India at Olympics

India made its first-ever appearance in an Olympics back in 1900 with just one athlete representing the nation. It was athlete Norman Pritchard who was the only Indian to participate in the Summer Olympic Games held in Paris, France. Norman Pritchard brought 2 silver medals in athletics for India that time. In 1920, India sent its first team to the Belgium Summer Olympic Games. Talking about India’s involvement in this prestigious sports event, India first participated in the Paris Summer Olympic Games in 1900. But their regular feature started in 1920. Since then, it has been a regular feature in India’s sports calendar with the nation marking the presence in each of the editions since.

India also the debut in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time in 1964. After that India has been a regular participant of the Olympic Games event till the present. talking about India’s performance in the multi-sport Olympics even there was a time when the Indian Hockey team was no. 1 in the whole world in Hockey and also very dominant in Olympic Games. The Indian Hockey team won eleven medals in twelve Olympic Games in between 1920-1980. The count included 8 gold medals that too 6 successive gold medals from 1928–1956. So far, India has appeared in 35 Olympic Games and their appearance in the Tokyo Summer Olympics will mark their 36th appearance in the Olympic events.

India’s Achievement at the Olympics
India has seen some good performers in the Olympics, who have made us proud at the World platform. It was in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics when Abhinav Bindra bagged the first-ever individual Gold Medal for India, writing history. Here’s the list of winners that saw the emergence of India in different sports at such a prestigious event of the Olympic Games:

Team/Name	Event	Sport	Games	Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Norman Pritchard	Paris	Athletics	Men’s 200 m	1900	–	1	–
Norman Pritchard	Paris	Athletics	Men’s 200 m hurdles	1900	–	1	–
National Team	Amsterdam	Field Hockey	Men’s Competition	1928	1	–	–
National Team	Los Angeles	Field Hockey	Men’s Competition	1932	1	–	–
National Team	Berlin	Field Hockey	Men’s Competition	1936	1	–	–
National Team	London	Field Hockey	Men’s Competition	1948	1	–	–
National Team	Helsinki	Field Hockey	Men’s Competition	1952	1	–	–
Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav	Helsinki	Wrestling	Men’s Freestyle bantamweight	1952	–	–	1
National Team	Melbourne	Field Hockey	Men’s Competition	1956	1	–	–
National Team	Rome	Field Hockey	Men’s Competition	1960	–	1	–
National Team	Tokyo	Field Hockey	Men’s Competition	1964	1	–	–
National Team	Mexico City	Field Hockey	Men’s Competition	1968	–	–	1
National Team	Munich	Field Hockey	Men’s Competition	1972	–	–	1
National Team	Moscow	Field Hockey	Men’s Competition	1980	1	–	–
Leander Paes	Atlanta	Tennis	Men’s Singles	1996	–	–	1
Karnam Malleswari	Sydney	Weightlifting	Women’s 69kgs	2000	–	–	1
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore	Athens	Shooting	Men’s Double trap	2004	–	1	–
Abhinav Bindra	Beijing	Shooting	Men’s 10m Air rifle	2008	1	–	–
Vijender Singh	Beijing	Boxing	Middleweight	2008	–	–	1
Sushil Kumar	Beijing	Wrestling	Men’s freestyle 66kg	2008	–	–	1
Vijay Kumar	London	Shooting	Men’s 25 rapid-fire Pistol	2012	–	1	–
Sushil Kumar	London	Wrestling	Men’s freestyle 66kg	2012	–	1	–
Saina Nehwal	London	Badminton	Women’s Singles	2012	–	–	1
Mary Kom	London	Boxing	Women’s flyweight	2012	–	–	1
Gagan Narang	London	Shooting	Men’s 10m Air rifle	2012	–	–	1
Yogeshwar Dutt	London	Wrestling	Men’s Freestyle 60kg	2012	–	–	1
P.V Sindhu	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Badminton	Women’s Singles	2016	–	1	–
Sakshi Malik	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Wrestling	Women’s freestyle 58kg	2016	–	–	1

 

Flag Bearers for India in Olympics:

