CHENNAI : A steamer, a pulse oximeter, temperature gun, vitamin supplements, Ayurvedic tea bags, home-made haldi... it’s fair to say that Rahi Sarnobat’s luggage is a constant reminder of the Covid-19 infested world. Those are things she never carried but is taking all of them this time. Even if she herself was down with Covid just last month, she is carrying some of it if a teammate or a support staff might need it. “I have never carried them,” she says in a press conference arranged by the Sports Authority of India. “Of course I just had Covid so I hope I don’t get reinfected again.
But I’m carrying them because my teammate or support staff might need it.” Even as a majority of Indian athletes are stuck in India still charting a course amid the pandemic, all the Olympicbound shooters will be leaving for Croatia for a camp as well as two events (European Championships as well as an ISSF World Cup) before directly going to Tokyo. Even as Rahi, the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games gold medal, hopes she will never have to take the oximeter from her bag, her immediate attention is winning an Olympic medal. Even if an Olympic medal for most Indian athletes represents hope, it’s almost an expectation for the country’s elite shooters.
The why is simple. The ones going to Tokyo have set and broken world records, routinely medalled at world-level events and occupy the podium places in the world ranking charts. So there is bound to be pressure. Will Rahi, ranked No 2 in 25m pistol, feel it? Interestingly, she says some pressure is always better. “I want some pressure on me,” she says. “What my experience says is that I give better performances under pressure because I really like that feeling of responsibility.
The expectations don’t come from people around you but it comes from athletes themselves, it can bring out the best in me.” But shooters have failed to live up to expectation in the past, the 2016 Games a case in point. But the 30-year-old makes the point that expectation is a natural byproduct of past performances. “I don’t think so,” she says to a question on whether she wished shooters wouldn’t have so much expectations placed on them. “Expectations comes from past performances. And I want to give credit to our younger ones than the seniors because they have performed really brilliantly in all competitions.”