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1900-2012: Twelve solo medallists, 13 medals
Silver
Gold.
Silver and bronze.
Silver
Rio 2016 4 DAYS TO GO - SPECTACULAR SOLOS
Prasanth Menon The Times of India Aug 01 2016
Individual Glory At The Olympics Has Come At A Premium For Indian Athletes.
Here, TOI Pays Tribute To 12 Medallists Who Defied The Odds to Climb The Podium
The names have been arranged in the chronological order. Within a year: gold first, silver next and bronze after that. Within a type of medal: in the alphabetical order of the second name.
NORMAN PRITCHARD, Silver—Athletics
Men's 200m (1900 Paris)
In the pre-independence era, Kolkata-born Norman Pritchard, competed in five races -60m, 100m, 110m hurdles, 200m and 200m hurdles -and reached the finals in 110m hurdles, 200m and 200m hurdles.Prithchard won silver in both 200m and 200m hurdles.
Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav
Bronze-Wrestling
(1952 HELSINKI)
Born in a wrestlers' family, Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav overcame official apathy and financial crisis to grapple his way to independent India's first Olympic medal at Helsinki in 1952.Jadhav went to Finland banking on the generous contributions made by people of his native village, Goleshwar in Maharashtra, and the money provided by barrister Balasaheb Khardeka, the principal of his college, who mortgaged his home to send his ward to the Olympics. Shifting to the bantamweight category (57kg) from flyweight, Jadhav floored his opponents in the first five rounds. But then he ran into Ishii Shobachi, a sumo wrestler-turned freestyle grappler from Japan, and he got the better of Jadhav after a gruelling 15-minute fight. Rushed into his next bout against Soviet Union's Rashid Mammadbeyov, an exhausted Jadhav was tamed by Mammadbeyov and the Maharashtrian had to be content with bronze, a medal worth its weight in gold in Indian sporting history.
Leander Paes
Bronze--Tennis (1996 ATLANTA)
India had to wait for 44 years after Jadhav's brush with history to see an exuberant Leander Paes win a historic bronze. Going to Atlanta, Paes was ranked 127 in the world. But he toppled higher-ranked players from the first round to the quarterfinals to set up a semifinal showdown with Andre Agassi. Paes came within two points of winning the first set against the third seeded American but couldn't pull it off and eventually succumbed 6-7, 3-6. But, unlike the Slams, all was not lost.Paes had the opportunity to play the bronze medal match against Fernando Meligeni of Brazil. He didn't let the opportunity slip as he came back from a set down to beat the Brazilian 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Karnam Malleswari
BRONZE-WEIGHTLIFTING WOMEN'S 69 KG (2000 SYDNEY)
Coming from a humble background, Karnam Malleswari became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal when she claimed the bronze in Sydney. A two-time world champion, Malleswari increased her weight to compete in the women's 69 kg category, a decision which was vindicated when she lifted 110kg in snatch and 130 in clean and jerk (240kg) to finish third behind China's Lin Weining and Hungary's Erzsebet Markus. But despite grabbing a piece of history, Malleswari was distraught after the final result as she felt an error in calculation on the part of her coaches had robbed her of a certain gold medal. Lin had lifted 132.5 kg in clean and jerk in her last attempt and all Malleswari had to do was to match that effort to lift India's first gold medal. But Malleswari instead went for the jugular and attempted 137.5 kg, which she failed, and had to be content with a bronze.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore
SILVER—SHOOTING MEN'S DOUBLE TRAP (2004 ATHENS)
A soldier, who has been involved in combat operations against terrorists, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore's experience of handling guns prompted him to turn to shooting in 1998. And it took the army marksman only six years in the sport to claim India's first-ever Olympic individual silver medal. On a windy day in Athens, Rathore didn't have the best of starts in the men's double trap event and qualified for the final after finishing fifth from three rounds in the preliminary stage. In the final round, Rathore shot 44 out of 50 to clinch the silver behind Sheikh Ahmed Al-Maktoum of UAE who claimed gold.
GOLD SHOOTING
MEN'S 10M AIR RIFLE (2008 BEIJING)
Indians watching television in the morning hours of August 11, 2008, had goose bumps when they saw the national anthem being played out loud at the Olympic arena. On top of the podium stood a bemused bespectacled man gazing at the Indian tricolor. In his third Olympics, Abhinav Bindra had shot himself to the pinnacle of Indian sporting glory by gunning down an Olympic gold medal. Bindra had a staggered start in the men's 10m air rifle event and was fourth while qualifying for the final. But determined to bury the ghosts of Athens, the then 26-year-old shooter reserved his best for the final round.Bindra started with a 10.7 in the before following it up with shots of 10.3 and 10.4. He moved into the lead with a 10.6 in the seventh shot. But Heri Hakkinen of Finland caught up with him in the ninth shot and both the Indian and the Finnish shooter were tied at 689.7 going into the final shot.But Hakkinen cracked under pressure. He scored only 9.7 to settle for bronze behind China's Zhu Qinan. Bindra, though, proved he was made of sterner stuff. He hit a near perfect 10.8 in his last attempt to finish with an accumulated score of 700.5 to grab gold and send a billion Indians into ecstasy.
