To know if a sport has arrived, look no further than the press conferences - the more the ruckus, the better. And so, chaos was the order of the day as the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) felicitated the Indian contingent for its three-medal performance at the Beijing Games on Tuesday.

With gold medallist Abhinav Bindra sharing the stage with Sushil Kumar and Vijender, the hunt for the best frame got the better of photo-journalists and TV crews, who only just stopped short of trading blows — which might have been kind of apt, if you think about it.

By the end of it, Bindra was richer by Rs 50 lakh — half of it presented by the team sponsor, and another half announced by the IOA — while Sushil and Vijender pocketed Rs 20 lakh each.

Suresh Kalmadi went on to announce Rs 5lakh to each quarter-finalist — the pugilist duo of Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar, and shuttler Saina Nehwal.

“Olympic sports have come of age in the country,” declared Mr Kalmadi. “The jinx is broken and I can assure you of a bagful of medals, at least 10, and half of them gold, in 2012,” said the IOA boss, who, ironically, had cautioned before the Beijing Games not to expect much.

Then, he took an almost customary swipe at cricket. “I was pleased to see the cricket victory was the third headline when we won medal in Olympics,” he said.

Mercifully, the men of the moment turned out to be men of few words. “Let’s adopt Olympic sports in our way of living,” Bindra said.

... contd.