IT was a delightful moment for Pakistanis to watch Talha Talib competing in Tokyo Olympics where he secured the fifth position in men’s weightlifting. The last time Pakistan participated in the said discipline was in 1976. The limelight Talha has received since then is rightfully earned, but has also put under the spotlight the miserable plight of sports in Pakistan.

With a contingent of 10 in a global event, Pakistani ‘heroism’ must have died a hundred deaths. It is a slap in the face of a country where we constantly hear the rhetoric of ‘youth bulge comprising 64 per cent of the national population’. It is not that the country is lacking in talent. It is the absence of systematic support that is to take the blame.

Instead of politicising the sports arena, we should make it a point of convergence in the highly volatile and diverging polity. Sports and games require training, funds and motivation. The only thing consistent in our sportspersons is the last one; motivation.

It is high time we devised a national sports policy that may focus on national and international event management, allocation and dissemination of funds to relevant sports streams, establishment of training academies, provision of professional coaches and on main-streaming the best talent of Pakistan.

Sidra Shahid
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2021