75th Independence Day: Celebrating India’s 75 Greatest Sporting Achievements

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INDIA’s 75 Greatest Sporting Achievements!!!

On August 15, 2022, India will celebrate the completion of 75 years of independence, which has included several historic sporting milestones. India has achieved incredible landmarks in sports history where we united as a nation, pushed collectively, and instilled belief in ourselves.

To commemorate this momentous occasion, here are India’s 75 greatest sporting achievements,

1948

  1. In London, India won its first Olympic gold medal since independence in hockey. India claimed eight gold medals in hockey between 1928 and 1980.

 

1950

  1. India had been invited to partake in the FIFA World Cup, the closest the country has gone to participate in the world’s most celebrated sporting tournament. They didn’t participate as they could not afford the trip.

 

  1. Abdul Bari made the British Open squash final, where the Egyptian Mahmoud Karim ousted him.

1951

  1. In Delhi, sovereign India organizes its first significant sporting event, the Asian Games. Lavy Pinto of Goa captured gold in the 100m and 200m sprints, while Sailen Manna led the football team to the top.

1952

  1. At the Helsinki Games, K.D. Jadhav earned India’s first solo Olympic medal, a bronze medal in freestyle bantamweight wrestling. For the first time, two Indian women, Nilima Ghose and Mary D’Souza featured in these Games.

 

  1. Rita Davar, a tennis player, claimed the runner-up spot at the Junior Wimbledon.

 

  1. Gool Nasikwala swept the women’s singles and doubles championships at the maiden Asian Table Tennis Championships in Singapore.

 

1956

  1. At the Melbourne Olympics, Neville D’Souza scored a hat-trick versus Australia. India finished fourth, their most outstanding result in Olympic football.

 

1958

  1. Wilson Jones, a billiards player, became India’s inaugural global champion across any sport.

 

  1. Mihir Sen became the first Indian to swim from Dover to Calais across the English Channel.

 

  1. Lila Ram became the first Indian wrestler to capture a Commonwealth Games gold medal.

 

1960

  1. Ramanathan Krishnan advanced to the Wimbledon semi-finals, the most significant accomplishment for an Indian tennis player in Grand Slam singles.

 

  1. Milkha Singh missed out on a podium finish in the 400m race at the Olympics in Rome by 0.1 seconds.

 

1962

  1. India earned its second Asian Games football gold medal, overcoming South Korea 2-1 in the finals. They previously won the gold medal in 1951.

 

  1. Padam Bahadur Mall became the first Indian boxer to clinch a gold at the Asian Games.

 

1971

  1. Ajit Wadekar captained India to a 1-0 triumph against the West Indies in a cricket Test series, with Sunil Gavaskar amassing 774 runs in his first ever series. India won the second test of the five-match series in Port of Spain, while the remaining games ended in stalemates.

 

  1. India defeated hosts England by four wickets at the Oval to claim the three-match Test series 1-0, their first series victory in England.

 

1975

  1. India edged Pakistan 2-1 at the hockey World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is the nation’s solitary world championship in the game.

 

1980

  1. India claimed its eighth and final Olympic gold in hockey.

 

  1. Prakash Padukone won the All-England Open Badminton Championships.

 

1983

  1. After coming in to bat at 17-5, Kapil Dev produced an immaculate 175 against Zimbabwe to guide India to a World Cup group match triumph.

 

  1. Dark Horses India celebrated the 50-over cricket World Cup win after defeating the West Indies in the grand finale.

 

1985

  1. India swept the Benson and Hedges World Cricket Championships in Australia; establishing their World Cup success in 1983 was not an accident.

 

  1. Geet Sethi defeated Bob Marshall to secure the IBSF World Amateur Billiards Championship.

 

1986

  1. P.T. Usha won five medals, four of which were gold, at the Asian Games in Seoul.

 

  1. India earned a bronze in volleyball at the Asian Games in Seoul, influenced by Jimmy George, the country’s first volleyball pro to play in Europe (Italy).

 

  1. Khajan Singh Tokas won a silver medal in the men’s 200m butterfly at the Asian Games in Seoul, a remarkable achievement in swimming.

 

1987

  1. The Reliance World Cup was held in India, marking the event’s first occurrence outside of England and proving the BCCI’s administrative competence and ability to produce funds.

 

  1. Sunil Gavaskar became the first cricketer to reach 10,000 runs in the Test format.

 

  1. Vijay Amritraj, a 33-year-old tennis player, propelled India to the Davis Cup final.

 

1988

  1. Viswanathan Anand was India’s first Grandmaster in chess. In 1985, he was rated as an International Master.

 

1990

  1. India won the gold medal in the inaugural men’s kabaddi event at the Asian Games in Beijing. Until the 2018 Games, India had won every Asian Games gold medal.

 

1994

  1. Kapil Dev smashed Richard Hadlee’s Test wicket milestone. He finished with 434 wickets.

 

1996

  1. After 44 years, Leander Paes earned India’s second solo Olympic medal, a bronze medal in tennis.

 

1997

  1. Mahesh Bhupathi won the French Open mixed doubles with Rika Hiraki of Japan, becoming the first Indian to achieve that feat.

 

1998

  1. Shiva Keshavan qualified for the Nagano Winter Olympics in the luge event.

 

1999

  1. Anil Kumble captured all ten wickets against Pakistan in Delhi. The only other player to achieve this distinction was England’s Jim Laker in 1956.

