For the Tokyo Olympics, India will be sending a 228-member strong contingent.
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The first time India took part in the Olympics was over a century ago, in 1900, with a lone athlete, Norman Pritchard. He in fact went on to win two medals- both silver- in athletics. This made India the first Asian nation to win an Olympic medal.
It was after attaining independence that India started sending a bigger contingent to represent the country. In 1948, India sent 50 athletes, representing several sports, each selected by its sports federation. The delegation was headed by a chef-de-mission. That year was the start of the Golden period of Indian hockey. They won the Gold at the 1948 Summer Olympics by defeating Great Britain in the final. It was the first gold medal for India as an independent nation.
Indian athletes have won 28 medals, all at the Summer Games. For the larger period of the 20th century, India showed pure dominance when it came to hockey at the Olympics. Roughly from 1920 and 1980. The run included 8 gold medals total and six successive gold medals from 1928-1956.
Indian hockey team won their Olympic record 8th and last title till date at the 1980 Summer Olympics.India came back without a medal in the next three Summer Olympics.
In years that followed, India settled for many silver and bronze medals. The nation won a silver at the 1960 Games in Rome, losing to Pakistan in the final. However, it made a comeback four years later at Tokyo 1964. India won bronze in both 1968 and 1972, and missed out on the podium altogether at Montreal 1976, but the team secured its eighth hockey gold medal at the 1980 Games in Moscow.
For a few years after that, India remained medal-less. At the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, Leander Paes won a bronze medal at the Men’s Singles ending a barren run of 16 years. It was also the first individual medal since 1952. Indian hockey’s lowest point was at the London Games when they lost all of their group stages matches
Saina Nehwal won bronze medal in badminton in Women’s singles, making it the country’s first Olympic medal in badminton. Mary Kom became the first Indian woman to win a medal in boxing with her bronze medal.
Shooter Abhinav Bindra is the only Indian to have won gold in a sport other than hockey. He won the men’s 10m air rifle at the 2008 Games in Beijing. Bindra finished fourth in the same event at Rio 2016 on what was his fifth time competing at the Games.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Sakshi Malik became the first Indian woman wrestler to win a bronze medal. This made her the first woman to have won a medal in wrestling. Shuttler P. V. Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win a silver medal in the Olympics and also the youngest Indian Olympic medalist.
For the Tokyo Olympics, India will be sending a 228-member strong contingent. It will include119 athletes, Indian Olympics Association (IOA) President Narinder Batra confirmed.
Out of the 119 athletes, 67 male and 52 female participants, will take part in the Tokyo Olympics, Batra said during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with Olympic-bound athletes.
