Special Interview: Dr. Manit Arora Talks Harmanpreet & Gurjant’s Road to Recovery and Olympic Glory
Dr. Manit Arora, a top sports medicine specialist in India, played a key role in the recovery of Indian hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and Gurjant Singh from ACL injuries, leading to their bronze medal win at the Paris Olympics. In an exclusive interview, Dr. Arora also discussed Vinesh Phogat missing weight and Mirabai Chanu’s challenges during her menstrual cycle, which affected her Olympic performance.
#VineshPhogat #ManitArora #GurjantSingh #ACL #IndiaHockey #Wrestling #Olympics2024 #Oneindia #Oneindianews
~HT.178~PR.320~ED.346~GR.125~
#VineshPhogat #ManitArora #GurjantSingh #ACL #IndiaHockey #Wrestling #Olympics2024 #Oneindia #Oneindianews
~HT.178~PR.320~ED.346~GR.125~
Transcript
00:00A very good evening to all the viewers of My KLN1 India.
00:04Well, when it comes to a weekend fun football match or for that matter even amateur level
00:10sporting activities, the knee of course plays a very important role.
00:14It becomes only more pronounced when top-notch high-performing athletes perform at the best
00:20at high-end competitions like the Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, you name
00:24it any.
00:26In all these cases, the anterior cruciate ligament, which is commonly called the ACL,
00:31of course, plays a very important role in keeping the knee intact, up and running.
00:36Today, we have with us a very distinguished sports medicine doctor and he happens to be
00:42one of the best ACL specialists in the country.
00:46And in fact, maybe I can safely call him our Olympics doctor because under him, the treatment
00:52that two of the stalwarts of Indian hockey, Harmanpreet Singh, who happens to be the
00:57captain of the Indian hockey team, and Gurjan Singh, both not only recovered under his treatment
01:03from their ACL injuries, but they also went on to win the medal for us at the Paris Olympics.
01:10Apart from being a top-notch orthopedic and sports medicine surgeon at Fortis Mohali,
01:17he also has many other prominent hats.
01:21He is a young ambassador for Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association, UNE Young and Distinguished
01:27Alumnae and Royal College of Surgeons of Canada, international resident leader, and many more.
01:33Welcome to our show, Dr. Manit Arora, thank you so much for coming in.
01:37It's really a pleasure and privilege to have you here.
01:41Thank you so much for having me.
01:42Sure.
01:43So, of course, you have been closely associated with the Olympics, which is just, we've just
01:50done with the Olympics now, and I'm sure it's quite satisfying for you to see two of your
01:55athletes, Harmanpreet Singh, the captain of the Indian hockey team, who of course is sometimes
02:01called Sarpanch, and Gurjan Singh, you know, they winning the medal for us, I'm sure, at
02:06a personal level, it must be very satisfying.
02:09It's very satisfying, but I never watch the games, because I started watching them a long
02:14time back when I did their surgery, and but then since then, I'm just too scared to watch
02:19them.
02:20And I can't enjoy it.
02:21Because every time I'm watching the match, I'm just watching the Harman's knee, it's
02:26going this way, that way, which way is it going.
02:29So Harman came to me about six months before the Tokyo Olympics.
02:35And I remember at that time, he was distraught, because he'd had an ACL injury, he'd had a
02:41meniscus injury, which is the shocker in the knee.
02:44And he was very worried, because he said that, look, if I miss this Olympics, I don't know
02:48if I'll play the next one.
02:50And whenever we do any ligament surgery, we usually tell people that it takes about eight
02:55to nine months to get back to competitive sport.
02:58And we only have a six month timeframe.
03:00So I explained that to him, I said, Look, we only have six months.
03:03And I don't think you'll be ready for this Olympics.
03:06And he's like, don't worry, leave that to me.
03:09I'll get ready, you just do the surgery and rest everything, leave it to me and I'll ensure
03:15that I play the Olympics.
03:16So I said, Okay, you know, against my advice, let's do it.
03:20And so we fixed his knee.
03:22And four months later, he went to Bangalore to the national camp.
03:26After that, he took a flight to Tokyo to the Olympics.
