Ban on spectators may help India in Tokyo: Physio Gloster

John Gloster

No crowds at Tokyo Olympics could advantage India, feels renowned physiotherapist John Gloster, who has worked with 11 Games-bound athletes from the country, focussing more on the mental aspect of their well-being.

Gloster, who has also been a physiotherapist with the Indian cricket team and IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals, spoke about his experience with some from the Olympic-bound group. The Australian served as the Indian cricket team's physio from 2005 to 2008.

"Not that long ago, I felt that the performances in this Olympics would [be] perhaps not as good as previous games, not just the Indian contingent, but from athletes across the board," he said.

"And [now] I don't tend to agree with that. I actually think we are going to see improved performances from our athletes primarily because we are able to build and work more on the mental side of the game because of COVID-19," Gloster added.

Gloster has been working with 11 elite Indian athletes, including fencer CA Bhavani Devi, shuttlers B Sai Praneeth and Chirag Shetty, discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur and swimmer Sajan Prakash among others owing to his association with the Go Sports Foundation as head of Sports Science.

Gloster had travelled to Tokyo in 2019 to understand the conditions and share the knowledge with athletes and he believes the ban on crowds due to COVID-19 is good for the Indian contingent of more than 100 athletes.

"This [Olympics sans spectators] may be advantageous for the Indian contingent, because in some of the sports they play, perhaps they are more used to playing in emptier stadiums, or stadiums with little crowd. It may be advantageous for a lot of them," he said.

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