Sivan was tying his shoe laces inside the dressing room, his hands were trembling with fear and anxiety. He could faintly hear the roars of the crowd in the galleries of the stadium. It was Olympics 2012 at London. the reason for the fear was Sivan’s historic run. Indeed, he’s run himself into history, becoming the first Indian ever to reach the finals of a 100m dash in Olympics.This Unexpected pressure mounted on him heavily and he felt like he was tied to a big rock and pushed to depth of the ocean.
Sivan is just a 19-year-old boy, born and raised in a small village near Chidambaram, Tamil nadu; due to his family’s poverty, he didn’t have a proper childhood with very little schooling and lot of labor. a local physical education instructor discovered his talent in athletics and motivated him to get trained in sprints. there were days where his running equipment was his bare feet and an old shorts, it was only his determination and talent that brought him to this world stage.
It was his first time in his life, wearing an expensive Adidas shoes. saved by him for such a special occasion like this. He walked out of his dressing room into the tunnel which leads out into the stadium, as he walked he could hear the roars of the crowd increase in decibel. Sivan walked out from the tunnel to enter a much scarier huge stadium filled with thousands of people chanting, shouting and routing for their nations. the lights flooded the entire stadium and it almost looked like a sunny afternoon.
To add to his pressure, the weather was cold and coming from a hot, dusty village in India, he had not experienced much of London’s climate,he was shivering even with a sweater and a jacket over it that He was surprised on his achievement of qualifying for this finals in such a cold weather, He realized that the Determination and Desire to win, can take you a long way; and it was time for his final test of strength and will.
the names of the finalists of 100m dash was being called out and there was roar from every country’s audience when their athlete was announced. at last, the announcer said “ Position no.8, Sivan Santhakumaran from India.” Sivan ran from the bench to take the position, a Huge roar came from the crowd, it was like a thunder raging from the clouds. Sivan felt like the entire billion population was in the stadium cheering for him; his eyes had a slight drop of tears rolling down his cheek. as he looked at the other contestants. some of the world’s best runners and world record holders from USA, Germany, Jamaica, Kenya and Australia were his competitors.
He looked down, thought of god for a second and in a fraction, he heard the whistle go off. Sivan started running, his brain stopped working, it was all mechanical. he ran with all his strength and power and he could see only the blue ribbon on the end of the dash, he did not even think of looking to the sides on where his competitors were running. His legs started to ache and he could see victory was just 10 meters away, His vision started to blur, his ears went mute, he could not hear the crowd and as he ran towards the victory line, he tripped and fell down. his knees hit the floor first and then his body. he regained his senses, but didn’t want to open his eyes or hear anything, he thought he let down his dreams, his desire to win and most of all, his country and its people.he wished he would die right there, his fear of failure had swept over him.
Sivan, with the horrible thought of failure, just let free of his senses, he heard something familiar. It was his name, it was being chanted by the big Indian crowd at the stadium. he was shocked and surprised to hear it and he slowly opened his eyes to see the sight of his life, the blue ribbon.
Sivan had reached the finish line and had tripped to fall on the blue ribbon that he saw in a distance. He had won, He had won it for India. the first ever gold medal in a 100m dash for the country. Sivan stood up on his feet, his knees were bleeding from the fall but he was in ecstasy and didn’t even feel the pain, and he looked up to see his coach and rest of the team running towards him to congratulate his victory and lifted him up in their shoulders and jumped around in rejoice. meanwhile, the announcer named him the winner and also announced his exceptional feat, A new Olympic record in this event.
Now, when Sivan looked up on the crowd, Thousands of lights were flashing every second, journalists and people were clicking away, the sporting history being made in front of their eyes.
Some minutes later, with all the commotion and exhilaration getting higher and higher, Sivan went to the center stage, to accept the Gold Medal. He was wrapped with the tricolor Indian flag around him and he graciously bent down for the medal to be worn to him and as he raised back, the medallion hit his chest with light force. It wasn’t the medal, he felt. it was his success, the sense of life’s ambition being achieved. he has made his family proud, and brought a place in history for himself and his nation.
A boy from somewhere in the world, was now known, Everywhere in the world.