Sushil Kumar
BRONZE —WRESTLING (2008) BEIJING
Details below (under 2012)
Vijender Singh
BRONZE—BOXING MEN'S 75 KG (2008 BEIJING)
Nine days after Bindra's gold winning effort, a product of the Bhiwani Boxing Club in Haryana, Vijender Singh, brought more cheer to Indians by punching his way to a bronze. Having moved to the middleweight category by the time the Games had arrived, Vijender breezed past his opponents in the opening rounds to set up a date with Carlos Gongora of Ecuador in the quarterfinals. Vijender dominated the quarterfinal bout against the southpaw to emerge victorious 9-4. The victory assured him of a bronze medal as there was no playoff for third place in boxing. But his hopes of making the final were dashed by Cuban boxer Emilio Correa.
Sushil Kumar
SILVER—WRESTLING MEN'S 66KG FREESTYLE (2012 LONDON), BRONZE (2008) BEIJING
He may not be a part of the Rio-bound squad but Sushil Kumar has already etched his name in Indian sporting history. He is the only sportsman from the country to have won back to-back Olympic medals.
The stockily built lad from Baprola village, however, had a disappointing start in Beijing. He lost his opening bout to Andriy Stadnik. But the Ukranian stormed into the final which gave Sushil the opportunity to contest the repechage where he bounced back beating world number five Doug Schwab and Albert Batyrov in the first two rounds. In the bronze medal match, Sushil took on Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan and the Indian wrestler overcame his far superior opponent in the extra 30-second period to clinch a bronze medal. But Sushil wasn't done yet. He returned to the Olympic mat four years later and went one better. Entering London as the reigning world champion in the 66kg freestyle category, Sushil began his quest for a second Olympic medal with a victory over reigning Olympic gold medallist Ramazan Sahin of Turkey. He got the better of Ikhtiyor Navruzov in the quarters before overpowering Akzhurek Tanatarov in the semifinals. But in the semifinal, he sustained a cut to his upper lip and wasn't at his best against Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu of Japan in the gold medal clash which saw him having to settle for silver.
Vijay Kumar
SILVER—SHOOTING MEN'S 25M RAPID FIRE PISTOL (2012 LONDON)
Coming from the mountains in Himachal Pradesh, the subedar in the Indian army made up for his poor performance in 10m air pistol by winning a silver in the 25m rapid fire pistol event. Kumar overcame the likes of world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia and the Chinese duo of Ding Feng and Zhang Jian to finish behind gold medal winner Leuris Pupo of Cuba. He found the target 30 times out of 40 attempts in the eight-round series in which each shooter had five shots. Kumar got off to a perfect start hitting five out of five in the opening series. But he couldn't match that effort thereafter. However, he kept himself in the gold medal hunt going into the last series. But Pupo hit four on target in the final round while Kumar missed three targets and consequently became India's second silver medalist in shooting.
Rewards
The Army shooter competed in London without any expectations of a medal and returned home after bagging the silver in an exciting duel against Leuris Pupo of Cuba and Ding Feng of China, who settled for the bronze. Vijay's Olympic glory got him on par with Athens silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, with the Army promising to explore ways to make him a commissioned officer. The subsequent financial rewards ran into crores.
REWARDS: Rs 1 crore (HP govt), 3 kg gold (Sahara), 50 lakh (Rajasthan govt), Rs 30 lakh (sports ministry), 30 lakh (defence ministry), Rs 20 Lakh (NRAI).
Yogeshwar Dutt
BRONZE—WRESTLING MEN'S 60 KG FREESTYLE (2012 LONDON)
The wrestler from Sonepat, Haryana made amends for his quarterfinal loss in Beijing by grabbing a bronze in the men's 60 kg freestyle competition in the English capital. However, he didn't start well in London as he lost the pre-quarterfinal bout to B Kudukhov. But like Sushil in Beijing, Yogeshwar pounced on the chance of contesting in the repechage rounds. He beat Franklin Gomez in the first repechage round followed by victory over Masoud Esmaeilpour in the next encounter which set up a bronze medal bout against North Korean Jong Myong Ri.Though the fancied North Korean won the first round 1-0, Yogeshwar came back strongly in the next to take the bout to a third and final round. With a pinpoint head and roll, he floored his opponent in 1.2 seconds to clinch the bronze medal. Rio now offers Yogeshwar a chance to join Sushil in becoming the second Indian wrestler to grab two Olympic medals.
