Pakistan’s Olympic failure

This year, as in the past, the Pakistan contingent at the Olympics came back empty handed. This failure has some deep roots which we must understand in order to tackle core issues associated with it.

Pakistan’s association with the Olympics dates back to 1948, when the Pakistan Olympics Association (POA) was established, subsequently recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In 1948, it was Ahmed Ebrahim Haroon Jaffar who debuted Pakistan’s Olympians at London. Despite the POA being presided on by charismatic leaders like Ghulam Muhammad, Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, Chaudhary Muhammad Ali, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Feroze Khan Noon, and many others, Pakistan was only able to wear its first silver in 1958. Perhaps it was the burden of the formative years of Pakistan that prevented enough training and hence medals for two consecutive Olympiads.

Thereafter, Pakistan won only eight medals (two Gold, three Silver and three Bronze) in field hockey and two Bronze in wrestling and boxing for nine Olympiads till 1992, after which there has been a nearly 30-year dry period. The blame for this failure is either charged on dereliction of duty by the leadership of the POA, political involvement, or fiscal constraints. However, these reasons disregard the fact that this failure has deep roots in the socio-cultural innards of Pakistani society. The stigmatization of sports in general has played a fundamental role in the dismal performance of Pakistan in the Olympics.

The image of sports in Pakistan and its stigmatisation by society has an extrapolation in Erving Goffman’s articulation of the concept of stigma. Goffman notes that stigma deeply affects a person’s psychological well-being. Furthermore, Arthur Kleinman and Rachel Hall-Clifford have articulated the social construction of stigma and its moral dimension. The demeaning attitude towards sports in general in Pakistan has kept not only policymakers and interest groups unforthcoming about making desired policies, but also prevented political representatives from showing a real interest in ensuring better training facilities and socially stimulating environment for sportspersons.

Sports in general is discouraged in our society due to recessive ideas about sports beginning from schools, where children are told to study more and play less by teachers, parents, relatives and by society overall. Not only that, society also stigmatises an individual’s profession; doctors, engineers, government employees and businessmen are amongst a few vocations that are respectable, the rest are believed to have socially demeaning status. So, a sportsperson who is aspiring to become a medallist in the Olympics is left with little space to breathe and jump through societal restraints.

Moreover, if one does survive the stigmatisation of the society and trains to represent the country at the Olympics, the quintessential afterthought of ‘what next?’ debars a sportsperson psychologically after the momentous celebration, given that one wins. In fact, numerous stories abound of winners complaining about lack of recognition, let alone support, once they return victorious to their homeland. Since there are not many opportunities for a sportsperson in Pakistan, one is either employed by a school as a physical education/ training teacher with a meagre pay or hired by universities, with low social and financial status. Bleak prospects and the focus on survival and social approval, coupled with moral and psychological stigmatisation by society, lead to failure in most cases.

Furthermore, the idea of social security for sportspersons has yet to be realised by not only the government but also policymakers and interest groups. While considering the government’s support, particularly in terms of old age rewards including pension, medical care, and other benefits that sportspersons should get for serving the country, one seldom comes across their grant to sportspersons. The stigmatising pulls of society and the repelling push of survival is coalesced with an unsupportive state, to only ensue failure.

The unfortunate stories of Talha Talib, Joseph Gulfam, Arshad Nadeem and others since the 1992 Olympics and those of 2020 can be blamed on neglect by the state. Granted, we belong to a developing country, where political will is missing, where policy is not implemented, funds are not designated, and interest groups are not fascinated by the proposition of doing something for sports in Pakistan. Nevertheless, one must realise that policymakers, political agents, and interest groups are in fact representatives of our society and their indolent attitude is an indictment of how socially constructed stigma has debarred our society from creating policies for sports in general and sportspersons in particular.

Pakistan’s success at the Olympics (or any other sports competition) is predicated in not only better training, government support and the like, but also an end to the social stigmatization associated with sports in our society. Encouraging sports as a real profession and vocation, and creating mechanisms for better training and support, will not only lead to medals for Pakistan, but will make our society healthier and happier.

The writer is a research associate at the Centre for Governance and Policy, Information Technology University