PARIS: There is a small centre in the brain that is called amygdala. It is tiny compared to other parts of the brain but has a very distinctive function. It controls emotions, anxiety and fear. When fear creeps in, past instances of similar shocks start flashing by. It may lead to the body being shut down and only those vital organs required to escape, like the heart and the limbs, kept functioning.
In sport, the amygdala helps control aggression and the mind from going blank. High-performing athletes have an ability to make logical decisions during games, with muscle memory working in tandem. In badminton, when the shuttle travels at a speed of around 400km per hour, the decision-making needs to be faster. Reactions need to be sharper, movements quicker. But when doubt creeps in, old memories of turmoil lead to fear. For an athlete, that's where the contest is often lost.
On Monday, Lakshya Sen appeared to be going through one of those moments when the mind goes blank. He was trembling when he stepped out to meet the waiting media in the mixed zone, his voice shaking. Logical answers seemed to be deserting him. He was shaking his head, desperately trying not to break down. He was looking listless as if he had been hit by something dreadful. He had just lost the most important match of his career so far – the bronze medal play-off at the Olympics against Lee Zii Jia. It is not always that a player gets the chance to win an Olympic medal — the reward for years of sweat and toil.
Lakshya looked like he was yet to recover from the Viktor Axelsen shock in the semifinal. It must have been triggering when his opponent, Malaysia’s Lee, started clawing back from 3-8 down in the second game after Lakshya took the first 21-13 without breaking a sweat. Lee had been wayward, his line judgement awful and some of his shots were drifting out. Lakshya, meanwhile, looked immaculate at the packed Aréna Porte de La Chapelle.
But that changed in the second game when Lee started to make a comeback. The delirious crowd kept egging the Malaysian and Lakshya suddenly seemed to have shut off. It was as if the amygdalahad sensed fear. He erred, his shots that had a stamp of genius written all over it in the first game, suddenly seemed feeble.
Perhaps the Axelsen game started flashing by when he could not finish the game after being 20-17 up. Eight points came on the trot for Lee, something that can be considered criminal in a high-stake game like this. The bruise in his hand was not as painful as the one in his head. After that, Lakshya never recovered though he tried to keep Lee on his toes. In the third game, Lakshya was drifting both mentally and physically. The game card 21-11 was the reflection of a meltdown.
Lakhsya’s comments too echoed the same line. “Once he started playing well, it was hard for me to find the answers in the rallies,” he said. “At times, when the score is crucial, you have to be mentally strong. Credit to him, he played a solid game in the second.” During the brief two-and-a-half-minute conversation, Lakshya kept looking everywhere for answers, both for his game and the questions thrown at him.
Lee, on the other hand, spoke about how he switched his strategy. “I tried to turn the game into an attacking game,” Lee said in the mixed zone. He looked happy and could smile. The two have been playing against each other for quite some time and they know each other’s game. But Lee confessed that the Olympics is crazy. It can make players do amazing things. All he was trying in the second game was to parry the shuttle as much as possible. “The longer I could sustain, (especially with rallies) the bigger chance I had,” he said.
India has three medals so far at this Olympics. Like boxing, badminton too has drawn a blank, the first complete misfire for the sport since Saina Nehwal won a bronze in 2012. It is disconcerting the way badminton has failed to deliver for India at this Olympics. The investment was huge. Like boxing, it was one of the best-funded sports. There were multiple sparring partners and coaches with each shuttler. Foreign coaches were made available, while the players were able to train abroad in the best of the facilities. Yet there is nothing to show on the biggest stage.
The Badminton Federation of India must reboot and restart. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS) too need to be held equally responsible. Athletes were being monitored by TOPS directly, sometimes even bypassing the federations. For certain players, there were different rules. There is no concept of a national camp, which used to be the norm earlier. Every demand of players had been met. It needs to be seen whether it is a good thing or bad. In the end, Prakash Padukone, who is here as Sindhu’s mentor, said: “Players also should take responsibility,” he said. “One cannot always blame the federation or the ministry.” Every demand of the shuttlers has been met, he said. If Indian badminton needs to recover, they should revisit the policies that fetched the country three medals in three Olympics. A country, historically starved of Olympic glory, simply cannot afford to let the golden goose die.