Mary Kom
BRONZE—BOXING WOMEN'S FLYWEIGHT (2012 LONDON)
See also Mary Kom, the film
Women's boxing made its debut in the London games and MC Mary Kom was India's lone woman representative in the ring. The five time world boxing champion ensured a medal from London by grabbing a bronze in the women's flyweight category.Switching over to the 51kg category to enable her to compete in London, Mary Kom polished off Karolina Michalczuk of Poland 19-14 in her opening bout. A day later she brushed aside the challenge from Maroua Rahali of Tunisia to seal her spot in the semifinal, also assuring India of a bronze medal.However, Mary's endeavour to turn bronze into something bigger was doused by her nemesis Nicola Adams, as the Brit proved too good with a 11-6 win in the semifinal bout.
Gagan Narang
BRONZE—SHOOTING MEN'S 10M AIR RIFLE (2012 LONDON)
Gagan Narang became the toast of the country after winning eight gold medals across the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and Delhi respectively. With Bindra failing to follow up on his Beijing success, the onus was on Gagan to deliver. And he gave India's its first medal in London by securing a bronze in men's 10m air rifle event. He finished with a total score of 701.1 behind Niccolo Campriani of Italy (701.5) and gold medal winner Alin George Moldoveanu of Romania (702.1). Though he had qualified for the men's 50m rifle three position event too in London, Gagan couldn't make it to
Saina Nehwal
BRONZE-BADMINTON WOMEN'S SINGLES (2012 LONDON)
Luck played a part in Saina's maiden Olympic medal as her opponent in the bronze medal playoff, Xin Wang from China, pulled out midway through the match due to a knee injury. But Saina certainly deserved that stroke of luck as she had been the flagbearer of Indian women's badminton for a good few years. A total of five Indian shuttlers managed to qualify for London 2012 but barring Saina, none progressed beyond the last-eight stage. The Hyderabadi shuttler steamrolled her opponents in the group phase and marched into the semifinals. But she failed to rise to the expectations and went down to China's Wang Yihan 13-21, 13-21. Though she became the first Indian shuttler to win a bronze medal in London, a more-experienced Saina would be hoping to add a golden feather to her cap in Rio.
Narrowly missing a medal
The Times of India Maxin Mathew
(See also Athletics: India)
PT Usha
(400M WOMEN'S HURDLES FINAL | 1984 LOS ANGELES)
The women's 400m hurdles was making its Olympic debut and given the form that PT Usha was in, India was confident of its first athletics medal at the Games. The feisty Kerala athlete had defeated American star Judi Brown in the semifinals, becoming the first Indian woman to reach the final of an Olympic event.In the final at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Usha began perfectly but the race was halted after a false start by Australian Debbie Flintoff-King. The restart, however, affected Usha's concentration and the 20-year-old got off her blocks slower than earlier.Trailing initially, Usha picked up pace and by the eighth hurdle, was back in contention for a podium finish. However, two hurdles later, Brown overtook her to seal the silver and with Usha failing to bend her body at the finish line, Romania's Cristina Cojocaru Romania's Cristina Cojocaru beat her to the bronze medal by 1100th of a second. Such was the dramatic photo-finish, that even the announcer handed the third place to Usha briefly, before correcting the decision in Cojocaru's favour.
Milkha Singh
(400m men's final | 1960 Rome)
Milkha Singh was in the form of his life in the run-up to the Games, having won 77 of the 80 races he had run.Competing in the 200m event would have guaranteed a medal for the gutsy sprinter but `The Flying Sikh' opted to race in his favourite 400m instead.Having done impressively in the heats, Milkha shot off the blocks in the final, maintaining a steady second position.But in the final 200m stretch at Rome's Olympic Stadium, he surprisingly slowed down, altering his pace to enable his competitors to overtake him.Milkha finished fourth with a timing of 45.6 seconds, a national record that stood for 38 years.
