed walkers, including Priyanka, for their performance at the Paris Olympics. They faced controversy after some of them failed to complete events, leading to questions about the effectiveness of their overseas training and ability to deliver under pressure.
A 29-member Indian athletics team participated in the Paris Olympics 2024 from 1 to 9 August. The athletics events commenced on 1 August with race walking, featuring Priyanka in the 20km race walk and the mixed marathon race walk.
Other Indian competitors included Suraj Panwar in the marathon race walk mixed relay final with Priyanka, and Akshdeep Singh, Vikash Singh, and Paramjeet Singh Bisht in the men’s 20km race walk.
Priyanka, 28, found herself at the centre of controversy after she finished a distant 41st from a field of 45 in the women’s 20km walk. The 2022 CWG silver medalist clocked a time of 1 hour, 39 minutes, and 55 seconds — 10 minutes slower than her season’s best of 1 hour 29 minutes, and 48 seconds.
After the race, she posted on ‘X’ saying — “It was not my day” — further raising more questions about her outing.
Barring Priyanka’s show, India’s performance at the race walking event in Paris was decent from the timing perspective, Rawat said. He noted that Akshdeep’s withdrawal due to fever was unfortunate, but highlighted Suraj’s impressive 10km finish in 39 minutes.
Rawat expressed both disappointment and puzzle at Priyanka’s inability to complete the race. “Why Priyanka couldn’t finish is something even I don’t have the answer to, but surely they should’ve done better,” he told ThePrint. “From 140 crore people, 5 are going to represent India in racewalking. So if not a medal, a result is the least we deserve certainly.”
The race walking events in Paris were held in demanding weather conditions, with the women’s event taking place in humid conditions, with temperatures nearing 25 degrees Celsius and humidity levels above 85 percent.
“It’s always better if one adjusts to the conditions of the event much before and according to me even if it was under humid conditions, the race timings and how fast it was speaks for the fact that they could’ve prepared better. It’s not me who is saying this, but the result and timings that tens of athletes were below the 1:20-hour mark,” Rawat said.
Indian men’s 20km walk team disappointed with Vikash finishing 30th, Paramjeet 37th, and national record holder Akshdeep withdrawing mid-race due to health issues.
Akshdeep pulled out after the 6km mark and was seen in discomfort, holding his abdomen while bending down forward. “He was having a fever from the 30th onwards because of a urinary tract infection. However, he recovered from fever yesterday,” a team coach told PTI.
The controversy deepened when Priyanka and Suraj failed to finish the mixed marathon race walk, dropping out after 136 minutes.
Rawat revealed that Priyanka had cited recovery and load management issues as the reason for her withdrawal. “She stated that recovery and load management was an issue she faced resulting in her not finishing the race,” he said.
He expressed disappointment, noting that Priyanka’s results were underwhelming despite her overseas training. “I surely believe that she should’ve done better.”
Priyanka had previously set a national record in the 20km race walking event with a time of 1:28:45 hour at the 8th National and International Race Walking Championships in February 2021, earning a spot at the Tokyo Olympics, where she finished 17th. She grabbed herself a ticket to Paris after clocking 1:28:50 hour at the Olympic qualifiers in February 2023.
“It’s not good that she wasn’t able to finish but I have personally known her for a long time, and she had been training with me since 2011. She had a lot of struggles of her own and even I didn’t expect her to qualify for the Olympics at one point, but she did and she did it twice. So it is an achievement on its own,” Rawat said.
He praised her resilience, noting that her journey to the Olympics was far from easy. “The road to Olympics hasn’t been easy for her when the likes of me and Irfan K.T. were competing in the Olympics. Her contemporaries like Khushbir Kaur got the Arjuna award (in 2017); she couldn’t even get national medals at the time. Her turnaround shows how strong she is,” he asserted.
Priyanka, a Railway employee, drew flak for social media presence, with netizens remarking that athletes like her spend more time making reels than practising on the field.
Rawat came to the defence of his fellow athlete from Uttar Pradesh. “The trolls have their opinion but if I could tell them, realistically when you’re in the middle of competing at such a big event, you hardly get anytime from training to recovery. So, I don’t think she was too focused on social media, maybe she did it to keep everything light and divert her mind,” he said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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