How Paris lit India’s Olympic dream

The Olympic Games are coming to a close here in Paris. But before what promises to be an audacious closing ceremony at the Stade de France, there are more medals up for grabs.

Athletics continues to thrill, and that’s why we’re keeping a close eye on the men’s and women’s marathons. Which athletes will win? What shoes will they be wearing? Long-distance running has been transformed by the technology that athletes wear on their feet.

There’s no better way to prepare for the ultimate test of athletic endurance than with Scoreboard’s own Sara Germano, who led this FT deep dive into the race to make the world’s fastest running shoes.

We’ve also got more on India’s growing Olympic clout and the finances of being an Olympian. Next week you won’t see Scoreboard landing in your inbox. We’re all taking a much-needed break. But in the meantime, do read on — Samuel Agini, sports business correspondent

Sporting failures won’t halt India’s Olympic push

In the Parc Des Nations along the banks of a canal in the Paris district of La Villette, the hottest ticket over the past two weeks has been the €5 entrance to India House, a cluster of large marquees with an entrance designed to look like the façade of a Mughal Palace. 

Behind the lurid pink #cheer4india awnings, visitors have been treated to a whistle-stop tour of Indian culture. There was yoga, Bollywood dance classes, henna tattoo artists and the chance to swing a cricket bat in a miniature practice net. In the gift shop, weavers operated two large handlooms where a carpet and a sari slowly took shape. Lunch options included butter chicken and naan bread cooked in an onsite tandoor. 

Funded largely by Reliance, India House was designed as a showy cultural embassy for the global masses gathered in Paris this summer, and marked the first time the country has had such an outpost at the Olympics.

It was also there to plant a flag for the future. Opposite a huge tree of life mural depicting each of India’s current crop of Olympians, a large screen showed the names of all the visitors who had taken up the offer to “make a wish” for India to host the summer games in future. 

India House was opened with a speech by Nita Ambani, wife of Reliance Industries tycoon Mukesh Ambani. Her elevation to the International Olympic Committee in 2016 has sparked a rush among Indian companies to invest in sport (something you can read more about here). 

“A nation, in its journey through time, reaches a tipping point. A point where it changes the course of its history. India has arrived”, she said to a crowd that included Fifa president Gianni Infantino on July 27. “It is time that the flame, which was first lit in Athens, lights up in our ancient land.”

Reliance now has three athletics academies across India, the most recent in Mumbai being less than a year old. More are planned, with the hope of producing the next generation of medal winners. In preparation, executives have been reading The Talent Lab, an account of how the UK turned its Olympic fortunes around. 

With Reliance and other large Indian companies ready to provide the finance and logistics, in javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, India’s Olympic project found its face. Chopra won gold in Tokyo, turning him into one of the country’s best known sportspeople overnight. He now has more than 9 million followers on Instagram, while the day of his victory, August 7, was declared National Javelin Day. He is an official athlete for Indian conglomerate JSW, but has many other corporate backers including Visa, Omega, Samsung and Under Armour. He was one of the country’s great hopes in Paris.

But on the field of play, India’s Olympic ambitions have run into trouble. Wrestler Vinesh Phogat announced her retirement shortly after being disqualified from the final for failing to hit the 50kg weight limit. She had even cut her hair off in an effort to shed a few grammes.

Then on Thursday night, Chopra could only look on as Pakistani rival Arshad Nadeem bagged the javelin gold after twice breaking the Olympic record. Chopra’s silver added to the four bronze medals collected earlier on in shooting and hockey, placing India 69th in the medals table, one notch above Kyrgyzstan. The country’s immediate goal of securing a double digit medal haul currently looks a fair way off.

But with conglomerates lining up to join the ranks of premium sponsors, and a bid to host the 2036 games looking all but certain, India could fast become a big player on the Olympic stage.

How medallists from Paris reap cash, sneakers and condos

This weekend, hundreds of athletes from around the world will go home with hard-earned medals from the Paris Olympics. Whether they are generational superstars like gymnast Simone Biles, who might need another checked bag for her three golds and one silver, or sudden sensations like the silver medallist Turkish sport shooter Yusuf Dikeç, they’ve all earned glory.

But depending which nation they hail from, or even which federation they compete for, ancillary prizes for their Games performance vary widely. Carlos Yulo, a double gold medal gymnast from the Philippines, will be showered with prizes and gifts, ranging from a three-bedroom condo to free ramen and a $173,300 cash payout. 

Earlier this year, World Athletics, the governing body, said that for the first time it would award $50,000 in prize money to each gold medallist in Paris. But a few stars — like pole vault’s Mondo Duplantis and women’s 400 metre hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who both set world records this week — missed a different payout. World Athletics awards $100,000 for world records set at its world championships, but give no such award at the Olympics.

That’s where sponsors come in. Many companies, especially athletic gear brands like Nike and Adidas, build in bonuses for gold medals and world records into contracts with athletes. Terms vary widely and aren’t shared publicly. And some stars like Noah Lyles, who won gold in the 100 metres last Sunday, wasn’t shy about listing new demands: “I want my own sneaker. Ain’t no money in spikes”, he said.

On the flip side, some athletes in Paris received long-awaited medals this week in elaborate ceremonies in front of the Eiffel Tower, years after their competitions concluded. The stars from as far back as Sydney 2000 were upgraded after their competitors had been disqualified for doping. This is a new addition to the Olympic programme, and some stars such as US figure skater Brandon Frazier said they felt “fulfilled” after waiting years for the moment.

But the delayed justice is unlikely to make up for the missed earnings potential for winning gold at the time, notwithstanding the Wheaties boxes and Dancing with the Stars contracts that keep Olympic stars in the limelight.

Highlights

• The Olympic medal table is pretty simple . . . right? Maybe not. Simon Kuper delivers a masterful column on what the tallies really say. And it’s about far more than just sporting achievement.

• Remember when it seemed that everybody was down about Paris 2024? Leila Abboud, the FT’s Paris bureau chief, explains how athletes, from 22-year-old swimmer Léon Marchand to judoka Benjamin Gaba have cheered a nation and distracted from political chaos. But how long can it last?

• Dressage bronze medallist Carl Hester, Spanish rider Juan Antonio Jiménez Cobo and Luxembourgish table tennis player Ni Xia Lian all represent the small cohort of older competitors at the Games. But have you met Team GB’s 51-year-old rad dad? Don’t forget your skateboard.

• Get ready to visit the Allianz Stadium, home of English rugby union! Or at least that’s what the German insurer will be hoping for after striking a sponsorship deal to rename Twickenham . . . just don’t read the comments.

• Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant all on an Olympic basketball court for the first time? There’s a reason so many people think basketball is the hottest ticket in Paris.

• The media industry is changing rapidly before our eyes. Warner Bros Discovery wrote down the value of its traditional television networks by $9.1bn. Paramount followed with a $6bn writedown of its cable channels. Meanwhile, Disney’s three streaming services — Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu — reported an operating profit of $47mn in the quarter, compared with a $512mn operating loss a year earlier.

The podium

If there were prizes for celebrations, these athletes would have picked up more medals.

Swedish pole jumper Armand “Mondo” Duplantis couldn’t contain his emotion after breaking the world record. Nor could the crowd.

Chinese gymnast Zhou Yaqin learns that it’s OK to bite Olympic medals.

And the great moment when Americans Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles honoured Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade for her gold-winning display in the floor exercise final. Now that’s Olympic spirit!

And if you want something completely different, here’s Snoop Dogg on a private tour of the Louvre. Obviously.