Indian Men's Hockey
(2000 Sydney)
See also Hockey: India
Having finished a disappointing eighth at the 1996 Atlanta Games, India were determined for a better show at Sydney. Under the leadership of Ramandeep Singh, the Indian squad featuring Dhanraj Pillay, Mukesh Kumar, Baljeet Singh Saini and Mohammad Riaz had the country's finest players primed to restore hockey's lost glory.India defeated Argentina and Spain, held the Aussies to a 2-2 draw before suffering a shock defeat to Korea. Needing just a win against minnows Poland to advance to the semifinals and guarantee themselves a medal, India took the lead through Dilip Tirkey and chose to adopt a defensive approach instead of going for the kill.The strategy backfired in the final minute of the match when Poland found the equalizer and the sight of Pillay leaving the field in tears remains a poignant memory. India finished tied with Korea but the latter advanced based on a better headto-head record. In the classification round, India lost to Great Britain before defeating Argentina to finish seventh out of the 12 teams.
Women's Hockey
(1980 Moscow)
Women's hockey was introduced in Moscow at an Olympics marred with massive boycotts over Russia's invasion in Afghanistan. The Indian women, lacking match practice and proper preparation, began well with wins over Poland and Austria. But a loss to Czechoslovakia and a draw against eventual champions Zimbabwe hit their campaign hard.Needing a draw against Soviet Union to seal at least the bronze in their name, nerves got the better of the Indian team and they lost 1-3 to finish fourth.
Paes, Bhupathi
Leander Paes & Mahesh Bhupathi (Men's doubles tennis | 2004 Athens)
Two years before the Athens extravaganza, Paes and Bhupathi split for the second time in three years. After a lot of clamour from fans and former players, the duo decided to reunite a month before the Games. Many doubted the pair's capability, but Paes and Bhupathi silenced them all by winning the Canada Masters on their comeback, just weeks before the Games. Seeded fifth in Athens, the `Indian Express' looked set for a medal after defeating heavyweight pairings such as Mardy Fish-Andy Roddick and Yves Allegro-Roger Federer en route to the semis. But in the last-four clash, the favourites, who had not dropped a set till then, suffered a straight sets defeat to Germans Nicholas Kiefer and Rainer Schuttler. The bronze medal showdown against Croatians Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic too went against Paes and Bhupathi, the Indian pair suffering a 6-7, 6-4, 14-16 defeat in a four-hour marathon encounter.
Henry Rebello
(Triple jump, 1948 London)
Henry booked his ticket to London with a national record jump of 50ft, 2in at the 1948 All-India meet in Lucknow, making him a sureshot contender for an Olympic medal. However, the young 19-year-old Bengalurean ruptured his right hamstring muscle in his first jump at the Games and was stretchered off, his Olympic dreams dashed.
Satyadev Prasad
(Archery | 2004 Athens)
Prasad gave India a glimmer of hope when he battled windy conditions to become the first archer to enter the prequarters. Defeating higher-ranked Japan's Yuji Hamano and Dutchman Ron van der Hoff, Prasad was up against top seed and world record holder South Korean Im Dong-Hyun. The UP lad faltered in the final round, losing the match by an agonizing two points.
Wrestling
KD Mangave (1952, Helsinki) had to settle for fourth in the freestyle featherweight category after losing to American Josiah Henson in the fifth round. Twenty-four years later, freestyle wrestlers Sudesh Kumar (52kg) and Prem Nath (57 kg) finished fourth at the Munich Games.
See also Wrestling: India
Boxing
Gurcharan Singh was on the cusp of winning India a medal at the Sydney Olympics, leading by a point in the quarterfinals of his heavyweight bout against Ukrainian Andriy Fedchuk. However, he failed to evade a punch from Fedchuk in the dying seconds to end the bout tied 12-12. The judges ruled the bout 60-42 (number of punches landed) in favour of the Ukrainian, leaving Gurcharan distraught in the ring.
See also Boxing: India
Shooting
Finishing seventh in the qualification round of the men's 50m rifle prone event, Joydeep Karmakar had his eyes set on a medal during the 2012 London Games. He came agonizingly close before losing out on the bronze by 1.9 points to finish fourth.
See also Shooting: India
Medals won: By polulation and GDP
The Times of India, Mar 02 2016
The country's 1.2 billion-plus population should be an advantage. It's $2 trillion economy should put it among the lords of the rings. Yet, we bring up the rear at the Games every four years. Why? Our sports budget converts into Rs 8 per Indian! India's status as a perpetual under performer in Olympic sports is an issue that has led to much hand wringing over the years, and with good reason. One could argue that a country of 1.2 billion people should be throwing up lots of talented sportspersons and hence be a serious contender for global honours.The truth is that seen in terms of the number of medals won for every million people, India was the worst among all the nations at the London Olympics of 2012. While the two silver and four bronze medals won that year represented the country's best ever showing at the Games, it still amounted to less than 0.01 medals for every million people, barely better than the many nations that won nothing.