Event	Year	Season	Flag Bearer	Sports
Antwerp, Belgium	1920	Summer	Purma Banerjee	Athletics
Los Angeles	1932	Summer	Lal Shah Bhokhari	Field Hockey
Berlin	1936	Summer	Major Dhyanchand	Field Hockey
London	1948	Summer	Tallimerain AO	Football
Helsinki	1952	Summer	Balbir Singh Sr.	Field Hockey
Melbourne	1956	Summer	Balbir Singh Sr.	Field Hockey
Tokyo	1964	Summer	Gurbachan Singh Randhawa	Athletics
Munich	1972	Summer	D.N Devine Jones	Boxing
Los Angeles	1984	Summer	Zafar Iqbal	Field Hockey
Calgary, Alberta, Canada	1988	Winter	Kishor Ratna	Alpine Skiing
Seoul, Korea	1988	Summer	Kartar Dhillon Singh	Wrestling
Barcelona, Spain	1992	Summer	Shiny Abraham Wilson	Athletics
Atlanta, Georgia	1996	Summer	Pargat Singh	Field Hockey
Nagano Japan	1998	Winter	Shiva Keshavan	Luge
Sydney	2000	Summer	Leander Paes	Tennis
Salt Lake, Utah	2002	Winter	Shiva Keshavan	Luge
Athens	2004	Summer	Anju Bobby George	Athletics
Turin Italy	2006	Winter	Neha Ahuja	Alpine Skiing
Beijing	2008	Summer	Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore	Shooting
Vancouver, Canada	2010	Winter	Shiva Keshavan	Luge
London	2012	Summer	Sushil Kumar	Wrestling
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	2016	Summer	Abhinav Bindra	Shooting
PyeongChang, South Korea	2018	Winter	Shiva Keshavan	Luge
Tokyo	2020	Summer

 

Medals by Sports:

Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Field Hockey	8	1	2	11
Wrestling	–	1	4	5
Shooting	1	2	1	4
Athletics	–	2	–	2
Badminton	–	1	1	2
Boxing	–	–	2	2
Tennis	–	–	1	1
Weightlifting	–	–	1	1
Total	9	7	12	28

 

Total Medals Tally:
Gold-9
Silver -7
Bronze- 12

Hockey- India’s Rule of Gold
Hockey team of India has been the biggest contributor in earning glory for India at Olympics. It has secured 8 out of the 9 medals for India in the overall tally of Gold Medals. It was in 1928 when under manager GD Sondhi’s 14-member squad of Hockey team was sent to the Summer Olympics of 1928. During the years of 1928-1980, the team earned 8 gold medals, making India one of the toughest contenders in the sport of Hockey. The hockey team also won 1 silver and 2 Bronze medals. The fact that India was the first non-European team to be a part of the International Hockey Federation. It also went on to win its first Olympic Gold medal. Until 1960, the Indian team remained unbeaten in the Olympics. India’s hockey team is the most successful team ever in the Olympics, having won eight gold, one silver, and two bronze medals. But after winning the Gold medal in 1980, the Indian Hockey team’s performance has declined, and the team has failed to win a medal of any color, since.

Wrestling’s
Wrestling has earned India 5 of its 28 medals in Olympic Games. The medal tally in wrestling includes 1 Silver and 4 Bronze medals. In 1952 Summer Olympics, Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav was the first Indian wrestler to represent India at Olympics. He won a Bronze medal in the Men’s Freestyle Bantamweight category. There was a lull period for Wrestling in the 19^th Century after 1852, but a big leap of faith moment came in 2008 when wrestler Sushil Kumar won a Bronze medal in the Men’s freestyle 66Kg category. In 2012, Sushil Kumar improved his performance by bagging a Silver medal at the London Olympics. Along with Sushil Kumar, wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt obtained a Bronze medal in Men’s freestyle 60 kg category.  In 2016, at Rio Summer Olympics, Wrestler Sakshi Malik made the most of the Repechage round and became the first Indian woman to win a medal in Olympics, earning a bronze medal in Women’s 58 kg category.

Shooting
Indian Shooting at the Olympics has been one of the strongest suits for the nation, however, the results haven’t been as desired. Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore got India its first medal in a Shooting event when he won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the Men’s Double trap category. Just in the next Summer Olympics shooter, Abhinav Bindra created history by winning a Gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics in the men’s 10 m Air rifle category. Thereby, he also became the first individual of the country to ever win a gold medal at any Olympic event. In 2012 London Olympics, shooter Vijay Kumar won a silver medal and Gagan Narang won bronze medal respectively. Till now shooting has brought India a total of 4 medals in Olympics with 1 Gold, 2 silvers and 1 bronze medal.

India’s recent performance in the Olympics:

2008 Beijing Olympics
In 2008 Summer Olympics that took place at Beijing, 57 athletes across 12 sports participated from India. For the first time since the 1928 Summer Olympics, Indian National Hockey Team was not participating in the Olympics. 2008 Beijing Olympics also saw India emerge with 1 gold and 2 Bronze medals. Shooter Abhinav Bindra set a record of being the first Indian individual to ever win a Gold medal at Olympic Event. He won the Gold medal in 10m Air Rifle shooting category. Boxer Vijender Singh represented India in the middleweight category where he won a bronze medal. He beat the former Carlos Góngora of Ecuador 9–4 in the quarterfinals on 20 August 2008 that assured him of a medal in the event. However, he lost 5–8 to Cuba’s Emilio Correa in the semi-finals on 22 August 2008 and had to settle with a bronze medal. In the same event, wrestler Sushil Kumar also won a bronze medal in Men’s freestyle 66kg category. It was the first time since 1952 when India had won more than 2 medals in a single Olympic event. All the Medal winners were given a grand welcome after return to India.

