Behind the quest for an Olympic gold

PT Usha missed an Olympic medal by one hundredth of a second in 400 m hurdles in Los Angeles in 1984. No Indian has come closer to winning an Olympic medal in track and field since. Usha became a coach and set up the Usha School of Athletics in Kerala in 2002, with the aim of winning India an Olympic medal. “My school has already produced Olympians like Tintu Luka and Jisna Mathew. But I have had to mould them,” she says. “I am quite hopeful about some of the youngest girls in the academy right now.”