HTLS 2024: 'Important to win more than 10 medals if India gets to host Olympics in 2036', says PR Sreejesh

HTLS 2024: PR Sreejesh says he always tries to share his experience with the upcoming youngsters. “For me, it’s important to share the knowledge with youngsters. I have 24 years of experience at the top level, so if you are willing to share with a young kid, that is what I am doing. For example, if you’re playing against Australia, this is what you can expect – some arrogance. They are tough and will try to thrash you. So they are ready for that. When you're playing against Pakistan, the stakes are higher. Everyone expects you to win. These things are important to share with the young generation. Secondly, you are an example for them – standing with medals – it's easy for them to accept it. This is the right way, right path. Educate youngsters and give back to the sport. Be a coach. Start at a small level. We should take the responsibility of sports,” Sreejesh says.

Sumit Antil believes that para-sports gives a reason to live, and there can be no bigger factor than this.

“I believe that when you’re playing para sports, you are giving someone a reason to live. When I had my accident, I didn't have people to look up to. When someone goes through a life-altering experience at a young age, many tend to give up their dreams, feel their life is over. But today, I get messages saying ‘you are the reason I continue to dream', it gives me happiness,” Sumit says.

Swapnil says success at the highest level creates a huge impact on villages and smaller cities.

“I had won a medal in Kolhapur. It was conducted brilliantly. Like Sreejesh sir said, parents need to understand that there is lot more to sports than just sport itself. Sports can give rise to many careers, many legacies. Everyone needs to be made aware of that fact,” Swapnil says.

HTLS 2024: “In Rio, we had 4 medal. Tokyo was 19 and in Paris we won 29. Athletes are working hard. Education and awareness are important. I myself didn’t know what para-sport was. But with the help of awareness and social media, this will grow. To identify raw talent and shape them up. The federation and the government have played their part in it too. Young people come up to me and say we want to win a gold medal, break world records like you. But one thing I would like to point out is that we need more athletes in other sports. Swimming presents so many opportunities. If we can popularise such sports, it will go a long way. Another factor is the crowd. We need to fill stadiums,” says Sumit.

HTLS 2024: "Financially and technically, we are capable of hosting an international event like Olympics. But the question is how is it going to be? How it's going to benefit our athletes? How many medals are we going to win? Are we capable of participating in each event? These are the questions that are raised. Because we do participate in events. Nowadays, we are dreaming about winning more medals. Individual medals. Hockey is one of the events where we expect to win, shooting another. Wrestling, boxing badminton as well," Sreejesh, a star attraction alongside bronze medal winner Swapnil Kusale, and gold medallist at the 2024 Paralympics, Sumit Antil, said at the HTLS 2024.

"But what about gymnastics and swimming, which have more events and more medals? Even if we are hosting the 2036 Olympics, how many medals are we expecting? Are we covering these areas? Because hosting Olympic Games could be easy, but winning a medal is going to be a tougher task for us. We need to think about this aspect before we are stepping in. If we are hosting but then struggle to get into double digits, then it's going to be real tough. Playing the Olympics itself is great pressure. These two guys [Swapnil Kusale and Sumit Antil] definitely know about that. To play it in front of your own people will require a lot of effort, and you need to dream bigger."

HTLS 2024: “It's because of mindset only. To play a little more confidently after getting to that stage. A lot of people have understood it. Not just at the final but even in the build-up. Most of our athletes have done well this time, and I am sure it will get better,” says the Paris Olympics bronze medal-winning shooter.

Sreejesh says it is important to identify talent at an early age. "We can focus on regions. Which sport is familiar where and we can push them. And finally, there is education. We need to start this sporting culture, at the school level, and spread it to the families. That's one thing I always feel we are lacking a lot because I have never seen our parents doing any sporting activity. So it's quite hard to start from scratch. We need to educate the family that sports is not a bad thing."

Sreejesh says parents should encourage their kids to take up different sports.

