First time I met legends like Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone in 2009 during an Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) event I was completely awestruck by their passion for Olympic sports and I ended up dividing my loyalty between cricket and other sports immediately. Viren Rasquinha – CEO, OGQ with his dedication and focus started inspiring me to be an active supporter of OGQ as well as Indian Olympic athletes.

My visit to London 2012 games exposed me to the overall Olympic spirit and a deeper understanding on why every athlete aspires to be a medal winning Olympian. In today’s context when there is violence everywhere and global citizens are in the danger of being forced to be divided on the lines religion and faith, Olympic movement can be a great healer across the world. At this moment so many global conflicts are at its peak, American elections are adding fuels to divisive sentiments, 1980’s cold war simmering again between two powers and many countries are dealing with their internal conflicts, these two weeks of games are quite timely placed.

During London 2012 my every trip to games arena was like going to a global party. Groups of fans from every country were seen celebrating so innocently on the aisles, cafes and pubs with the true sporting spirit. Tickets were given away to unknown people because their own athlete failed to move to the next round and they didn’t mind giving their next round ticket to the fan from the country whom their athlete lost to. I remember how a Mexican fan approached me for a ticket of the Archery quarter final after Deepika Kumari lost to a Mexican.

I was fortunate to be there watching India winning all its medals in London and when I look back it was a unique experience. The feeling of watching Indian tricolour rising at the medal ceremony is so enigmatic and satisfying. I immediately sort of promised myself that I will try and be there for every next Olympic for the rest of my life. Till last week I was struggling to take a final call to RIO and finally since all shooting tickets were sold out I decided against it. I will miss not being there for RIO 2016. I will miss watching Gagan, Abhinav, Apurvi, Jitu, Heena, Yogeshwar, Saina, PV Sandhu, Sania, Leander, Deepika, our hockey teams and the young Dipa Karmarkar live in RIO. I won’t be surprised if all of them come with a podium finish.

I have marked my diary for each of India events and I will be watching each and every event at home with all my prayers and best wishes to all our athletes for a great performance. I am sure RIO 2016 will bring a new wave for Olympic sports in our country and it will inspire hundreds of more youngsters towards Olympic sports.