03:28And if you remember the last Olympics, he was the leading goal scorer for India.
03:33And he was one of the big reasons for why India brought home the bronze.
03:36And now, after that, he became India player of the year, then world player of the year,
03:42then he got promoted to the captain of the team, he was vice captain before.
03:46And this year, you know, back to back Olympic bronze medals after a long time for hockey.
03:52And again, he was the leading scorer throughout the tournament.
03:55So I think we talked about, you know, a lot of patients come to me and ask me that, you
04:00know, will I ever be back to my normal self?
04:02Or will I be able to play sport again at a normal level?
04:05And I said, Just look at him.
04:07So not only did he exceed what he wanted to achieve, but he continues to do that and perform
04:14at a very high level.
04:15So I think his story is really a remarkable story of willpower.
04:19True, true, absolutely.
04:22And talking about recovery, because you said that Harman Pradeep really put in that extra
04:26effort to really recover in time, because he was so passionate, of course, passion maybe
04:30is going to be an understatement here.
04:32He was so professional at the same time, you know, to get the recovery done in time.
04:36But maybe it's a little bit tricky question for you.
04:39Now, you being a doctor, obviously, you also want to maybe play it safe at times, right?
04:45Because you are seeing, no matter what, a top notch, you know, player like Harman Pradeep,
04:51who of course is, was anyway going to be indispensable for India's, you know, success at the Olympics.
04:57But at the same time, if somebody goes through a phase where he's maybe overworking on his
05:02recovery, which maybe at times for you as a doctor, you might say, okay, this is a little
05:09bit more, you know, does it happen?
05:11I mean, how do you strike a balance between these two, when you want your guy, your athlete
05:16to really recover in time, but at the same time, if suppose if he is really, after all,
05:20he's also coming out of an ACL injury, which is that great, at times maybe he is also overworking.
05:26So how do you really strike that balance when you are saying, okay, Harman Pradeep, just
05:28slow down a little bit.
05:29But at the same time, at the back of your mind, you also want him to play for us.
05:33See, I think for a sports surgeon, right, which is the number one thing is getting our
05:37players back to sport, and not only getting them back to sport, but getting them back
05:42to what we call sport at a pre-injury level.
05:46So that is the level that they had before the injury, that's the ultimate goal for any
05:50sports surgeon.
05:51And I think that the vast majority of us, we strive towards that, and we, in about 70
05:55to 80% of cases, we achieve that, they get to be back to sport at the pre-injury level.
06:00Some of them have dips after going back, which is natural.
06:03But the vast majority, I think, still get back to sport at a good pre-injury level.
06:07Now, the whole process starts before the surgery.
06:12So before, you know, whatever treatment we're giving them, is they come to us with a specific
06:16goal in mind, which is, I've got this tournament, which I must go to.
06:21And this happens in X amount of months.
06:26So we really have to do a little patient education thing with them and tell them that, look,
06:30I understand this is a very important tournament, but you must understand that in your current
06:36knee situation, if you play this tournament, you're going to end up destroying your knee
06:41further.
06:42So we have to undertake this sort of treatment for this, and it's going to take Y amount
06:47of months.
06:48Now, sometimes X and Y match, and it's wonderful, right?
06:53But sometimes we find that the amount of months we want to give them is usually higher than
06:58when their tournament is.
06:59So I think that starts before any sort of treatment.
07:02We just have to, you know, explain to them that this is the anticipated recovery time.
07:06This is how long it's going to take.
07:08And we can't overstress it or push it too soon.
07:12Because what happens is you may end up playing one tournament, but at the end of it, if you
07:16end up damaging this knee again, then you're going to be ruled out for a prolonged period
07:21of time after that.
07:22So I think that's that little back and forth that goes on.
07:26In a way, I would say it's like establishing, it's a power play, right?
07:30So they want to be the dominant force and guide the treatment.
07:34You as the doctor want to be the dominant force and, you know, tell them that this is
07:37the treatment.
07:39And somewhere, both of you need to meet somewhere in the middle, more towards my side, but somewhere
07:46in the middle where we tell them that, you know, this is the safe time for you to get
07:51back.
