“He must wake up and smell his morning coffee.”

That was the response from Mahesh Bhupathi to remarks by the legendary Ramanathan Krishnan who said, in the lead up to the 2004 Athens Games, that the ‘Indian Express’ should have paired in more events to stand a good chance of winning an Olympic medal.

The Olympics is around the corner. It is highly likely that China is going to (finally) overtake USA in the medals tally. Last time, China won 32 golds. It might win at least 40 this year around.
On the downside, I am expecting at least 3 athletes from the USA to end up in a dope scandal and at least 1 from China.

Sania Mirza’s singles rankings continue to nosedive and the out-of-form Indian ace on Monday slipped out of the top-50 for the first time in more than a year to be placed 60th in the latest WTA charts.

So are you ready to soak in the reflected glory of supreme effort by the world’s best athletes, a rich tapestry of human emotion dominating our TV sets as four years and more of intense preparation is tested on the greatest stage – the Olympic Games in Beijing. Dreams will be realised and shattered in the matter of a few moments. And, back home in India, we will wonder why some of the hardware is not coming our way. One more time, we will hear the refrain: “A billion and more Indians and yet…” It makes us ask the question: are Indians merely bringing up the numbers? Time was when our athletes would satisfy themselves by qualifying for the Games but there has been a change in attitude after Leander Paes broke a 44-year-old jinx at Atlanta in 1996 when he won a bronze. Four years later, weightlifter Karnam Malleswari brought home a bronze from Sydney and double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore gunned down a silver in Athens in 2004. For the first time, there is a realistic chance that India returns from an Olympic Games with more than one medal. And this has happened not merely because of the enormous Government support but also some quiet private effort. India’s Olympic medal aspirations have been fuelled by Mittal Champions Trust that has supported 13 sportspersons in their journey to Beijing while ace shooter Gagan Narang has been helped by the Olympic Gold Quest, promoted by sporting legends Prakash Padukone and Geet Sethi. Narang has been in good form, setting a new world record a few weeks ago in Hannover; pugilist Vijender Kumar stunned the boxing world with an upset victory over Athens Olympic Games best boxer Bakhtiyar Artayev (Kazakhstan) in the 75kg category at the AIBA Presidents Cup tournament in Taipei; the women’s archers have raised visions with fine performances while Mahesh Bhupathi, with Leander Paes and Sania Mirza for company, will remain sentimental favourite to produce a rabbit or two out of the hat.”Every one of us who has qualified will be going there with the hope of bagging a medal,” says 23-year-old Gagan Narang.

Call it Kismat Konnection but Shahid Kapoor’s love life is once agian under the scanner. So, who’s the lucky girl? Is it Vidya Balan or Sania Mirza?According to reports, Shahid and Sania are spending a lot of quality time. On Wednesday, the two were spotted remained together for nearly eight hours on the sets of director Vishal Bharadwaj’s Kaminay, which also stars Priyanka Chopra and Amol Gupte.Though Sania didn’t arrive with Shahid, but once she dropped by, they were almost inseparable.