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The only known surviving competitor of the 1928 summer Olympics in Amsterdam is Clara Marangoni, an Italian gymnast who won a silver medal when she was only 12. She is now 100 years old.Perhaps I got the short straw when it came to the five greatest moments of Indian sport, because this event occurred before my father was born, when Queen Elizabeths grandfather was Emperor of India and Lord Irwin was Viceroy. What could an India-born Australian citizen, now in his mid-50s, contribute to in recalling an event that no one currently alive witnessed or could recall?Perhaps being an Anglo-Indian, this topic was right up my street, because a majority of players in the 1928 team were Anglo-Indian, names my grandfather, father and his friends would talk about - Richard Allen, Michael Gateley, Leslie Hammond, Rex Norris, Broome Pinniger, Frederic Seaman, William Goodsir-Cullen, George Marthins, Michael Rocque (nine of the 14-member squad).Much has been written about the contribution of Anglo-Indians to Indian hockey and the expansion of their services and expertise to other countries, especially Australia. So I decided that the aim of this piece should be twofold. Firstly to look back at that first sporting win on the world stage for a nation still under colonial rule, and the impact it had on India; secondly, draw some kind of tangible connection between this victory 88 years ago and modern Indian sport.***India was still very much under the yoke of the British Empire. The Simon Commission, a group of seven British Members of Parliament, had been dispatched to India in 1928 to suggest constitutional reform. Ironically, one of its members was Clement Attlee, who went on to become the British Prime Minister and eventually oversaw the granting of independence to India in 1947.The Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the body responsible for sending Indian teams to the Olympics, was formed only a year before the 1928 games. It was only the third time that India was participating in the Olympics. India took part in the 1920 games, sending six competitors (three athletes, two wrestlers and a tennis player). Prior to that, only one Indian had competed at the Olympics, Norman Pritchard in 1900, winning two silvers (200m and 200m hurdles). Research by Olympic historians has shown that Pritchard, an Anglo-Indian, was indeed chosen to represent Great Britain after competing in the British AAA championship. However, the IOC still regards Pritchard as having competed for India and his two medals are credited to India.***The year 1928 was the first time that India took part in the hockey competition, after the game had been taken to India by British servicemen. The first clubs were formed in Calcutta in 1885. The Beighton Cup was held ten years later, followed by the Aga Khan Tournament a year later.In Amsterdam, India won all five of their games, scoring 29 goals without conceding any. They then went on to win gold in succeeding events until 1956, and then in 1964 and 1980. Any hockey aficionado can rattle off those statistics. But the point of this piece is to look at the impact this had on India, not only on Indian sport but on the Indian psyche.Strange are the events that define a nation. My adopted country, Australia, is defined by perhaps the greatest military loss of all time, on the beaches of Gallipoli during World War I. It is deep in the psyche of every Australian, the 25th day of April 1915.Could the hockey gold in 1928 have had any kind of national impact on the collective Indian mind?The records show that India played under the flag of British India - an unofficial or semi-official flag used to represent British India at international events. It involved a red backdrop, with the Union Jack at top left and the Star of India in the middle.It was under this flag that the Indian contingent of 21 competitors (seven athletes and a hockey team of 14) marched. It was the first time that the parade of nations started with Greece and ended with the host country, a tradition that continues today.After India won the gold-medal game, beating hosts Netherlands 3-0, there was no medals ceremony or national anthem; nor did the Indian team climb on a winners podium. Those patriotic Olympic traditions were introduced at later games.So in reality there were no real, tangible opportunities for nation-building with this win. Yet it must have had a huge impact in Britains most important colonial dependency.Take these facts into consideration. Hockey had previously only featured twice at the Olympics - in 1908 and in 1920, and both titles were won by Great Britain. So how did the defending hockey gold medallists fare at the 1928 games? Well, Great Britain did not field a team. Which raises the questions: Did they feel that India was representing the Empire? Or were they afraid of being humiliated by a colony they had taught to play the game? Take your pick, because either answer provides a glimpse of the potential impact the 1928 win must have had on the Indian people.Its worth noting that Mahatma Gandhi refused to get involved in raising money for the Indian hockey team to defend their title at the next Olympics. What is hockey? he supposedly asked. That may have been a case of the great man foreseeing the future and setting a lesson for the nations politicians to not get involved in sport. A lesson India has not learnt very well, of course!There is a limit to how