Name	Sport	Event	Medal	No. of Medals	Date
Abhinav Bindra	Shooting	Men’s 10m Air Rifle	Gold	1	August 11
Vijender Singh	Boxing	Middleweight 75 Kg	Bronze	1	August 20
Sushil Kumar	Wrestling	Men’s freestyle 66 kg	Bronze	1	August 21

 

2012 London Olympics
In the 2012 London Olympics, a total of 83 athletes, 60 men, and 23 women, competed in 13 sports in the Summer event. India marked its return in wrestling in the following year of Summer Olympics after the doping scandal during the Beijing Olympics that led to the suspension of two years on the Indian wrestling.  Some old faces such as Sushil Kumar and Abhinav Bindra also featured in the multi-sport event. 2008 Beijing Olympics Gold medalist Abhinav Bindra failed to qualify for while wrestler Sushil Kumar went on to improve his performance and he won a silver medal 2012 London Olympics. Sushil Kumar was made the opening Flagbearer for the country. Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt won the bronze medal in the 60 kg category. he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2013. He became the third wrestler after KD Jadhav and Sushil Kumar to win an Olympic medal. He defeated Ri Jong-Myong of North Korea to win the bronze medal thus winning the fifth medal for India. Later on, he was awarded Padma Shri in 2013 by the Government of India.

Shooter Vijay Kumar also won a silver medal in the Rapid Fire Pistol category. He finished with an average score of 9.767 and had a score of 293 with 7 inner 10s in the first stage. With his silver medal, he brought India its second medal at London Olympics.    Shooter Gagan Narang was the second and overall third shooter to bring a medal for the country who won the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics in the Men’s 10 m Air Rifle event with a final score of 701.1.

Badminton player Saina Nehwal represented India in Badminton where she won the bronze medal at the London Olympics when China’s Wang Xin retired from the match after an injury with the match at 18–21, 0–1. That marked India’s another count in the 2012 London Olympics.

Boxer Mary Kom was the first Indian woman to qualify for the Boxing event. She participated in 51kg category where she had to settle for a bronze medal after her defeat against Nicola Adams of UK. She ensured India another medal in the 2012 London Olympics. Mary Kom was also the closing flag-bearer for India at the event. Overall, it was India’s best Olympic Game in the history as they notched up their medal tally of 6 medals.

Name	Sport	Event	Medal	No. of Medals	Date
Gagan Narang	Shooting	Men’s 10m Air Rifle	Bronze	1	30 July
Vijay Kumar	Shooting	Men’s 25 m rapid fire Pistol	Silver	1	3 August
Saina Nehwal	Badminton	Women’s Singles	Bronze	1	4 August
Mary Kom	Boxing	Women’s Flyweight	Bronze	1	8 August
Yogeshwar Dutt	Wrestling	Men’s freestyle 60 kg	Bronze	1	11 August
Sushil Kumar	Wrestling	Men’s freestyle 66 kg	Silver	1	12 August

 

2016 Rio Summer Olympics
Total of 117 athletes participated in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games that included 63 men and 54 women across 15 sports. Three similar faces from 2012 London Olympics featured in the 2016 Olympic Event. Saina Nehwal, Yogeshwar Dutt, and Gagan Narang again represented India in their respective games. However, India could only win 2 medals at the event. Both the medals were silver and bronze medals respectively.

Shooter Abhinav Bindra was the opening flag bearer for India. Artistic gymnast and Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Dipa Karmakar, Tennis player Sania Mirza also participated in the event although they returned empty-handed. However, that year saw two female athletes winning at the Olympics for India.

Badminton player P.V Sindhu defeated Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the semi-finals to have a final showdown with Spain’s top seed Carolina Marín. Though she lost to her in the finals settling up with a silver medal.

Wrestler Sakshi Malik bagged a bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics in the 58kg category thereby she became the first Indian woman wrestler to do so. She was also the closing Flag-bearer for India at the Event.

Medalists:

Name	Sport	Event	Medal	No. of Medals	Date
Sakshi Malik	Wrestling	Women’s single	Bronze	1	August 17
P.V Sindhu	Badminton	Women’s freestyle 58 kg	Silver	1	August 19

 

India’s participation In Tokyo Olympics 2020
India will contest in next year’s Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics with currently 11 athletes qualified for the event. 7 out of 11 athletes are shooters that include 3 men shooters and 4 women shooters. Archery team includes Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, and Praveen Jadhav.

However, Indian men’s and women’s Hockey team is yet to qualify for the next year’s Tokyo Olympics. The men’s and women’s team must reach the final of the FIH Series Finals in Bhubaneswar and Hiroshima to play in the Olympic Qualifiers in October and November. Both the men’s and women’s teams are the favorites to win the Series Finals.