Touching. That’s one way to describe how one in three Indians (specifically, around 40 per cent of men and women under the age of 30) believes India has a chance to win an Olympic medal for cricket. This finding emerged from Tata Salt’s survey under the Namak ke Waastey campaign it has been running. Only, cricket is not an Olympic sport!

However, only 14 per cent of respondents pin their medal hopes on shotput, while boxing and wrestling have secured support from 30 per cent and 40 per cent respondents respectively. Be it the influence of a recent Bollywood movie that celebrates wrestling or a new-found admiration for the strenuous sport, wrestling seems to be becoming popular among Indian women. Almost 60 per cent of women have chosen wrestling as the sport that could get India its Olympic medal.

Eighty-seven per cent of women and 69 per cent of men under 30 years of age say they would have wished to be Olympians rather than a writer, film star/rock musician/rock/pop star and entrepreneur. Nearly 75 per cent of the total respondents under 30 years chose that as an aspirational career given a choice. These results clearly demonstrate that India is a hotbed of young sports aspirants.

Sagar Boke, Head - Marketing, Tata Chemicals (Consumer Products Business) said, “Though Indians seem to be ignorant about the Olympic Games and our athletes in general, the surprising and positive highlight of the survey is that if given a choice, maximum number of them want to be Olympic sportspersons. India is indeed brimming with sporting talent, just waiting to be explored.”

The “most shocking insight”, the survey says, was the answer to the question whether India has ever hosted the Olympic Games, where 48 per cent of the people surveyed answered in the affirmative, stating that they were held in New Delhi. The Olympics have never been held in India. Last year, India and the IOC agreed that 2024 was too early for India to bid for hosting the Olympics.

Tata Salt has tied up with the India Olympics Association (IOA) as a sponsor of the Indian Olympics contingent. The brand wants to create awareness about the less “sensational” sports.

Tata Salt describes the survey as a fun, light-hearted assessment of the nation’s knowledge of the Olympics. It was conducted across the country, through an online study and received responses from 1,185 people across all ages from various channels, including social networking sites.

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