"That's one thing I always feel we are lacking a lot because I have never seen our parents doing any sporting activity. So it's quite hard to start from scratch. We need to educate the family that sports is not a bad thing. Sport is good. You can have a very good future in sport. There are a lot of other parts of sports. Like you can pursue a job in sport, you can be a video analyst, physiotherapist, sports doctor, nutritionist, psychologist, coaches, assistant coaches. So there are a lot of careers which you can pick up from sports. Once the parents understand that, they will definitely push their kids to play because everyone has a different mentality."

"We need to introduce kids into different sport, not any one sport. I'm not saying that every person should play hockey. No, we need to give them options. If they like it, they can continue it. If they don't like it, drop it. We also need to ensure mental health is on the right track. We need to see the ultimate dream in their eyes when they start," the legendary goalkeeper adds.

HTLS 2024: “Reaching the top is still easier but to be there is tough. Everything reminds you of it. When I enter the ground, I feel I am the best. And I want to compete with myself. But that is not my feeling when I am training. Depends on the mindset, the surrounding. These things shape your thinking. When we didn’t have facilities, we performed well then. Now when we have these things, we also have some responsibilities,” says Sumit Antil.

HTLS 2024: “We had a rich history when we used to play on the grass. Later when the Europeans introduced the astroturf, that's the time the downfall of Indian hockey started. It's not because we didn't have good players. It's because the surface was really tough to adjust. That's why it became really tough for us to come into the top. And the second thing is exposure - European exposure or any other international exposure. Before 2000 to 2010, we never got that kind of foreign exposure. That was the second reason why we were not at the top levels. The best part is when the Europeans introduced the astroturf, they brought a lot of techniques. It's more about physicality. It's more of a technique. It's about tactics, sort of the skills. The game is not anymore about just skill; it's changed. The entire game changed a lot. And the changes took place after we got our first European coach, Jose Brasa. He joined us in 2008. After that, he introduced to us the European style of hockey, how we need to play. New methods, latest technology. We used to get video analysts into the team, and gradually, we started to develop. We started to adapt to the new style. We learned the basics again,” says PR Sreejesh.

"We used to play more Test matches. When we started to get more international exposure, then we realised that we are capable of beating any team on a given day. And I should say that the Hockey League also played a wonderful role in developing hockey in India because playing alongside players at the top level in front of a huge crowd helps.

"Over the period, the players' mentality changed a lot. Before, everyone just wanted to be part of the national team. Now, people want to go to the Olympics and win a gold medal. So the mentality changed over a period. And I think it took almost 10 to 15 years to achieve this," Sreejesh adds.

HTLS 2024: Swapnil Kusale shares his shooting journey. “Shooting was never a passion as such. I liked it so I took it up but later I realised that winning a medal at the Olympics is a huge deal. That spiked my interest and that's what spurred me to continue with dedication,” Swapnil says.

Swapnil's Paris Olympics bronze medal was India's first in the 50m 3 positions shooting discipline.

“It obviously has a lot of challenges. Slightly tougher than pistol and air rifle. The range is open and there are factors like wind etc. But that's what makes it exciting. And even the bullets are real. All these things helped get my interest,” he said.

“I used to wrestle as a kid. The place where I come from – Sonipat – there is wrestling in every house. It has a sporting culture of wrestling. For 8 years, I wrestled before I ran into an accident in 2015. For two years, I thought of pursuing academic - to pick up a job and lead a normal life. But I soon realised that I can't do 9-5 jobs. I have to return to sports. Then someone told me about Para-Games. When I went to do research, I found out that Javelin is a sport that looks nice at first. By looking at some senior athletes and how they were throwing the javelin, I made up my mind. The whole thing really appealed to me – how the javelin travels and at what speed. That's how I started,” says Sumit.

“Wrestling has helped me in javelin. I picked up traits of elite wrestlers and as I gradually made a switch to javelin, I had gained strength in my muscles. Very early in my of breaking the world record. That was always the target,” he adds.