07:52And for us, that's the most important thing.
07:54Now, I would say that 95% of players listen to that.
07:59And they adhere by that look, you know, okay, he said this, he's done my surgery, he's told
08:04me that this is the amount of time I need before I can safely go back.
08:08And it's not just a time criteria.
08:11So whenever we're putting an athlete back to sport, after an ACL surgery, for example,
08:17it's not just the time that's important.
08:19So some people will hit milestones earlier.
08:22Some people will take a longer time to hit their milestones.
08:25So what we do is something called return to sport testing.
08:28So we get them to undergo these hop tests.
08:31We do these dynamic measurements of their hamstring and their quadriceps, we do a battery
08:39of these tests.
08:40And basically, the simple rule is which we explained to the players as well is that if
08:45you fail one of them, the chance of you re-rupturing is 30%.
08:50And if you clear all of them, the chance of you re-rupturing is 3%.
08:55So there's a huge difference.
08:57So we tell them that look, you've you've failed this test.
09:01And you know, let's give it some more time, let's let's work on this thing, which is lacking.
09:06Let's give it another month or so and then we'll do the test again.
09:10And we'll see where we stand after a month.
09:12So and we often have that in our practice, we get these players coming in, you know,
09:16say at eight months, and they'll be like, you told me eight months.
09:19And we said, yeah, we told you eight months, but you know, you just haven't achieved the
09:22milestone that we want you to achieve.
09:24So if you if you fail these hop tests, or the other tests, then if I put you back, you
09:31you're going to re-injure your ligament, and then you'll be more unhappy.
09:34So I said, give me another month.
09:36Let's let's let's take another month, let's work on this, and then we'll do the test again.
09:41So yeah, that, that, that sort of little thing continues.
09:47So I mean, even post-recovery is so important, there is so much of science behind, like you
09:51said, right?
09:52I mean, it's not like, okay, you just recovered, okay, I mean, if it's not a athlete, for a
09:57normal person, of course, you know, he can take his own sweet time.
09:59But at the same time, for an athlete, like, you know, who has a tournament, big tournament
10:03coming in, so that becomes, you know, kind of a different scenario, like you said, the
10:07milestones.
10:08As you said, like, you know, 95% of people listen to us, 5% don't.
10:12So I have an interesting story, which is this circle kabaddi player.
10:17So he, he never showed us after his surgery, and he basically just rehabbed it, did some
10:25things on his own, wasn't really much in touch with us.
10:29And then four and a half months after his surgery, he sent me a video of him winning
10:33the kabaddi cup.
10:34And I was like, what are you doing?
10:36So four and a half months down from his surgery, and luckily up to today, he's three years
10:42down the line now.
10:43And he's, and he's still, you know, winning all the local tournaments, the state tournaments.
10:49So, I mean, that's sort of a miracle thing, which is, you know, four and a half months,
10:55I don't condone it.
10:56But he just did it.
10:57And luckily, it worked out for him.
11:00Yeah.
11:01Yes.
11:02Now sticking to, still sticking to the Olympics a little bit, because you are not indirectly
11:08directly, so to say, you're, you know, attached to Olympics, you know, through your achievements.
11:13If you really have a SSDA performance of the Indians overall, are you satisfied?
11:21Maybe it could have been better kind of situation or you're not satisfied, where do you think
11:26in this sense?
11:27This is a totally sports oriented question, because you are ultimately our Olympics doctor.
11:36So I think there's two things, right?
11:40The first thing is that we're the biggest country in the world.
11:44And for us to be bringing home six medals is just not good enough.
11:47So I mean, China, you know, we say that, okay, you know, but China's done this, China's done
11:53that, they're autocratic, and they're able to achieve their goals that way.
11:57And we're a democracy.
11:59But at some point in time, we can't keep using that same argument, right?
12:02So I think that since the last Olympics, what I've seen is the amount of enthusiasm
12:07for sports has increased a lot.
12:10There's now a lot many more professional leagues, including televised leagues.
12:15So there's a huge interest for sports.
12:18And it's not like people are playing and people say that, okay, you know, I remember watching
12:22these memes after the Olympics that, you know, we tell our children that you only have one
12:27period for sports a week, and we expect medals.
