London Olympics has been the best one for India since the time India started participating in the mega event. Four years ago when our athletes won three medals at the Beijing Olympics, it gave the entire nation a reason to celebrate. India had never tasted such success in one Olympics. People started saying that the time has come when India should start looking beyond cricket and concentrate on sports played by more than 10 countries.
London Olympics was always anticipated to be a path-breaking ground for India as the contingent of 81 athletes was the highest that ever participated in the event. The expectations were high and even on the worst day people expected India to come back with at least five medals.
Olympics are over and India has got six medals. It is nowhere near the medals that some of the other countries won, but for a cricket obsessed nation and with the poor sporting infrastructure, the increased number is nevertheless heart-warming. India doubled the amount of medal that they won at Beijing and finally the focus seems to be in the right way.
Let’s not talk about the 2016 Olympics from this moment as it is not the right time, the time is to celebrate what Indian athletes have achieved in London. Let’s have a look at some of the heroes from India’s campaign at London Olympics.
1) Sushil Kumar (Wrestling): The man from the outskirts of Delhi created history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win two Olympic medals. The bronze medallist from Beijing bettered his performance this time around and won a silver medal. The flag bearer for India ended the Indian campaign in a beautiful fashion. His has been a tremendous journey and it will not be wrong to say that he is the best Olympion that India ever had. During the times when Beijing heroes like abhinav Bindra and Vijender Singh couldn’t do much, here was the man who was fighting for his life.
2) Vijay Kumar (Shooting): Vijay Kumar won the silver medal for India in the 25m rapid fire pistol. Vijay Kumar was surprised with the reaction he got back home, for a man who has achieved so much, it was somewhat surprising when people took his medal as a shock because for most of the people back home he was a ‘underdog’. Vijay Kumar shot the target 30 times out of 40 in the series comprising eight rounds of five shots each and wrote his name in the history books.
3) Gagan Narang (Shooting): Things were getting a bit tense for the Indian contingent and this man took the onus upon himself to win India their first medal at the London Olympics in the 10m air rifle. This was the third Olympics for Narang and he was desperate to win a medal because apart from an Olympic medal he had won almost everything that was on offer.
4) Saina Nehwal (Badminton): The queen of Indian badminton did what every Indian knew that she was capable for. Saina won the bronze medal for India and become the first Indian badminton player to achieve the feat. She won the medal after the World number 2 of China Xin Wang of China conceded the match due to a knee injury.
5) MC Mary Kom (Boxing): The five time world champion from India was playing in her first Olympics and she was one of the biggest contenders to win a medal for India. Mary did not disappoint as she won the bronze medal to give women’s boxing a whole new dimension in the country. Mary Kom is a legend and she has won almost everything that has come her way. Mary who is not done with her boxing career insisted that she may have missed out on the gold medal this time, but she is surely looking to change the color of her medal in the next Olympics.
6) Yogeshwar Dutt (Wrestling): He missed out on an Olympic medal at the Beijing Olympics and things looked bad for him when he lost his bout in the pre-quarterfinals. But he got another opportunity in the repechage rounds and what followed was simply remarkable. Yogeshwar looked like a man on mission and beat three wrestlers inside one hour to win a bronze medal. He showed tremendous grit and determination and made sure that he has an Olympics medal as this will most probably be his last Olympics.
By Indian Sports News Network
