M85 Riccione gold medalist doesn’t get no respect
Badri Nath Chopra is the Rodney Dangerfield of masters track in India. He won M85 gold in the 2K steeple at Riccione (as the only entrant in his age group but the oldest steeplechaser at worlds). But a national paper depicts him as unsatisfied because he and his wife haven’t been recognized for their track achievements. He’s quoted as saying: “We don’t desire what we don’t deserve. No one has as many lifetime achievements as my wife and I have. But still no one knows of us.” (Of course, readers of this story also know about him.)
But the story starts out on a more sour note, calling Badri “one half of the only master athlete couple in the world.”
Uh, don’t tell the Bergens, Donleys or Nadine O’Connor and Bud Held (or a dozen other accomplished couples I could name with time). I think the writer heard wrong.
The story ends thusly:
Sadly enough, Chopra’s lifetime achievement may never get the kind of recognition he demands owing to the simple fact that master athletics is not part of Olympic sports. Still, if the government could take special note of the veteran athlete’s contribution and reward him suitably, maybe Chopra will be satisfied.
Hey, Badri! We love you! You’re a wonderful athlete! And your wife, too!
4 Responses
Badri will be disappointed if he thinks anyone cares about masters track and field. To most people, we are a bunch of quaint-looking old people trying to relive old times. Be thankful you can still perform at a reasonably high level, and do it for yourself.
Nearly all of us masters athletes suffer from lack of recognition by major sports commentators, governors, congress and president. They don’t know or realize that what we do and the level that we do it makes us the best athletes in the country. The only publicity we get is when someone over 90 has a personal friend who is a reporter and writes him up because he is still doing something. The real stars of our sport are the 45 to 70 year olds who really get the job done and I’m not just talking about the elite athletes but all those who compete seriously.
Amen to both Tom Fahey’s and Wayne Bennett’s comments. We just don’t get no respect!
What bothers me about some of the “sudden fame” for a masters competitor who is in the high 80’s or 90’s is that it too often is of the “oh so cute” or “freak of the year” variety.
We need to be better about blowing our own horns – as much as most of us dislike doing that. Local papers like to cover local folks doing almost anything – so email in your results and you may find that they are printed. I am referring to small city and town newspapers not big city ones. My local paper will print just about anything I send them. However I rarely send them anything – no wonder I do not get much press!
One more thing, because we are older athletes we make our peers uncomfortable. The things we do they only dream about, which make them envy us! Self recognition is better than no recognition at all.
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