12:29But at the end of the day, remember, we've got 1.4 billion people.
12:34So I'm sure, you know, we can weed out and find, you know, high level athletes from them.
12:40And there's a lot of companies now that are doing great work, like for example, JSW, through
12:45the Institute of Sports, they're doing a wonderful job in terms of providing infrastructure,
12:50Odisha government does a wonderful job for hockey.
12:53So there's a huge amount of money, which is going into it, there's a huge amount of improvement
12:59in performance, which is happening.
13:01But that's not reflecting in medals.
13:03And at the end of the day, if I put my doctor's hat aside, and I look at this purely as a
13:09citizen, I'm a taxpayer, I'm paying money, which is contributing to, you know, all of
13:16these activities of them living in the village, for their food, all these things, I want medals.
13:23And I want a truckload of medals, because I'm patriotic.
13:27And I want, you know, India to shine at the global stage.
13:29I think as all citizens, we want that, right.
13:33So for us, the biggest country in the world, to bring home six medals, I think that we
13:39can do so much better.
13:41Absolutely.
13:42Yes.
13:43Rightly said.
13:44Yes.
13:45Now, coming back to ACL, which is your co-competence, of course, can you please take us through
13:53the different stages of ACL, the different grades, and also, how do you identify that,
13:57okay, this is the stage, this is what is required to be done?
14:01And then how do you actually treat it accordingly?
14:03Because I'm sure there are different stages, right?
14:06I mean, one, two, three, kind of.
14:08So how do we actually go about with your entire thing?
14:12So there's a lot of classifications, right?
14:14The most simplistic classification is we just divide it into three types, or three grades.
14:18So there's a grade one injury.
14:19So this is your ACL.
14:20And a grade one injury is just a stretch.
14:23A grade two is a half tear, and a grade three is a complete tear.
14:26So if you have just a stretch of the ligament, you really don't need to do anything.
14:31So you just let it settle down, a little bit of physiotherapy, and you're back into your
14:38normal life sooner rather than later.
14:39If it's a grade two, we divide them into two types.
14:42One is a low grade tear, which is less than 50% tear, and one is a high grade tear, which
14:47is more than 50% tear.
14:49For low grade partial tears, 99% of the time, they don't require any intervention.
14:57They do well with just conservative treatment or non-operative treatment in the form of
15:01sometimes bracing, but the majority of time, just rehab, physiotherapy, and getting the
15:06athlete back.
15:07For high grade tears, again, it depends if you're an athlete or a non-athlete.
15:12For usually the non-athletic population, they tend to compensate well and cope well.
15:16They're what we call copers because they're able to cope with their problem, whereas athletes
15:21are definitely non-copers.
15:23So they don't operate high grade partial ACL tears very well.
15:27So for them, we treat them as complete tears, and complete tears, they're the ones that
15:31require surgery.
15:32Again, you know, not every complete tear requires surgery, and I would say out of every 10 complete
15:37ACL tears I see every day, about nine would require surgery, but there's still that one
15:42patient that doesn't require surgery because they're low demand, they're not doing anything
15:47in their life which they require a ligament for, and they're able to cope with it and
15:53compensate for it.
15:54So those are the ones that we just encourage to, you know, work on their muscles, get the
15:59muscles strengthened to bypass the problem.
16:01So it's not a hard and fast rule that you've got to complete a knee surgery.
16:05I think it has to be tailored according to the demands of the patient, and what sort
16:10of goals that they're willing to achieve and sort of modifications they're able to
16:14make in their lifestyle.
16:16My boss in Australia, where I was, so he's one of the godfathers for hip surgery in the
16:22world.
16:23And he sustained ACL tear, and he never got it operated.
16:27So and because he's low demand, he doesn't really do anything.
16:31So he used to just walk around his clinic and do things like that.
16:35So at his stage, you know, his rationale was the same.
16:37He said, Look, what do I need an ACL?
16:40Yeah.
16:41So like I said, it depends on the expectations of the individual also, right?