If you are among those who believe it is not sheer population size but economic might that counts, you would still be hard put to account for India's performance or lack of it. Once again, with 4.4 medal points (a gold equals three points, a silver two and a bronze one) per trillion dollars of gross domestic product, India was one of the four worst performers among those that won at least one medal.Of course, that's better than the many who won nothing, but again only just.
We looked also at how today's top medal winners had performed when their economy was of roughly the same size as India's now is, that is about $2 trillion. There are nine other countries whose GDP has crossed this mark at some point or the other. We looked at how they fared in the Olympic Games closest to the year in which they achieved their GDP milestone. As the chart shows, every one of them performed much better than India did in 2012.
The inescapable conclusion is that as a thumb rule, for an Indian sportsperson to do well he or she must excel inspite of the system. Cricket is perhaps the best illustration of the point, with the state having no role in running the sport. But even outside of cricket, the examples of Vishwanathan Anand, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupati and Sania Mirza or of Saina Nehwal, Pankaj Advani and Anirban Lahiri prove the point. These are some of India's most accom plished sports stars and they have come up through their own hard work and the sup port of sponsors they have been able to manage, not through state support.
With governments spending little on cre ating sporting infra structure and facili ties for mass partici pation in sports across the length and breadth of this vast country, it is not a situation that is likely to change very much very soon.
Antwerp Games, 1920: Funding
Sources:
1. From the archives of The Times of India: 2008: Ronojoy Sen
2. Book: The India Story by Boria Majumdar and Nalin Mehta
Tata’s Olympic safari
There is hardly anyone who hasn’t heard of Jamshedji Tata. But few remember his elder son Dorab. To this Tata goes the credit of starting the Olympic movement in India. Dorab Tata was mostly educated in England and his interest in sport was a result of his Western upbringing.
In the 1880s and ’90s, Dorab Tata was active in organising school and college cricket in Bombay. He then became involved with the Deccan Gymkhana where he was nominated president. The committee, which ran the Gymkhana, was not conversant with the details of managing athletic meets on European lines and wanted to develop their sports programme more in line with established Indian traditions.
At the first athletic meet the Gymkhana organised, Dorab Tata discovered that the competitors were “all boys of the peasant class working in the fields and living off poor fare”. Naturally they had no idea of European rules or modern training of any kind. Dorab Tata found that the competitors were proposing to run their 100-yard heats round a bend without strings. This was because their sports ground was very small and the track was part of a rough unrolled grass field.
O t h e r p o p u l a r events included the long distance race of about 25 miles. The peasants who participated were used to running barefoot on hard macadamised or dirt roads. Despite their lack of training and primitive conditions, the first three or four men ran the distance in good time. Dorab Tata felt that their time compared well with those in Europe or elsewhere. In 1919, some of their times were close to the times clocked in the Olympics.
Suitably impressed, the Tata scion decided to send three of the runners, at his own expense, to the Antwerp Games of 1920. Later he wrote a letter to IOC president Count Baillet Latour explaining his motives: “I therefore offered to arrange for the sending of three of the best runners to Antwerp to run the Olympic marathon at the next meeting, when I hoped that with proper training and food under English trainers and coaches they might do credit to India.”
Ultimately six or seven athletes from India proceeded to Antwerp with Dorab Tata bearing a bulk of the cost, which was estimated to be Rs 35,000. Dorab, however, only visited Antwerp briefly. Suffering from poor health, he could not find time to see the Games or meet the Indian contingent.
Thus began India’s eventful Olympic journey.
Olympic medallists, 2012: Rewards
(See also the individual entries above)
'Rewards from the private sector
INDIA’S LONDON CHAMPS: ONE YEAR LATER
THE DIMINISHING BRAND
Lukewarm Response From India Inc
Olympic Medallists Rue Lukewarm Response From India In c Biju Babu Cyriac | TNN
The Times of India 2013/08/07
While the Olympic medallists have got decent monetary rewards, mostly from the government sector, many endorsement offers were supposed to come their way as top corporates showed interest. But a year later, they did not materialize, and at least the Andhra Pradesh government is yet to hand over promised land and awards of Rs 50 lakh each to Narang and Saina Nehwal.
For some, a job promotion hasn’t happened while some await promised financial rewards. The euphoria following India’s improved performance in London — where the country won two silver medals and four bronze — may have lasted for months but it wasn’t enough to convince corporate to make a move away from the cricketers.
