Countdown to Paris Olympics: Records and medals on the mind as India aims for best-ever performance

Mumbai, July 20, 2024-

Indian sport experienced a renaissance in 1996 in Atlanta when Leander Paes won a bronze medal in the men’s singles, ending a 44-year drought for the country to win its second individual medal at the Olympics.

As the clock ticks down for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, the question arises whether India will undergo another transformation in the French capital.

That medal, won by Leander Paes, was the starting signal for the growth of Indian sport. Since then, the country has won at least one medal in subsequent editions of the Olympics. Twelve years after Atlanta, Abhinav Bindra added gold to the glory by winning India’s first individual gold medal in shooting.

It was during the same Beijing Olympics in 2008 that India returned with multiple medals after a gap of more than half a century. Vijender Singh won a bronze medal in the middleweight boxing and wrestler Sushil Kumar won a bronze in the men’s 66kg freestyle after the repechage.

India reached another high four years later when an 83-member contingent returned with six medals – two silver and four bronze. And in the last edition of the Games in Tokyo, held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, India set another record by winning their best ever medal haul of seven, including a historic first gold medal in Athletics by javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and a bronze medal in men’s hockey, ending a 41-year wait for glory in the sport that India has dominated for decades, by winning eight gold medals.

Indian sport will undergo another transformation at the 33rd Olympic Games, which will officially open on July 26, as the country hopes to win more than 10 medals for the first time.

India’s sporting progress will be put to the test in Paris. It will be the responsibility of the contingent of 117 athletes — 37 women and 70 men — to return with a big haul.

India will be looking forward to historic performances from many of its athletes in Paris. After winning its first gold medal in athletics, Neeraj Chopra has set his sights on another medal — hopefully gold. The 26-year-old from Haryana will be India’s biggest hope in Paris and is eyeing back-to-back golds.

Chopra has continued to excel after winning gold in Tokyo, repeating his success at the world championships and the Golden League final. Although his injury struggles have hampered his performance and caused him to miss a few events, Chopra is still India’s top medal contender in Paris. The relay teams have also performed well of late, particularly at the world championships where he made the men’s 4×400 team and reached the final.

Women’s shuttler PV Sindhu is also looking at history, hoping to become the first Indian to win three individual medals at the Olympics after winning a silver medal in Rio de Janeiro and a bronze in Tokyo in 2016. If Sindhu wins a medal in Paris, she will become the first Indian athlete to win an individual medal in three consecutive editions of the mega events.

Besides Sindhu, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be India’s biggest hopes in Paris. The former world No. 1 has made great strides in recent years and hopes to become the first male shuttlers to win Olympic medals.

Also high on the medal radar is boxer Nikhat Zareen, a two-time world champion in the women’s 45-50 weight class. Zareen also won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and bronze at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Like Sindhu and Neeraj Chopra, boxer Lovlina Borgohain and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu are hoping for a medal at their second consecutive Olympics. Lovlina won a bronze medal in Tokyo and has now moved up to a higher weight class (women’s 75kg). The boxer from Assam had a lean spell after Tokyo but has recently returned to form and bagged a gold medal at the 2023 World Championships and a silver at the Asian Games in Hangzhou. The same goes for Mirabai Chanu, who won a silver medal in the 49kg weight class in Tokyo and will be the only Indian representative in the weightlifting event in Paris. Chanu also won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022 but the competition in Paris will be much tougher.

India will also be hoping to repeat their medal-winning efforts in men’s hockey. After ending a 41-year drought by claiming bronze in Tokyo, India will be hoping to end a 52-year barren spell by winning medals at successive Olympic Games since the 1972 edition in Munich. Craig Fulton has assembled a strong team of young and experienced players, but a recent drop in the rankings and a poor showing in the FIH Pro League have reversed India’s triumph at the Hangzhou Asian Games, where they won a gold medal after the 2014 Asian Games.

In the French capital, India will be hoping for medals in the disciplines of shooting, boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, athletics, badminton, hockey and archery.

The shooters will bear the brunt of the ambitions as they hope to achieve success for the first time since the 2012 Games, when Vijay Kumar and Gagan Narang won the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Indian shooters shot blanks at the 2016 Rio Olympics and also at the Paris Olympics. Our biggest hopes in the 29-member shooting team will be rifle shooters like Sarabjot Singh, Manu Bhaker, Sift Kaur Samra, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Swapnil Kusale and Rhythm.

The government has spent millions of rupees in recent years on training, equipment and sports trips for these athletes. Indians are therefore going to the Paris Olympics with high expectations and expect the best medals.

Numbers

India’s Total Medal Count at Olympics: 35 (10 Gold, 9 Silver, 16 Bronze)

India will participate in 16 sports

Total number of Indian athletes in Paris: 117

Total number of men – 70

Total number of women – 47

The largest part of the Indian contingent

Athletics — 29

Shooting — 21

Oldest participant from India — Rohan Bopanna — 44 years (Agency)