With a gold and two bronze medals, Beijing 2008 turned out to be India’s best performance ever at the Olympics. Cash rewards are now being showered on those who excelled, especially the boxers with one making it to the last four and two to the quarters. Yet when they needed money most in the run-up to the Games, the five-member boxing contingent, though sanctioned Rs 1.03 crore by the government for nutritional supplements, management of support staff, pocket allowance, air fare, and training equipment like video camera, laptop, punching machine, had to make do with just Rs 13.77 lakh — less than 15 per cent of the sanctioned amount.

In fact, hardly any money came their way as the athletes prepared for the Olympics. Figures obtained from the Sports Ministry reveal that the government spent less than half the money it had earmarked for training these athletes after they had qualified for the Beijing Games. Against a total of Rs 6.59 crore sanctioned by the government, only Rs 3.19 crore was released.

Of this, two-thirds or Rs 2.08 crore was spent on the nine-member shooting contingent, mainly because five of them were financed to train in European countries. Only two, gold medal winner Abhinav Bindra and Avneet Kaur, got some assistance for buying equipment and ammunition.

The remaining Rs 1.11 crore was shared by 48 athletes, at an average of Rs 2.3 lakh per person, hardly the kind of investment that is required to produce medals.

Boxer Vijender Kumar, whose bronze-winning performance has already made him a beneficiary of cash rewards over a crore, was given just about Rs 2.5 lakh to prepare for the Games. And that included money for his support staff and pocket allowance.

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