Although several offers were made, most of them fell through at the negotiation stage. “Even in the case of Saina Nehwal, most of her endorsement offers came before the Olympics. She hasn't got any big deals for winning the bronze medal in London. Maybe Mary Kom, bronze winner in women’s boxing, has got one or two offers but in all these cases the figures quoted may not be true. Even if they have signed for free, they will quote a high figure to float the brand,” sources told TOI.
Dismayed at the turn of events, athletes are now wondering whether India's corporates will ever come around to promoting Olympic sports.
IOA goes back on promise
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has gone back on its promise that money raised through sponsors for the London Games would go only to athletes. The association has now decided that all the officials who travelled to London too deserve princely sums!
“The IOA raised a total of Rs 3.25 crores from five companies in sponsorship money and then-president VK Malhotra had promised that all the money will go only to the 83 athletes (approx 3.92 lakh each) who represented India. But they have not done that as IOA officials decided to grant an allowance of Rs 50,000 to coaches and support staff. This meant athletes who toiled got much less than promised,” sources said.
2016 Rio
Size of contingent exceeds 100
Note: 120 Indians qualified. Sprinter Dharambir Singh and shot-putter Inderjeet Singh were told to stay back after being caught in the dope net. Finally,118 Indians made it.
The Times of India, Jun 27 2016
A unique century was scored. It didn't come in a cricket game, but had Team India written all over it. The country's contingent to the Rio Olympics swelled to over 100 -the largest ever for the quadrennial event. The milestone was reached when quarter-miler Mohammad Anas, sprinter Srabani Nanada, long jumper Ankit Sharma and archer Atanu Das clinched Rio berths.
Participating in a qualifying event in Poland, Anas made the grade by clocking 45.40 seconds in the men 400m to equal the qualification mark and win gold in the Poland National Athletics Championships. The 21-year-old also smashed his own national mark of 45.44s. “This has to be the best moment in my career.It hasn't sunk in yet that I'm going to the Olympics,“ the Kerala runner gushed. At the Kosanov Memorial Meet in Almaty , Kazakhstan, Odisha sprinter Srabani Nanda won a qualification in the 200m race. Almaty was the scene of Dutee Chand's history-making women's 100m qualification a day earlier. Completing a rare double for India, Srabani clocked 23.07 secs, a good 0.13 seconds off the Olympic qualifying mark of 23.20, and win bronze at Almaty.Rachita Mistry was the last Indian woman to qualify for the women's 200m, at the Sydney Olympics 16 years ago.
Not to be outdone, Morena boy Ankit Sharma smashed the existing long jump national record with 8.19m to win the gold in Almaty and also ensure his passage to Rio. Ankit had earlier leapt to 8.17m, better than the qualifying standard of 8.15m.
Elsewhere on Sunday, archer Atanu Das was selected for the men's recurve event following trials in Bengaluru.
With the Indian track and field numbers already reaching an impressive 23, the Indian contingent could further increase in the coming weeks with more athletes likely to find them selves in the fray. The boxing team could see three more qualifying at the final Venezuela meet next month. In aquatics, five swimmers have already made the B cut, while the last qualifier in Hong Kong next month to determine how many swimmers go or whether India is awarded a wild card.
Despite the 32 hockey players ¬ both men and women squads ¬ forming the regular feature at the Olympics, the Indian Olympic contingent this time would be the largest-ever. While the London Olympics four years ago saw a 83-strong Indian contingent, in April, the then sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal told the Parliament in April, that the ministry had forecast a team of around 90 athletes, with 10-plus medals being targeted.
Yet, in what can dampen the ministry's forecasts of a bullish medal tally, according to projections by Infostrada, leading sports database providers and forecasters, India would end up at No.46th in the medals tally, with only one gold (mixed doubles tennis) and three bronze (women's archery , team; Shiva Thapa in boxing and Jitu Rai in pistol shooting) to show for its 100-plus presence at Rio.
2016, Rio: The August 2016 form of India’s finest
Rio Olympics: India's realistic medal chances
Adapted from Jamie Alter | TNN | The Times of India Aug 2, 2016
Shooting
Abhinav Bindra 2008 gold medallist: Form in August 2016: indifferent.
Gagan Narang 2012 bronze medallist: Form in August 2016: indifferent.
Jitu Rai, age 29. Form in August 2016: No 2 in the world in the 50m pistol event. In August 2016, ranked 3rd in both 50m pistol and 10m air pistol, the 28-year-old has won two golds, three silvers and one bronze in the World Cups, an Asian and Commonwealth gold and besides an Asian Games gold.
Manavjit Singh Sandhu, age 39. Represented India in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Has won at every major tournament.