16:46Because if somebody is athlete, the expectation is totally different, the body work, the amount
16:51of work that you're going to put in, in the long run, that's so obviously, you know, that
16:54will be different.
16:55And for a normal non-athlete, who can, it's all about management, I mean, if you can manage
17:01it through the entire life, I think even it can be managed, like you said.
17:08So yeah, so I mean, I was actually seeing a tennis match where Grigor Dimitrov was up
17:13against one guy, and then he I think he had an ACL tear.
17:16The amount of screaming that came out of him, I mean, I guess it's very painful, right?
17:22I mean, if it really goes at a very high level.
17:25It is.
17:26So there's the other side to it, which is if you watch the 2022 or 2021 NBA Finals,
17:34so Klay Thompson called in state workers.
17:36So he had an on-field ACL tear.
17:39And after that, so if he exits the game, he's technically not allowed to return to the match.
17:47So he had an ACL tear, walked up, shot a couple of free throws, so that he could enter the
17:53game back in again, and then exit it.
17:55So each individual is different.
17:57And usually when you get that ACL tear, the first thing that happens is you hear a pop,
18:02and your knee buckles or gives way.
18:05And the majority of that swelling that people say that usually comes overnight.
18:10So that swelling doesn't come straight away.
18:12It usually takes a few hours for that swelling to set in.
18:15And they usually notice it overnight or the next day morning when they wake up from this
18:19sleep that look, my knee is swollen, and there's something wrong with my knee.
18:24So I think the pain part of it, so you get pain initially, and really, the worrisome
18:29thing for a lot of people is they get pain, they get some amount of disability that they're
18:34not able to walk properly.
18:36But over the next two to three weeks, that pain settles down, the swelling settles down.
18:43And they feel that look, whatever it was, it wasn't that serious.
18:46And now I'm back to normal.
18:49So then they push it.
18:52And once they push it, the knee buckles again.
18:54And this time, it's not just a simple ACL tear, it takes, you know, the meniscus or
18:59the cartilage with it.
19:00And suddenly you've complicated injury.
19:02So and I see this story every single day in my practice.
19:07Right, right.
19:08So the right diagnosis is very important, right?
19:10I mean, it might look like if my pain is subsided, okay, fine, I'm good to go.
19:16But you're just aggravating the entire thing.
19:18Yeah, true.
19:19True.
19:20And as I said, the majority of them are, you know, non-operatively treated.
19:24So it's there's a phobia in our public, which is that if I go to the doctor, I'll end up
19:29getting operated.
19:30But it doesn't work that way, because we're only going to operate something that requires
19:35an operation.
19:36Now that you have, of course, you know, had different, at least from different sports
19:41discipline.
19:42I think you have also handled Rigu Vamshi, the captain of basketball team.
19:52So basketball is one like you already mentioned, give an example of the NBA, you know, and
19:56then of course, hockey players, and I guess you'd have handled different, at least from
20:02different sports discipline, which do you think, of course, this might be very subjective
20:05kind of thing.
20:06But still, which sport do you think would have more ACL tear because for example, tennis
20:10require a lot of side movements, you go to the net again, you have to come back, if there's
20:14a lob over your head, then again, football, somebody might stamp on your knee.
20:18And that's a different ballgame.
20:19And hockey, of course, you know, again, so generally speaking, you think, yeah,
20:25Doubt Kabaddi.
20:26Is it?
20:27Oh, really?
20:28Okay.
20:29Okay.
20:30Yeah.
20:31Hands down Kabaddi.
20:32Kabaddi wins every single day of the week, when it comes to ACL injuries.
20:35Okay.
20:36Why so?
20:38There are injuries that come in with Kabaddi players that come into our practice, and they
20:43have injuries.
20:44It's there's a truckload of Kabaddi injuries.
20:49And the second one would probably be foot injury, right?
20:52But that was derived from the West.
20:54So that was derived from the European literature, which was, you know, again, football is sport,
21:01and they used to see a high prevalence.
21:03If that same name had to be given from the Indian subcontinent, we would have definitely
21:08named it Kabaddi knee.
21:11So the Kabaddi beats football for ACL injuries every single day, and then at three would
21:20be wrestling.
21:21Okay.