much statistics and records can provide. One had to dig deeper. I had to speak to someone who had some knowledge of what it was like to be a part of the Indian hockey gold medal-winning era. The only one who came to mind and who is still with us is Keshav Dutt, member of the winning teams at the 1948 and 1952 games. The nonagenarian confirmed what I had suspected all along. It wasnt the 1928 win per se that had a great impact, Dutt said from his home in Kolkata. It was the fact that 1928 began an era of invincibility which put us on the map of world sport.He then reminded me of this statistic: 11 hockey medals in 12 Olympics between 1928 and 1980. Ill say it was hockey which was responsible for putting India on the world map, he added. The world was in awe that we had mastered the game so quickly and dominated it so thoroughly.He was right. The invincibility has worn off now, but the name India still resonates, and is still feared around the hockey world. It has been 36 years since the Moscow Olympic gold, but mention Olympic hockey to anyone in the world and the first country that comes to mind is India, because of the teams historical dominance at the Olympics.Australias 1988 Olympic womens gold medal-winning goalkeeper Kath Partridge is a colleague of mine, a principal of a large school in Perth. She is still involved in coaching the Australian mens and womens hockey teams. When the Kookaburras (Australian mens team) played India, she would tell me, Tough game today Andy, the Indians. We never know what magic they will come up with.It is this magic and wizardry that Dutt described to me in relation to the 1928 gold. Dutt recalled the shy, very quiet chap, Dhyan Chand, who he had the honour of playing with in the 1940s, towards the end of the latters playing days. Dutt rattled off stories about Chand. How the referees would stop play to check that the Indian did not have glue on his stick; how Adolf Hitler had asked Chand to stay on in Germany after seeing him play at the 1936 Olympics; what Don Bradman said after seeing him play: He scores goals like we score runs. All of these are a part of the folklore of India as a sporting nation. And it began in 1928.I then asked him my almost rhetorical question: Do you think Dhyan Chand was the first superstar of Indian sport? The Sachin Tendulkar of Indian hockey?His answer surprised me: Arre baba, he was the Bradman of world hockey. For the India of those days he was Sachin and Virat Kohli rolled into one!Dutt had provided me the connection between the 1928 hockey gold and modern Indian sport. He then reminded me of the difference between the first superstar of Indian sport and todays superstars. It is said that Chand himself was disappointed at what he got in return for his stupendous service to the nation. His son Ashok Kumar, also a national hockey player, once said: Babuji was against me playing hockey, and scolded me often for that. Imagine a father discouraging his son from playing a game that had brought him so much glory and fame - but little else, I suspect, because often India tends not to treat all its champion sportspersons with equal dignity.To make a further connection between Indian fathers encouraging their sons in sport, and create a link between Indias first major sporting triumph and modern Indian sport, the logical path would be to look at Indias latest victory on the world stage. Leander Paes had just won his 18th Grand Slam title, at the French Open in Paris. His father, Dr Vece Paes, a 1972 hockey Olympian, is respected across sporting generations as a player, mentor, sports doctor and sports thinker.Many of us took up hockey deliberately because we knew it was the only game in which we had any hope of winning an Olympic medal, Paes senior told me a day after Leander won the French Open mixed doubles and was potentially on track to compete in his seventh straight Olympic Games in Rio later this year.So why did Vece not get Leander to play hockey with the aim of winning an Olympic gold?His answer perhaps summarised where India has come as a sporting nation since the glory days of hockey have come to an end.I couldnt sell the Olympic hockey dream to the young Leander. What a telling statement from the father of the man who went on to break Indias 44-year Olympic medal drought when he won the tennis bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games.In reality that is a sentiment many Indian parents probably share with Vece when it comes to convincing their children to play hockey, or perhaps any sport other than cricket. Shades of what the great Chand told his son Kumar.Clearly the golden days of India hockey, which began in 1928, have passed. Yet strangely, many Indians still seem to think a repeat of the glorious era between 1928 and 1956 is just around the corner. One game away. One tournament away.Thats because hockey is in our blood, in our soul, says Vece Paes. We caught on to it very quickly. By 1928 we were world-beaters. It suited our temperament, our style and our mindset. It gave us glory. That is why we are emotional about it.Despite the doom and gloom, like every other Indian, Vece is still hopeful about Indian hockey. He explains to me in detail how the Hockey India League and other measures will make India the financial capital of world hockey.Just as India is the financial capital of world cricket? I ask, reminding him that the Board of Control for Cricket in India was formed in 1928, the year of that great Olympic