Heena Sidhu Holds the Finals World Record in the 10m air pistol.
Archery
Deepika Kumari, age 22. From Ranchi World No 1 in 2012. Form in August 2016: 12th in the world. Equalled world record 686/720 at the World Cup in Shanghai earlier in 2016.
Atanu Das, Form in August 2016: 22nd. In the world.
Badminton
Saina Nehwal: Rio--her third Olympics. Former world No 1. Won her second Australian Open title in June 2016. BUT in 2016, she lost to Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei, Spain's Carolina Marin and China's Li Xuerui, the Olympics champion, in Super Series events. Saina battled injuries in 2016. She was the London Olympics bronze-medallist: bagged the singles bronze after her Chinese opponent Xin Wang withdrew with injury in London
PV Sindhu won two World Championship bronze medals in 2013 and 2014.
Gymnastics
Dipa Karmakar, age 22. Won bronze at the 2015 Asian Gymnastics Championships and reached the final of the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2016, both being firsts for an Indian.At the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games she became one of only five gymnasts across the world to successfully attempt the dangerous Produvona vault. Only two of her Rio adversaries have attempted the Produnova - Yamilet Pena of the Dominican Republic and Egyptian Fadwa Mahmoud - but neither has topped Dipa's highest score in the world, 15.300. She had an edge in the Produnova - a double frontal vault - with a difficulty rating of 7.0.
Wrestling
The eight-member squad - for the first time - wasrepre sented in all three formats - Men's freestyle, Female wrestling and Greco-Roman.
After Geeta Phogat became the first woman wrestler in an Olympics in London, the family saw two representations in cousins Vinesh and (48kg) Babita Kumari (53kg) who joined Sakshi Malik (58kg) to make it three in the ring.
Having defeated the 2014 World Championships silver-medallist Iwona Matkowska en route to sealing an Olympic qualification with a gold medal, Vinesh was in good form.
Boxing
Inside the boxing ring, a squad of three carried India's hopes. For a discipline, that had a record eight entries in 2012, in 2016 it was represented with three men in the ring.
Of the three, the highest hopes were from the duo of Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Vikas Krishan (75kg), both of whom were World Championship bronze-medallists and were ranked sixth in the world.
The senior-most member of the team, Manoj Kumar (64kg), was the 2010 Commonwealth Games champion.
Controversies before the 2016 Olympics
Manuja Veerappa, Shrivathsa Sridhar and Maxin Mathew The Times of India Aug 02 2016
There have been controversies aplenty in the run-up to the Olympics. Sports enthusiasts were kept guessing which tennis combines would eventually go to Rio and then there was the Sushil-Narsingh fiasco. TOI looks at the upheavals, jostles and discrimination...
Narsingh Vs Sushil
A Grappling Affair
Narsingh Pancham Yadav is going to Rio, but what made bigger headlines over the last few months was an embarrassing dope-tainted saga of rivalry and sabotage featuring the country's most decorated Olympic wrestler, Sushil Kumar, and his medal-hungry, determined protégé from Varanasi.
What began as a long-drawn fight albeit outside the ring for the sole 74kg berth for the Rio Olympics transpired into national shame when Narsingh testing positive for an anabolic steroid just weeks before the quadrennial sporting extravaganza.
He cried conspiracy and a young wrestler was arrested for spiking his food at the SAI centre in Sonepat, where Narsingh was being given police protection after it emerged that there were threats to his life. Fingers were pointed at Sushil and his supporters for their alleged involvement, the former's tweet `Respect had to be earned, not demanded' right after Narsingh's failed test adding to the suspicions.
Sushil staked his claim to Rio based on his Beijing bronze and London silver medals while Narsingh rightfully earned his berth with the 2015 World Championships bronze. After his demands for a trial were rejected by Narsingh and the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Sushil gathered up support on social media and among his well-wishers. He even dragged the issue to the Delhi High Court, but eventually had to resign to his fate. He lost again when the WFI chose the unheard Parveen Rana as Narsingh's replacement, quashing his hopes of a fourth successive Olympics.
But amidst this brouhaha, the biggest defeat has been for wrestling and its eight-member squad for Rio. Having established his innocence, it is likely that this doping scandal could have an adverse effect on Narsingh's hopes for a medal at Rio, given the immense mental pressure and lack of preparation he had to endure over the last few weeks.
The Indian Tennis Saga
Indian tennis proved that some lessons are never learnt, as aftershocks of the selection row that played out ahead of the 2012 London Games threatened to drag the sport to farcical depths ahead of Rio 2016. Four years on, it felt like Indian tennis' longest double-fault waiting to happen.
