Medals Are Not Everything: Amitabh Bachchan Lauds Olympian Courage

Amitabh Bachchan supports the Indian contingent at Rio and makes a valid point about embracing failure.

File photo of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan. (Photo: Reuters)

Lauding the hard work of Indian athletes competing at the Rio Olympics, megastar Amitabh Bachchan spoke up in their support, saying that winning medals is not everything in life.

The grand sports event is nearing its end, but India doesn’t have much to boast about in terms of its medal tally, with the exception of Sakshi Malik’s bronze win. Shobhaa De made things a little worse by pulling the Indian contingent’s morale down with her tweets. But Mr Bachchan’s bold statement might have served as the much needed encouragement our sports men and women need.

They (athletes) need the support of the whole country. It’s not an easy task to go up there and perform the way they are doing. I really applaud the fact that they are able to bring the name of the country on an international platform, that’s most credible. It’s a tough job and it’s difficult to be there.

Amitabh Bachchan, Actor

According to Big B the fact that Indian athletes are representing India on an international platform is as significant as them winning.

It’s extremely laudable that we had so much talent there representing the country. It’s another matter that they are not able to bring in medals. But medals are not everything in life. This experience and exposure will help them and I am pretty certain that in the next Olympics in 2020 we will do much better.

Amitabh Bachchan

While as a nation we mainly strive to churn out doctors and engineers, Amitabh Bachchan’s comment makes us reflect on how much we really support and encourage our sports talent through their struggles, and whether we even have the right to demand medals that they fight for alone as individuals.

(With inputs from PTI)