21:22Okay.
21:23Okay.
21:24That's what we saw.
21:25We saw Vinesh also just before the Olympics, she was going at an ACL tear, and then she
21:28recorded in time, I guess.
21:29Yes.
21:31So with Kabaddi, I guess it's also because of not only because of twist and turn, but
21:36also people pulling the legs and the knee getting in contact.
21:41Yeah.
21:42Direct contact injuries.
21:43So the vast majority of Kabaddi injuries are direct contact because in Kabaddi as we know,
21:51the defenders and the radar, they can turn to escape, and the stoppers get injured when
22:09they go in for the leap to lock the radar.
22:11So those are the two instances when a lot of twisting and turning is happening off the
22:15knee.
22:16And it's not just a twist and turn because football gives you a lot of twists and turns.
22:19This is twists and turns with high velocity contact with huge bodies doing high velocity
22:28contact.
22:29So Kabaddi players are huge guys, and girls, and it's a big, big unit that's doing a high
22:35velocity contact.
22:36True.
22:37And ultimately, the knee is doing all the workload.
22:38Yes.
22:39The knee and then probably the second injury for them is ankle after knee.
22:47Oh, ankle.
22:49Okay.
22:50Yeah, that's right.
22:51Just now, we gave, I mean, I gave a reference of Vinesh Phogat, I mean, we saw what happened
22:56with Vinesh.
22:57So, I mean, that's discussion I think, we can't ignore basically, it just happened.
23:04Of course, we lost at least a sure shot silver, and maybe she was looking good for gold actually,
23:11400 grams.
23:12But then that's the way the rules are clear, you have to make weights.
23:17So that's one instance, one sad instance, among all the hits and misses, and the Olympics
23:23we have seen, of course, a lot of four places we have already seen.
23:27Second instance, I don't know if it really makes sense.
23:29But anyway, it's my personal thing.
23:31Honestly, Mirabai Chandra happens to be one of my favorite lead, you know, she did mention
23:36that because she was going through the third day of her period.
23:40And that's where, you know, maybe she lost on a medal.
23:43Now, giving a slight reference, for example, somebody like a Serena Williams, you know,
23:48who of course is retired, who is undoubtedly, you know, one of the codes of tennis, she
23:53has won 23 Grand Slams by the time she retired.
23:57And among non Grand Slam tournaments, if you see WTA 1000, WTA 500, she already won a lot
24:04of them.
24:05And then Lauren also, when she grew up as a player, she also won a lot of titles, right?
24:10Now, for a Grand Slam, for example, she invariably had to play one match every alternate day
24:18over a period of two weeks.
24:20For a non Grand Slam, she would have played over a two-week title, I'm saying.
24:25And for a non Grand Slam tournament, she invariably had to play every next day, you know, over
24:30a period of one week.
24:32So that way, if you really see, she obviously would have gone through a lot of such cycles,
24:37right?
24:39So, do you think we're missing something here, you know, where in, of course, I don't think
24:44we can expect Vinesh or Mirabai Chand to be that educated.
24:46I mean, let's be honest, that's why we've got, you know, doctors, we've got, you know,
24:51dietitians, we have the whole team going with them.
24:54So do you think there's something that we missed out in terms of the right education
24:58being given to our supreme athletes?
25:00Because if you ask these athletes, they're going to work hard the entire day.
25:03But at the same time, the coach has to come, okay, just it's time for Aqaba, you know,
25:09let's take some rest.
25:10And then we will get back.
25:11What do you see from the entire, these two instances of Vinesh and Mirabai Chand, you
25:15know?
25:16So, yeah, so both the instances are very different, and I'll address both of them.
25:22You cannot blame periods, you know, she's playing so much, I don't think I've ever heard
25:28any other athlete say that my poor performance was due to my period.
25:34So simple is that I've never heard that in sport, and you know, I watch sport, this is
25:39my job, I watch sport.
25:41So I've never heard an athlete come on nationalized television and say that I did not perform
25:47because I was on a period.
25:50So I think that's just not good enough.
25:51So you cannot say that to the public.