HTLS 2024: “It's destiny. That's what I always call it because Kerala is quite familiar with football, athletics, and even volleyball. But, my journey started from GV Raja Sports school, where I joined as an athlete. I used to be a shot-putter. During that time, I was short. When it came to competitive sports, I was not a perfect sportsperson. Just a 12-year-old kid, who took his baby steps into sports and joined a sport school. It was not a place where I felt comfortable. Kids always wanted to be in a comfort zone. Athletics is a place where every second day, there used to be a new champion. When I found out that I don't have any future in athletics, I sort of tried to fix into some other place. I tried football, volleyball, basketball. Then at last, I ended up in hockey,” says PR Sreejesh.

“The reason behind hockey is this. In Kerala, if you represent your state, in the nationals, you will get 60 marks in the board exams. So that was my first motto to get into hockey. Then again, there was another question mark: Why goalkeeping? Because, as I mentioned, I was fatty and I was short. I'm a person who doesn't like to run a lot and a person who doesn't want to work hard. So that's how I ended up in goalkeeping,” the former India keeper adds.

HTLS 2024: First of all, I don't know how I celebrated that iconic moment because, in Toyo, what happened was that the bronze medal match was early morning. So after the match, we had enough time to celebrate on the field. And as you know, it was the time of Covid. There were no spectators. The stadium was free. Then I thought 'Okay, it can be my last tournament. And I just wanted to enjoy my medal my way. So, I tried to climb on the goalpost once before during a training session, and I succeeded. Then I thought, okay, this is going to be good for me. That's how I climbed on it again. I never thought that the picture was going to go so viral. I mean, Nowadays, it's become a phase for hockey. But that was a fantastic moment for me. And I thought, okay, that's where I wanted to end up my career when I sat on that goalpost, all the emotions, my entire journey, it's just a game in front of my eyes. And I just enjoyed it. So that moment pushed me to climb on that goalpost.

HTLS 2024: India's two-time Olympic bronze medal-winning hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, paralympic champion Sumit Antil, and Olympic bronze medal-winning shooter Swapnil Kusale are our next guests. He is speaking to HT's national sports editor, Ashish Magotra.

Prof. Arvind Narayanan says: “We're seeing an interesting Silicon Valley versus Silicon Valley dynamic. When a company like Apple, for instance, is the device maker, they want to track our activities as much as possible. However, they also try to prevent websites or apps from tracking us through Safari or the iOS App Tracking Transparency feature. This creates an interesting contradiction.”

“When we use apps on our phones or browse websites on our computers, we might think we are interacting with a particular app or website. However, hidden behind that app or website are often dozens of other companies that are essentially making notes of what we do online,” says Prof. Arvind Narayanan at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

He adds that this data is then used to tailor ads for various other commercial purposes.

Prof. Arvind Narayanan says: "I think AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) is many, many years away, possibly decades away. It's hard to predict exactly what the timeline will be, but we have thought deeply about where AI technology stands now and what is required to reach AGI. To me, AGI would be an AI system capable of automating most of the tasks that people currently do in the economy."

Prof. Arvind Narayanan says: "I think the best way to approach AI regulation is not to focus solely on the AI itself but rather on the harms that we are concerned about. The regulation should aim to mitigate the risk of those harms, regardless of whether AI is being used. I’m most optimistic about this style of AI regulation."

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"In the last couple of years, a lot of progress has been made on the issue of bias. For instance, one type of bias occurs when generative AI is primarily trained on text and images from the Western world. As a result, it may not perform well in tasks like speaking Indian languages or accurately representing the culture of many countries," Professor Arvind Narayanan says.

He adds: "On the other hand, the hallucination problem has been harder to solve. However, we are increasingly seeing chatbots that don't just answer questions from their memory but retrieve information from the web and try to summarize it. This reduces the rate of hallucinations, although it doesn't completely solve the problem."

"It's not a matter of saying everybody should use these tools responsibly. There will always be bad actors and we need regulation to address them," Professor Arvind Narayanan says at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

"AI has many benefits, but it also has risks. AI being widely available to consumers is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, for the first time in recent years, anyone can now access really powerful AI systems, which were previously only available to companies and governments," says Arvind Narayanan, Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University.

Arvind Narayanan, Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University is in conversation with Vishal Mathur, Technology Editor, Hindustan Times.

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