Imagine a tribal boy representing India at the Olympics. Well it's happening right now in Rio as Gopi Thonnakal is set to take to the tracks.
Shockingly, his story would have begun and ended in his village had a physical education teacher in Wayanad not spotted him.
KP Vijayi supported him by keeping him at her home as he trained so as not to make him homesick. He still sees her like a mother.
Gopi's father, Kallingal Babu, is a farmer in Sulthan Bathery. He dropped out of college in his third year while doing his Bachelor's degree in Economics.
Rio however came just by chance to Gopi.?
A good performance at the college level saw him win both the 5000m and 10,000m race in the MG University Athletics Meet in 2007. This helped him get a job in the Indian Army which changed the course of his life, for good.
Back in January, Gopi was acting as pace-setter for Nitendra Singh Rawat (army marathon runner). But during the race he saw he was doing better than he expected and finished 11th, earning an Olympic berth.
Indian athletes in Rio have so many stories like this to tell. What the government is doing is just a fraction in comparison to what the developed nations like USA or Germany are doing and investing in sports and sportspersons.
We need more athletes like Gopi. Sons of the soil can only be found when you dig deep into the roots. After all, the basics begin from an early age.