 

  1. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won the French Open doubles event. They won three Grand Slam finals that year, including the Wimbledon.

 

  1. Bhaichung Bhutia became the second Indian to play professional football in Europe for English second division side Bury FC. He followed Mohammed Salim, who played for Scottish giants, Celtic FC.

 

2000

  1. Karnam Malleswari, the first Indian woman to capture an Olympic medal, won bronze in the 69kg weightlifting event in Sydney.

 

  1. Viswanathan Anand won the first of five FIDE world chess championships, defeating Spain’s Alexei Shirov in the final.

 

2001

  1. 2001 All England Open Badminton Championships was won by P. Gopichand.

 

  1. In the second Test against Australia (after losing the first), V.V.S. Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180) pulled India out of the crisis at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. India won the Test and then the series.

 

2002

  1. At just 15, Koneru Humpy became India’s first female Grandmaster in chess.

 

2003

  1. At the World Championships in Paris, Anju Bobby George captured bronze in the long jump event.

 

2004

  1. Rajyavardhan Rathore won India’s first Olympic silver medal in the men’s double trap shooting discipline in Athens.

 

  1. In Multan against Pakistan, Virender Sehwag became the first Indian batsman to register a triple century.

 

  1. India won a Test series in Pakistan for the very first time.

 

2005

  1. Narain Karthikeyan became the first Indian to race for Jordan in Formula One.

 

  1. Pankaj Advani, 19, became the first player in IBSF World Billiards Championship history to win in both points and time formats. In the points type, he defeated Devendra Joshi, while in the time format, he beat Geet Sethi.

 

  1. Sania Mirza became the first Indian woman to claim a WTA singles championship when she won the AP Tourism Hyderabad Open. She also won three Grand Slam doubles and three mixed doubles titles.

 

2007

  1. Jeev Milkha Singh became the first Indian golfer to participate in the Masters.

 

  1. M S. Dhoni captained India to success in the inaugural edition of the World Twenty20 Championship.

 

2008

  1. In Beijing, Abhinav Bindra became the first Indian to earn an individual Olympic gold medal in 10m rifle shooting.

 

  1. Vijender Singh became the first Indian boxer to capture an Olympic medal (a bronze in Beijing).

 

  1. The Indian Premier League (IPL) was introduced in the T-20 format by the BCCI. It quickly became one of the most lucrative sporting enterprises in the world.

 

2009

  1. In football, India won the Nehru Cup.

 

2010

  1. In Gwalior, Sachin Tendulkar hit the first-ever double hundred in a one-day international against South Africa.

 

2011

  1. India won its second World Cup after overcoming Sri Lanka in the final in Mumbai.

 

  1. The Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida hosted India’s inaugural Formula One Grand Prix.

 

2012

  1. At the London Olympics, Mary Kom won a bronze medal in boxing, which was introduced for the first time. She has won five World Championships in total.

 

  1. Sushil Kumar became the first Indian to claim two separate Olympic medals in wrestling, following his bronze in Beijing.

 

  1. Deepika Kumari won her maiden World Cup gold medal in archery in Antalya, Turkey. In the same year, she achieved world No. 1 status.

 

  1. Sachin Tendulkar became the first player in international cricket to record 100 international centuries.

 

2015

  1. After capturing the India Open BWF Super Series, Saina Nehwal became the first Indian woman shuttler to hold the world No. 1 ranking in badminton. She also claimed a bronze medal in the London Olympics in 2012.

 

2016

  1. P.V. Sindhu won a silver medal in badminton at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

 

  1. Sakshi Malik, the first Indian female wrestler to achieve an Olympic medal, earned bronze in the 58kg category in Rio.

 

  1. Dipa Karmakar, India’s first female Olympic gymnast, finished fourth in the vault but captivated the country’s heart.

 

2017

  1. The Indian women’s cricket team reached the ICC Women’s World Cup final but was beaten by England in the decider.

 

2018

  1. Indian badminton player Kidambi Srikanth became the first male shuttler to be ranked World No. 1 after the legendary Prakash Padukone. He was regarded as the World No. 1 after winning three cup competitions in 1980.

 

2019

  1. Amit Panghal made history by becoming the first Indian boxer to clinch a silver medal at the World Boxing Championships. Panghal had to settle for silver after losing his 52-kg championship match to Uzbekistan’s Shakhobidin Zoirov.

 

2020

  1. Ronaldo Singh made history by claiming the World Junior No. 1 spot across all four sprint events during a successful year for Indian cycling. He achieved this milestone by topping all three individual competitions.

 

Neeraj chopra gold medal

2021

  1. By winning India’s solitary gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Neeraj Chopra became an overnight sensation and rewrote his destiny. As a result of his achievement, he became the first Indian to capture an Olympic athletics medal and the first to win gold.

 

  1. India surpassed not only the Paralympic medal count but also the Olympic medal haul benchmark. In Tokyo 2020, the delegation earned 7 medals – 1 gold, 2 silver & 4 bronze. India’s previous best result was in the 2012 London Olympics when the team won six medals.

 

2022

  1. Neeraj Chopra won a silver medal in the men’s javelin throw event and was India’s only medalist at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. His silver medal success made him just the second Indian athlete to step foot on the World Athletics Championships pedestal; after long jump specialist, Anju Bobby George ended the drought with a bronze medal in 2003.

The country also had its strongest overall showing in the competition, double the record set of three Indian finalists in the 2015 event. This time, as many as six competitors made it to the final stage, with four finishing in the top 10.

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