25:55And you know, at any given point in time, there are so many leagues that have been there's
25:59basketball leagues, tennis leagues, football leagues.
26:03And we just talked about female athletes here.
26:05Now, these leagues run for, you know, two to three months, right, which means that on
26:09average, any player would undergo two to three periods during that time, right?
26:16Which means that they would be missing two to three matches during that time.
26:20So how many players have you seen who are female athletes who are playing in team sports
26:27miss a game due to a period?
26:30Yes.
26:32Not one.
26:34I've never seen one leave a game because she has a period or sit out a game, it's no shame
26:41and you just declare that I have a period and nobody would judge you for sitting out
26:45but I've never seen one female athlete blame a period for a performance or even sitting
26:53out of a game.
26:54So if you have an abnormal menstrual cycle, yes, definitely that can impact and hinder
27:00your performance, but just being on day three of your period, according to that, every single
27:06female athlete can use that as an excuse.
27:08Yeah, I mean, then that is a matter of chance, a matter of luck.
27:12I mean, somebody will win the gold medal if she's not having a period, somebody will win
27:17the bronze medal if she's on the maybe, you know, lower end of the period cycle.
27:20Yeah.
27:21But I mean, that should never be an excuse for poor performance.
27:24If you perform poorly, I think accept it that, you know, I perform poorly and but I don't
27:29think you should blame your period because that's sort of the message it sends to, you
27:34know, younger female athletes who are coming up through the system as well is that this
27:39is, you know, a fallout mechanism.
27:41This is something that, you know, if I am unable to perform, I can always say that,
27:45oh, look, you're not Mirabai, I couldn't perform due to her period.
27:48So how can you expect me to perform?
27:51And I think that for our children, this is not the sort of thing that we should be teaching
27:55them that, you know, I would want my daughter never to, you know, blame blame that as a
28:02reason for poor performance if she didn't perform, that's it.
28:07So but it should never come down to the point that, you know, I had a normal menstrual cycle
28:13and because of that, I had poor performance.
28:15I think that's not good.
28:17Vinesh, a very, very different story.
28:19I think hers is a story of just complete mismanagement.
28:22So every single athlete at the Olympics has, this is the first time that people had to
28:28do double weigh-ins rather than a single weigh-in.
28:31So the first Olympics that that happened in.
28:35And now, how many other athletes throughout Paris Olympics were disqualified due to it?
28:44Not one, except R actually.
28:48Yes.
28:49So if every other wrestler, and I would say there's at least 200, 300 of them who are
28:56competing in the various categories, male and female, who are undergoing double testing.
29:01If 200, 300 wrestlers across various disciplines are able to manage their weight, how come
29:06you are not able to manage your weight?
29:08So and I think that's not her fault at all.
29:11Her job is to perform.
29:13She's an athlete.
29:14She's there to give it her all, and she's there to perform at the highest level possible.
29:18It's actually the fault of the support staff.
29:21They're the ones who should be on top of her weight.
29:23They're the ones who really need to monitor it.
29:26And they're the ones who really need to make sure, you know, that we're keeping a good
29:30eye on this and whatever they're putting into her body in terms of nutrition is also
29:35balanced by output so that they can control her weight during the day.
29:40Now, I remember at the end of it, I heard an interview from one of the support staff
29:46who was saying that we even tried cutting her hair and reducing her grams that way.
29:53That's ridiculous.
29:55According to this, then at the end of the tournament, every athlete will be bald.
29:59True, true.
30:00Yes, absolutely.
30:02Yeah, I mean, those were the instances, even though different, but very sad.
30:07It had a different angle, actually.
30:09Yes.
30:10And again, I think this is support staff related issues.
30:14And this comes down to my point about how we as taxpayers are paying for the support
30:19staff.
30:20We're the ones who are actually funding, you know, them going to the Olympics, staying
30:24at these fancy villages.
30:26And, you know, I think that as taxpayers, we also demand, you know, better answers from
30:32them.
30:33And we should never be missing out on a medal just because, you know, the support staff
30:39wasn't good enough to manage weight.
30:42Absolutely.
30:43And also, I mean, I guess, India, I mean, as a country, we are more emotional rather
30:48than being scientific and practical.
