Or you can't imagine that, as a large country with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, India's Winter Olympics in Beijing will send only one athlete to participate!
The only Indian athlete in the Winter Olympics
Some people may say that India is a tropical country, there is no snow in the country, of course, do not play the Winter Olympics. In fact, this is not true, although there are few places where snow falls in India, there are still some, such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand Pradesh on the southern side of the Himalayas.
Snowy scenery near Srinagar in Indian-controlled Kashmir
Not only the Winter Olympics, India is not strong in world sports competitions, although India has always called itself a "big country", but in sports they recognize as "sports weak country", "sports poor country", why is this?
Don't Indians value glory?
Non-also, you can also see from the Indian news forwarded by the Internet in recent years that India's national self-esteem is very strong, and it also has a strong "big country complex".
India plans to apply for the 2048 Olympics
The Indian sports delegation to the 2016 Rio Olympics only won one silver and one bronze, and was scolded by Indian netizens. The media is full of words such as "disappointment", "garbage", "shame" and so on, and it is not necessary to report to the men's football team on the mainland. In fact, Indian sports are scolded every time they are olympics.
2021年印度在东京奥运会的唯一金牌获得者尼拉吉·乔普拉，回国后受到了英雄般的热烈欢迎，数千民众在机场出口围堵，费了好大劲才挤上汽车。
Neeraji Chopra returned home after winning the gold medal
It can be seen that Indians still value the glory brought by sports, and by the way, India also plans to bid for the 2048 Olympic Games.
Is India's economy poor?
India's per capita GDP is indeed not high, only more than $2,000, but the total amount has reached $3.07 trillion, which is between the mainland in 2006 (2.75 trillion no) and 2007 (3.55 trillion no). The total economic volume ranks sixth in the world, and it is still in the process of rapid development.
In 2006, the development of mainland sports has been quite good, although it has not yet reached the current level, but it is also a proper top five in the world. In contrast, India has never won a medal in the Winter Olympics, and the Summer Olympics, since 1980, India has won only 2 gold medals in all Olympic Games, which is the absolute world countdown.
Indian military parade
India's national sports investment in 2021 is only 2.5 billion US dollars, less than 2 yuan per capita, less than 1/60 of the United States. India is stretched thin in sports investment, but it is "generous" in military spending, with India's defense budget reaching $54.2 billion in 2022, ranking third in the world.
The economy is the foundation of development, and it is strange that India has invested in sports and can achieve good results. 参加2022年北京冬奥会的唯一印度运动员阿里夫·可汗，居然还要靠众筹路费来参加北京冬奥会。
Arif Khan crowdfunded travel expenses
Indians are not interested in sports
The Indian people generally have little enthusiasm for sports, which is inseparable from most of them in a hot weather environment, and they are sweating when they move casually, which is particularly uncomfortable.
India's conservative religious culture has also inhibited the healthy development of its sports diversity, and they believe that emotional restraint and asceticism are important ways of practicing life. They prefer to pursue the satisfaction of the spiritual world and pay attention to inner peace than foreign things, and sports are just a foreign culture.
Asceticism in India
In addition, the reason why Indians are not interested in sports is also related to the huge gap between rich and poor in China and the racial system. High-caste people have a great future, they focus on better education, and they basically don't want to be athletes.
As for the lower caste population, don't think about it, life is difficult to guarantee, and no one pays attention to it at all. 没有对应的体育产业，练体育根本没有收入，低收入群体宁可去做快递员、做司机、做售货员，也不会考虑做运动员的。
Caste system in India
In summary, India's performance at the Olympic Games does not match the country's population and economy, for a variety of reasons. As for the sports of the Winter Olympics, India is also subject to regional environmental influences, and the number of participants is even more pitiful.
And the Winter Olympics also have a threshold, for example, freestyle skiers need to participate in at least one World Cup in the Olympic qualification cycle, get 50 points, and rank in the top 30 of the International Snow Federation. From this point of view, it is not easy for India to select the second winter Olympic athlete.
It seems that India wants to become a sports powerhouse, and it is impossible without decades of hard work.