Former Indian athlete PT Usha became the new chief of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Saturday (December 10), as well as its first woman president.
The 58-year-old Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha – for short – is recognised as a phenom in Indian athletics and came onto the scene during the 1980s. Later, she became active as a coach and member of sports administration and was nominated as a Rajya Sabha MP in 2022 by the central government.
Early years: A village girl showing promise
Born in a small village near Payyoli, Kerala, PT Usha’s talent was spotted early. When in the fourth grade, she comfortably beat a school champion three years her senior in a race. Her graceful form and unsuspecting pace awed the audience. She continued performing well at the school level, earning a Rs. 250 scholarship and a place at the GVHSS (Sports) in Kannur, a Kerala government-run school with a special focus on sports.
At Kannur, she was coached by O.M. Nambiar, a former athlete himself, from 1977. Having first spotted her at a prize distribution ceremony, he provided her with technical guidance. The next year, Usha won six medals, including four golds at the inter-state meet for juniors in Kollam.
At this point, Usha was competing in multiple disciplines – from hurdles to long jump and high jump. “What impressed me at first sight about Usha was her lean shape and fast walking style. I knew she could become a very good sprinter,” said Nambiar in an interview with George Iype.
Becoming the ‘Payyoli Express’
Soon Usha burst onto the national scene, winning multiple medals and setting records in the 1979 national games and the 1980 national inter-state meet. Her performances earned her a call-up to the Indian contingent for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. At the age of just 16 years, she became the youngest sprinter to ever represent India at the biggest stage for track and field athletes. While she was unable to make it out of the heats for both the 100m and 200m events, the big stage would provide her with much-needed experience for the future.
In 1981, she set national records for both 100m and 200m sprints. At the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, she fully entered the nation’s imagination as she scored silver medals in both the 100m and 200m races. In 1983, she would break her own 200m record and set a new 400m national record.
By the time the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984 arrived, PT Usha had already become Indian athletics’ poster child with expectations to bring Olympic glory to a country that had last won only one Olympic medal in individual sports thus far. The Payyoli Express had left the station.
Glory and heartbreak in Los Angeles
The LA Olympics would bring Usha to the cusp of winning an Olympic medal. She was fitter, better trained and far more experienced than the callow 16-year-old who had struggled in Moscow. After her performances in 400m races over the last couple of years, coach Nambiar suggested she put more focus on the 400m hurdles.
Some good performances in the run-up to the tournament followed, where she even beat American favourite Judi Brown, and breezed past her competition in the heats, setting a new commonwealth record (55.54 seconds) in the semi-finals. The finals beckoned, with a tough field of opponents facing her.
After a false start, the race began with Usha being slow off the blocks. However, she ran an epic sprint in the final 100 meters, missing out on a bronze medal by a whisker: while her leg was ahead of eventual bronze medalist Cristieana Cojocaru, she had not dipped her chest over the finish line, costing her the medal by one-hundredth of a second.
Her time (55.42 seconds) was a new national record that stands to date. This performance remains her career’s most memorable yet perhaps the most heartbreaking in the history of Indian sports, alongside Milkha Singh’s 1960 disappointment.
After the Olympics, PT Usha continued excelling through the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1985 Asian Championships in Jakarta, she won six medals, including five golds, setting a record for most medals in a single Asian Championships. She won another four medals at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games. In the 1990s she struggled with a recurrent knee problem, and the ‘Queen of Indian Athletics’ finally hung up her boots in 2000. Overall, Usha won 23 medals in the Asian track and field events from the 1980s; 14 were gold.
What can we expect of her presidency?
The IOA has been mired in controversy for a long time. In fact, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned the IOA in 2012 for government interference and corruption. Like much of the developing world, the story of Indian sports frequently gets marred by neglect, nepotism and corruption. Politicians’ interference in sporting bodies has also led to the athletes’ issues taking the backseat.
In this landscape, PT Usha has become the first Olympian and the first international medallist to head the IOA in its 95-year-old history. After retirement, she was actively involved in athletics as a coach and mentor for budding Indian athletes. Drawing from her own experiences and the challenges with the lack of facilities and exposure, she opened the Usha School of Athletics. Under her guidance, athletes such as Kerala’s Tintu Luka and Jisna Matthews have excelled, even making it to the Olympic stage.
She has also been vocal about various issues concerning athletes in India. As someone with the stature of very few in Indian sports outside of cricket, she has routinely talked about the state of Indian sports administration, and how the lack of scouting, grooming and talent management has led to India’s historically disappointing show at the Olympics.
Written by Arjun Sengupta
Source: Indian Express, 12/12/2022