30:50Because, for example, a few of my female friends after listening to this interview
30:57might say, what do you know about the period?
31:00But at the same time, we're not talking about commoners here.
31:03We're talking about top-notch athletes like Mirabai Shalu, top-notch athletes who would
31:08have worked day in and day out, you know, for a training, even after going through the
31:13injury to be there after four years.
31:16So it's not one of those commoners that we're talking about.
31:20So I think we didn't manage well in both instances.
31:24I think the common thing you can say to your friends who think that way is that, you know,
31:31I think, I mean, I'm sure you do as well.
31:34We respect women a lot.
31:36Yes, of course we do.
31:38And we respect, you know, they have to endure every month.
31:42But at the same time, I've never seen a female athlete blame a period for lack of performance.
31:48So, you know, I think that is the point I'm trying to make.
31:52That's what we're trying to do.
31:54And that too, for a sport like weightlifting, you know, of course, you've got the Asian
31:58Games, the Commonwealth Games, Olympics, and then the World Championship and a lot of other
32:03things as well.
32:04But here it's about managing, not unlike a tennis player where you have to play at least
32:09virtually every week at times, you know, where in, you know, so I think it could have been
32:14managed a little bit better.
32:15You can play for some tennis players.
32:17I was saying for tennis players, almost they're playing every second, third day.
32:20Yeah, every second.
32:22So that way, I mean, they should not have won any of those titles, you know, because
32:28invariably they would have gone through those cycles.
32:31And as you said, I've never heard Serena Williams say that.
32:34Yeah.
32:35And I think that's what distinguishes the great players from the good players.
32:38Yeah, yeah.
32:39Yes.
32:40I mean, at the end of the day, I think that's what India also still some way to go when
32:45we evolve as a sports nation, you know, as a sports nation.
32:48When you talk about sports nation, it's not only about athletes.
32:50It's about the ecosystem, you know, where in somebody knows about sports, somebody knows
32:56the sports nutritionist knows about what best for the athletes.
33:00Likewise, you know, in case of Ganesh, so to say, you know, it would have been managed
33:05much better.
33:06It's about the entire ecosystem, not only with athletes, you know, because at least
33:09at the end of the day, they know how to run.
33:11You ask them to run, you ask them to work hard, it will be the entire day.
33:15But then you're going to support stuff to really help them out to educate them.
33:19Because ultimately, if you really see all these girls, all these supreme athletes, they
33:24hardly, they would have maybe didn't complete the 10th or 12th, you know, if I really have
33:29to look at that way, right?
33:30Then that's why you've got so many people to support her stuff, helping them out and
33:34making them more educated scientifically, right?
33:38Exactly.
33:39The support staff system needs to just be so much better.
33:43I think that there's no, this Olympics, I think the one thing that we all learned was
33:48we need better support staff.
33:49So we need, and if we're spending so much money, and so much taxpayers' money, we
33:54demand better support staff, we demand, you know, give them the best.
33:58If they're going and they're representing India in front of a world stage for an event
34:02which happens once every four years, provide them the best of the best.
34:06Thanks a lot, Dr. Raman, for your great insights.
34:09And thanks a lot for taking care or good care of our athletes.
34:13That is so very important, because athletes will obviously do their own stuff.
34:17But then we need the good doctors like you to really take care of their knees, take care
34:21of the ACLs.
34:22Thank you so much.
34:23And we have already seen live case studies, you know, at the recently held Paris Olympics.
34:30But thank you so much, doctor, also for coming in and giving all your insights.
34:35And I'm sure you'll only, you know, get more busier for the Los Angeles Olympics now.
34:41And thanks a lot for coming in.
34:44And please keep on doing your great stuff, you know, and the great thing that we're
34:50doing for our entire country, for the sake of athletes, for us, for all of us.
34:54And may we bring more medals as we go ahead.
34:56And we'll always be greatly indebted to doctors like you.
35:03Thank you so much.
35:04Thank you for having me.
35:05It's been wonderful to be a part of your show.
35:07Thanks.
35:08Thanks, doctor.
35:09Thank you so much.
35:10Thanks.
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