triumph.He laughs and says, Ah, thats really ironical. But of course thats a different ball game altogether.Indeed it is, in more ways than one. Indian sport has come a long way since the legacy of the 1928 group of 14 amateur world-beaters who scrounged for funds to travel to defend their title at the next Olympics. Or has it?Andy OBriens investigation of world hockey, Hockey walking the tightrope after the Karachi World Cup in 1986, won him the inaugural All India Sports Journalist Award.?He currently lives in Perth and works for the Department of Education. Brett Cecil Cardinals Jersey . The mixed zone is not a place to make friends. Stan Musial Cardinals Jersey . The 17-year-old native of Marystown, N.L., pulled out of Skate Canada International last month in Saint John, N.B., with the same problem. http://www.authenticcardinalspro.com/cardinals-tyler-o-neill-jersey/ . The players spoke Jan. 13 during a Major League Baseball Players Association conference call after Rodriguez sued the union and Major League Baseball to overturn an arbitrators decision suspending him for the 2014 season and post-season. Chris Beck Cardinals Jersey . They were putting most of their energy into a record-setting offensive display. Lou Brock Cardinals Jersey . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. SAN DIEGO -- Hoisting the trophy and spraying champagne will be nice, for sure, for the crew that wins the Americas Cup World Series.Even sweeter will be the two bonus points that can help jumpstart that team when the fleet reconvenes in Bermuda next summer for the elimination rounds.The ninth and final stop of the ACWS will be sailed this weekend in Fukuoka, Japan. The winner of the overall series will earn two bonus points to carry into the qualifiers in June, while the second-place team will earn one bonus point.Thats a significant bonus to take forward, said British sailing star Sir Ben Ainslie, whose Land Rover BAR team holds the overall series lead with 437 points, 14 better than two-time defending Americas Cup champion Oracle Team USA.Emirates Team New Zealand, the hard-luck loser to Oracle in the 2013 Americas Cup, is three points back in third, with 420.SoftBank Team Japan is fourth with 399, followed by Artemis Racing of Sweden with 391 and Groupama Team France with 360.Ainslie, who was knighted a few months after winning his fourth straight Olympic gold medal at the 2012 London Games, said Land Rover BAR has been motivated by the bonus points and because its a new team fighting for the oldest trophy in international sports.Its been a huge amount of work, Ainslie said. Ive never worked this hard in my life. Its been massively rewarding for all of us for what weve achieved in a short amount of time. But were just starting. Our goal is to build a sustainable business in the UK with the core goal of winning the Americas Cup. We know it will be a huge battle next summer in Bermuda. If were not able to win the Cup next time, were going to keep going. We set this up to keep going until we get the job done.Ainslie would love to become the first Englishman to hoist the Americas Cup in victory. After losing the trophy to the schooner America in 1851, the Brits have never been able to win it back.Its huge, Ainslie said. For us, we have a very proud sporting heritage. Thats the one sporting trophy weve never won.The two bonus points will essentially represent two wins in the double round-robin qualifiers. In a break wiith tradition, the defender, Oracle, will sail against the challengers in that series.ddddddddddddIf a challenger wins the qualifiers and ultimately advances to the Americas Cup match, it will begin with a one-point advantage. Likewise, if Oracle, owned by software billionaire Larry Ellison, wins the qualifiers, it will begin the first-to-seven match with a one-point lead.After the qualifiers, the top four challengers will advance to the playoffs consisting of semifinals and finals to determine which team faces Oracle in the Americas Cup match.Ainslie said that one-point bonus for the Americas Cup match would be a nice helping hand.It certainly is our approach that its definitely worth fighting for, he said.Land Rover BAR has won three of the eight ACWS stops, with one second and two thirds.Oracle has yet to win a stop on the series, although it has four second-place finishes and two thirds.However, Oracle was last in the previous ACWS stop in Toulon, France.Skipper Jimmy Spithill missed that regatta after having elbow surgery. Hes back for this regatta.Obviously this would be a pretty nice one to crack that, Spithill said. But the biggest thing in this series was consistency. Trust me, every single event we come to as a team, the goal is the same, to try to come away with a win. This one is no different. We want to come away with points. Were in not too bad of a position.Ainslie sailed with Oracle in the 2013 Americas Cup, helping the American-backed team rally to beat Team New Zealand in one of the biggest comebacks in sports history.I would say if they went through without winning an event that would be a disappointment in terms of their psyche, although it doesnt really hurt them, Ainslie said. Knowing that team, they expect to be performing better. Theyve been one of the more consistent teams but they havent been able to nail it on the date. Hopefully, from our point of view, this Japan event wont be when they start.---Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/berniewilson ' ' '