Sania Mirza, by virtue of her world No. 1 ranking in women's doubles, earned a spot in the mixed doubles draw in Rio. The Hyderabadi rightfully put her foot down, opting to play with Rohan Bopanna another automatic entrant, thanks to his top-10 doubles ranking on the ATP Tour with whom she enjoys a good rapport.
However, men's doubles proved the bone of contention again as Bopanna identified youngster Saketh Myneni as his preferred choice. With veteran Paes' dreams of a seventh Olympics hinging solely on Bopanna, the AITA selection committee overruled the decision to forge a temporary truce between the two players.
Back in 2012, Leander Paes, then a top-10 player, wished to partner Bopanna only for the Kodava lad to refuse and insist on teaming up with his regular teammate on the ATP Tour, Mahesh Bhupathi. The Bengaluru duo got their wish after immense pressure and Paes, forced to play with the inexperienced Vishnu Vardhan, was offered the chance to play with the in-form Sania who was less than pleased with the entire situation. Sania ultimately felt like bait for Paes while Bhupathi with whom she had won the French Open ahead of the Games was denied a genuine shot at the mixed doubles title.
Bopanna and Paes are still a strong combine and India's best bet in men's doubles and the duo will have to work out their differences, at least for now. While not much is expected of Sania and her talented young partner Prarthana Thombare in women's doubles, her understanding with Bopanna could prove to be India's best medal chance.
THE TALE OF TWO CAPTAINS
Ritu Rani
The Indian women's hockey team will make an Olympic appearance after 36 years but one person who can't bear to watch it even on television is former skipper Ritu Rani. The 24-year-old's inspirational leadership led the team into the Games but was unceremoniously dumped from the final squad days before the team was officially announced. She was accused of having attitude issues and lack of fitness in the build up to the event.
Although there were rumours of Ritu's differences with the team management for the past few months, it took a turn for the worse after her engagement to Punjabi singer Harsh Sharma in June. Ritu alleged she was treated unfairly and wasn't given a chance to defend herself.
While no player can take her place in an Olympic squad for granted, the people at the helm could have handled the situation sans the drama.
Sardar Singh
A week before the team was to leave for Rio, Sardar Singh cut a lonely figure amidst the infectiously enthusiastic bunch of Indian players. Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh was named captain in place of Sardar, a move which was expected but clearly did not go down well with the 30-year-old.
But in the run-up to the quadrennial extravaganza Sardar was indented in controversies. In February this year, a former England U-19 player accused Sardar of “rape and then criminal intimidation“. The woman of Indian origin filed a complaint with the Ludhiana police commissioner claiming she was in a relationship with Sardar for four years and they were engaged in 2014 but he refused to marry her. She even accused him of mental, physical and emotional torture.
When the controversy broke out, Sardar refuted the charges. Hockey India chose to stay out of it, saying it was a private affair between two individuals. But the sword hung heavy on Sardar as he was `rested' for the Champions Trophy held in London, where the woman's family hails from. The midfielder was retained in the team but his captaincy was taken away.
Salman Khan
No Goodwill Over Salman Role
The Indian Olympic Association's appointment of Salman Khan, film actor as the goodwill ambassador for the Indian Rio-bound contingent received mixed views and created ripples in the sports fraternity. While some said Salman's presence will popularize the Games, many touted it as the Bollywood superstar's gimmick to promote his movie Sultan.Sprint legend Milkha Singh and Olympic wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt were among the few fiercely against his appointment.“India has produced so many sportspersons who have given their sweat and blood for the country like PT Usha, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Ajit Pal and so many others. One of these could have been made a goodwill ambassador. What was the need to import a person from Bollywood?“ Milkha had asked.
Dutee's Gender Struggle
Dutee Chand's qualification for Rio has been one of Indian sport's most remarkable comebacks. Fighting social stigma and a discriminatory system, the pint-sized sprinter braved great hurdles to realize her Olympic dream. Two years ago, Dutee was dropped from the Indian Commonwealth Games squad for failing a hormone test, with the Athletics Federation of India ruling that hyperandrogenism -a condition which produces higher levels of testosterone in women -made her ineligible to compete as a female athlete.Stung by the accusation, Dutee was ostracized by her own friends and fellow sportspersons, some even refusing to share a room with her. Inspired by South African sprinter Caster Semenya, who had a similar decision against her overturned, Dutee successfully appealed to Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne against the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federations' (IAAF) stand on hyperandrogenism. CAS suspended the regulations for two years, asking IAAF to produce evidence on whether sportspersons with hyperandrogenism have advantageous performance levels, thereby making Dutee eligible to compete again.
