The 117-member Indian contingent is set to travel to Paris for the 33rd edition of the Olympics, being held from July 26 to August 11.
Coincidentally, India’s debut appearance at the quadrennial event came in the French capital itself in 1900, the second edition of the Summer Games. Since then, the nation has participated in every Olympics and collected a total of 35 medals across individual and team events.
Norman Pritchard opened India’s medal count in its debut edition, winning silver medals in 200m and 200m hurdles in Paris.
Introduced in 1908, field hockey turned out to be the sport which, to this day, defines India’s Olympic legacy. India played hockey at the Olympics for the first time in 1928 in Amsterdam and won the gold medal without conceding a single goal in five games. With players such as Major Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh and many others, India became a major force.
India won the gold medal in hockey at the following editions in Los Angeles (1932) and Berlin (1936) as well.
With the partition following independence, India did lose a lot of talented players to Pakistan but its grip on the hockey gold only tightened as the tricolour nation stood on top of the podium in 1948, 1952 and 1956.
The Helsinki Games of 1952 were also special since independent India got its first individual medal as K.D. Jadhav clinched bronze in men’s 57kg freestyle wrestling.
If 1952 was the edition with much to celebrate, 1960 turned out to be something similar to ‘so near yet so far.’ Not only did India fail to win the gold medal in hockey, losing 1-0 to Pakistan in the final, but the country also fell short of its first ever medal in track-and-and field as the legendary Milkha Singh finished fourth in 400m final. Known as ‘The Flying Sikh,’ expectations were high from Singh but a miscalculation in strategy during the race meant him missing the bronze medal by mere one-tenth of a second.
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Indian men’s hockey team kept its streak of winning a medal at every Olympic Games going till 1972. It got redemption for the loss in 1960 by defeating Pakistan 1-0 to reclaim the gold in Tokyo four years later. However, in the next two editions, the side had to settle for bronze.
In 1976 in Montreal, for the first time, Indian men’s hockey team returned empty-handed from the Olympics. The event was played on an artificial surface for the first time and the Men in Blue could only finish seventh. Four years later, in Moscow, India won its eighth, and as it stands, the last gold medal in hockey. The 1980 edition had only six teams since many sides joined the US-led boycott in response to Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
For the next 16 years, India did not win a single Olympic medal although it did come close on a few occasions. PT Usha, popularly called the ‘Payyoli Express’ went into the 1984 Summer Games on the back of some memorable outings. She was the Asian record holder and had won silver in both the 100m and 200m events at the Asian Games in 1982 in New Delhi.
But unfortunately, she suffered a heartbreak in the 400m hurdle event at the Olympics. After what was an impressive qualifying performance, Usha failed to secure the bronze medal in the final with a difference of 0.01 seconds!
After a forgettable 1988 Olympics in Seoul, India had a chance to win a medal in tennis in 1992. Leander Paes and Ramesh Krishnan progressed to the quarterfinals of men’s doubles where they lost 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to Croatia’s Goran Ivanisevic and Goran Prpic. There was no bronze-medal match in Barcelona and therefore, reaching the semifinals would have guaranteed a medal for the Indians.
Leander Paes stands on the podium after winning a bronze medal in the men’s singles event at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. | Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES
Paes overcame the disappointment of 1992 and created history at Atlanta 1996 by winning a bronze medal in singles. It was the first individual medal for the tricolour nation in 44 years. The Indian’s historic run included memorable wins over Thomas Enqvist in the round of 16 and Fernando Meligeni in the bronze-medal match.
India’s performances at the Olympics have improved significantly in the 21st century. Karnam Malleswari became India’s first female Olympic medallist at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney when she won bronze in weightlifting in the women’s 69kg category.
In Athens in 2004, men’s doubles pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, and weightlifter Kunjarani Devi (women’s 48kg) had heartbreaking fourth-place finishes but Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore managed to open India’s account by winning silver in men’s double trap shooting event.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics saw India win three medals at a single edition for the first time despite the absence of the men’s hockey team, which failed to qualify for the event for the first time in history. Vijender Singh became the first-ever Indian boxer to win a medal at the Summer Games as he clinched bronze in the 75kg division. Wrestler Sushil Kumar also took bronze medal in the 66kg freestyle category. However, the Beijing Games is best remembered for Abhinav Bindra, the 10m Air Rifle shooter, who bagged the country’s first-ever individual gold medal.
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India doubled its Beijing medal count at London 2012 with two silver and four bronze medals. Wrestling (Sushil Kumar - silver in 66kg category, Yogeshwar Dutt - bronze in 60kg category) and shooting (Vijay Kumar - silver in Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, Gagan Narang - bronze in Men’s 10m Air Rifle) produced two medals each. Women’s boxing made its Olympic debut and Mary Kom, arguably the best-ever Indian boxer, won bronze in the 51kg division. Saina Nehwal claimed the country’s first-ever medal in badminton as China’s Wang Xin, her opponent in the bronze-medal match, was forced to retire due to an injury despite leading.
At the 2016 edition in Rio de Janeiro, India could only win two medals. Shuttler P V Sindhu won silver medal in women’s singles, the best performance by an Indian in badminton, while Sakshi Malik took bronze in 58kg division, becoming the first Indian female wrestler to win an Olympic medal. Gymnast Dipa Karmakar, mixed doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna in tennis, and Bindra in 10m Air Rifle all finished fourth.
India recorded its best performance at a single edition in Tokyo in 2021. The Games, postponed by a year due to COVID-19, saw the tricolour nation winning seven medals. Mirabai Chanu provided a bright start to the campaign with a silver medal in the women’s 49kg weightlifting. Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win multiple Olympic medals as she finished with a bronze in singles. Lovlina Borgohain took bronze in the boxing 69kg division.
Wrestler Ravi Dahiya matched Sushil Kumar’s effort from London by winning a silver medal, albeit in the 57kg category while Bajrang Punia bagged a bronze medal in 65kg.
Indian men’s hockey team ended the 41-year-wait for a medal by beating Germany 5-4 in a thrilling bronze-medal play-off. India’s campaign in Tokyo in the best possible fashion as Neeraj Chopra defeated a star-studded field in men’s javelin throw to become the country’s first individual gold medallist in track-and-field and second overall.
Even in Tokyo, India narrowly missed out on clinching more medals as golfer Aditi Ashok, wrestler Deepak Punia (86kg) and the women’s hockey team all finished fourth in heartbreaking fashion.
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