Mumbai: As the barbell bounced in front of her after the lift that guaranteed an Asian Games medal, a slight smile lit up Mirabai Chanu’s face. As the world seemingly stood still around her after the shot that slipped up another Asian Games medal, a wry smile slid behind Manu Bhaker’s face.
And yet, would Mirabai have been any less of a champion of Indian sport and an inspiration in Indian weightlifting without an Asian Games medal? Would Roger Federer have been any less of a master on court without a French Open crown? Would Novak Djokovic have been any less of a beast among all Grand Slam beasts without an Olympic stamp? Would Lionel Messi have been any less of a magician of the ball and feet without a World Cup wand? Would Sachin Tendulkar have been any less of a generation-defining and record-gobbling cricketer without a 100th hundred? “The moment of when I achieved it, how I achieved it, after years of trying… Messi too tried for years, criss-crossing through every individual achievement at the club level, playing more matches for his country than anybody else, returning with near-misses, announcing retirements and backpedaling those plans.
Would Neeraj Chopra have been any less of a gold standard in Indian athletics without the 90-metre mark? Until it all came together at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
“I can now go the rest of my career without worrying that I would never win the French Open,” Federer said then. I think (that) makes it even more unique,” Djokovic had said. “I feel it like a triumph for me to have changed that situation and won over all the people of Argentina,” Messi said in an ESPN documentary. “It was possibly the toughest phase of my life,” Tendulkar told the media. “There was so much hype and attention about the 100th hundred.”
