India has never been a force at the Olympics, except in hockey, where it was once one of the most dominant teams. In 2008 the Indian hockey team missed the Olympics for the first time. It is frustrating that a country with a population of more than a billion has only seven individual medal winners to date. Over the years India has been to the Games 21 times and won only 18 medals, most of them (11) by the hockey team.
With the London Olympics approaching, Indian Sports News looks back at the moments when individual athletes took it upon themselves to make the country proud, in the hope of a better outing in London.
Abhinav Bindra
It is frustrating that a country with such a huge population took 80 years from its official Olympic debut in 1928 to win an individual gold medal. But it did happen, and the man who did it was the golden boy of Indian shooting, Abhinav Bindra. After coming agonisingly close to his first medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, he made sure Beijing did not go in vain. His total of 700.5 points in the 10m air rifle event at the 2008 Olympics was enough to give the country its first individual gold medal.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics was the best performance by an Indian individual until Bindra surpassed it. Rathore, an Army man, won silver in the men’s double trap, and the feat made him a household name.
Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav
He made history as India’s first individual Olympic medallist. Jadhav, better known as the Pocket Dynamo, overcame many hardships to take part in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, where he stood tall and won a bronze medal in the 57kg (bantamweight) freestyle wrestling.
Leander Paes
After winning its first individual medal in 1952, India had to wait nearly half a century before tennis ace Leander Paes won its second individual Olympic medal. Paes, who has carried the flag for Indian tennis for years, beat Fernando Meligeni of Brazil to win the medal.
Karnam Malleswari
Malleswari is the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. Before her, no Indian woman had won anything at the Olympics, in a team or individual event. She achieved the feat at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Sydney was her first international meet after she moved up to the 69kg category, and she lifted 110kg in the snatch and 130kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 240kg to achieve her path-breaking feat.
Vijender Singh
Vijender Singh is the first and only Indian boxer to have won an Olympic medal. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics he made sure of a place on the podium by beating Carlos Góngora Mercado of Ecuador in the middleweight category. His bronze made him the poster boy of Indian boxing and helped establish boxing as a mainstream sport in the country.
Sushil Kumar
Sushil Kumar, who comes from a humble background, made it big at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when he beat Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan 3-1 in the repechage to win India’s first wrestling medal in five decades. The win put India on the world wrestling map, and Sushil’s name is now synonymous with Indian wrestling.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News
