From leukemia to gold medal!!!

From leukemia to gold, Dutch swimmer wins 10-kilometer race

Courtesey - International Herald Tribune

Just came across an article from net. This is an absolute example of strong will power, and never give up attitude. The guy was diagnosed with one of the worst forms of cancer (Lukemia). But just with his sheer will power, he not only fought over the cancer , but won the gold medal at beijing. Read below.

Dutch swimmer Maarten van der Weijden skirted just inside the final red buoy to grab gold in the men's 10-kilometer open water race Thursday, completing a comeback after recovering from leukemia.
Van der Weijden won a three-way sprint in the inaugural event with a better-angled finish under a steady rain.
"I think the leukemia taught me to think step by step," Van der Weijden said. "When you're laying in the hospital bed and feeling so much pain and feeling so tired, you don't want to think about next week or next month, you're only thinking about the next hour.
"You just be patient. You lay in your bed and just wait. It's almost the same strategy I've used here, to stay in the pack, to be patient, and stay easy just waiting for your chance."

"If there is anyone in the field that can beat me, that guy is an absolute legend," Davies said of van der Weijden. "He's a great guy. He's obviously been to the depths in his personal life and to come back is a great story. Lance Armstrong epic."

Van der Weijden was diagnosed with leukemia in 2001. He came back in 2003 and began swimming faster than before he had the disease. He now commits a large portion of his time to raising awareness for leukemia.
"Because of the treatment I got, the stem cell transplants, I had the luck to recover," Van der Weijden said. "The stem cell transplants are because of research worldwide for cancer. So everyone who donates money, donated money in the past, I'm grateful too or otherwise I wouldn't be here."

Mobile telephone numbering in India

Many times I recieve missed calls and really wonder atlist which region this call is from. Just out of curiosity searched the net and found out the following link on google.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Cellphone_Numbering

This highlights all the prefixes used by Indian Cell phone providers in various regions.

Olympics and time to celebrate or introspect?

The world's greatest sports spectacle - the Summer Olympic Games 2008 will be over soon in Beijing on Friday. Indian officials are busy celebrating. The pressing question going around Delhi is whether they should really celebrate?
For one, a nation of a billion-plus people - the world's most populous democracy - has dispatched a small squad of 57 athletes (and 42 officials, in 2004 we had 227 officials with 75 athletes :-)) to the Games. In other words, with a total of 28 sports and 302 events to compete in, only a meager 57 Indians athletes were qualified and managed only 3 medals. Contrast this with the United States, which marched into Beijing with a powerhouse contingent of 596 athletes (106 medals). China had 639 (96 medals) and even tiny Estonia has 47 representatives (1 gold + 1silver). In terms of the total Olympic medal tallied, India ranks even behind Nigeria, a country whose economy is one-twentieth of its size.
Yet with 3 medals,the IOA is celebrating and busy taking the credit. Not that they should not be celebrating, but more than that, they should make a sincere attempt to sit down and introspect.

Why did we win only 3 medals? Why did we not win any team event? Forget winning we did not even quality for any of these event. Indian ruled hockey for decades and this year we couldn't even qualify for Olympics. Same is the story with other sports such as Soccer, basketball.

No one can take away the credit from Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh. They deserve what they have earned. It's only because of their hardwork and efforts, India could manage the individual medals. But one really wonders what IOA/Indian government contributed in their success.

Months before the Olympics, I read stories about the sub standard facilities provided for the Indian rowing team. The Badminton team didn't even have shuttles for practice sessions. (Abhinav Bindra had made his own investments in setting up the world class shooting range for practicing.) How can we expect them to compete against the world class athletes and then deliver?

Can we look at the below mentioned 5 Point formula to improve our state in Olympics?
1> Shift Focus -> We Indians need to take little focus away from Cricket and start focusing on other sports/games. Media should play a bigger role in this. Corporates to focus equally on all the sports. In fact Government should lay down policies for the cooperates so that they can spend equally on other sports as well.
2> Talent Hunt -> Organize leagues/championships on similar pattern as that of cricket leagues (Ranaji, IPL etc)
3> Corporate responsibilities -> Corporates to adopt one particular region and invest equally on all the sports in their respective regions. They should be given specifc targets in terms of Olympic medals. Based on the performance, SOPs/facilities to be extended to these Corporates.
4> Increased Sports Budget -> India's annual sports budget to be increased from a paltry $280 million (You know how much China's budget is $ 2 billion dollars). Also the budget should be properly utilized for getting best world class coaches, world class equipments etc.
5> Disciplined Sportsmen -> and equally important for the sportsmen to stay focused and not to get carried away by the little success and the endorsements.

If these initiatives are followed through there's no reason why a nation of billion-plus people cannot have more podium finishes at the Olympics.

But again we just talk, discuss and write about the situation. I am sure nothing will change in the coming years. Situation won't be much different for 2012 London Olympics thna today. Just praying if we can preserve the existing medals at least.

God please spare Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Vijender at least from getting spoiled by the Reebok's, Pepsi's and the Adidas's.