Down the memory lane: Madras’ tryst with Olympics over the years

Chennai's diverse sports legacy, from hockey to tennis, shines at the Olympics, with athletes like Leander Paes and P.T. Usha.

It is easy to restrict Chennai to a cliche and say it is a city of the three Cs: cinema, Carnatic music and cricket. If you want to stretch it further add a chutney too, of both the fiery and mellow kind. Yet, this is a metropolis that has many layers to it and when it comes to sport, even if cricket has this urban landmass in its thrall, Chennaites love sport of all kinds.

With the Olympic season upon us and all eyes veering towards Paris, it is time to find the threads that bind this city with those five rings that symbolise one of sport’s greatest quadrennial events. A wag might still say we also have a Parrys Corner but dry jokes aside, there are many in this city, strong on their love for Madras and all things Olympics.

India’s Olympic tryst initially was all about its halo gleaned from hockey but the last gold in this team sport was won at the Moscow Games in 1980. The man, who led the team, is a quintessential Besant Nagar man despite his Bengaluru roots. Vasudevan Baskaran, former captain and later coach, is an avid sports buff keeping an eye on India in all disciplines.

If Baskaran has a golden hue in terms of legacy, track queen P.T. Usha only has pathos to show as she narrowly missed a bronze in the 400m hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. A Malayalee from Payyoli in northern Kerala, Usha has a Madras-connect thanks to her long stint with the Indian Railways and had worked with the Southern Railways head-office before shifting to the Palakkad Division.

Usha’s State-mate Shiny Wilson, who made Chennai her home, is another Olympian, who tasted success at the Asian level.

A city that nurtured the Krishnans and the Amritrajs cannot be far behind when it comes to tennis success at the Olympics. And so it was when Leander Paes, a Goan with a forever Kolkata link, secured a bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Paes has a Chennai-affiliation too as he trained in Madras and used to go for a run on the Marina.

The list of Chennaites, who turned up at the Games, is pretty long and the tradition continues as veteran table tennis star Sharath Kamal is at the latest Olympics. He lost in the individual singles but gets another shot through the team event.