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| Team India | PC- Olympics |
Olympics is a dream for sports athletes all over the world. It's not just about winning it's about competing as well. We can be so proud as a nation that our athletes across all the sports competed extremely well and some were able to go one step further and bring medals.
Bringing a medal is easier said than done from a country where sports funding is abysmal. But the silver lining here is that every now and then we find an athlete that takes up the nation's responsibility at these games and delivers us a medal. Just imagine how far we can go with the right amount of funding, grassroots level quality infrastructure and better governance.
A total of 127 Indian athletes participated in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This was the largest contingent that India had ever gone with at the Olympics. Let's have a look at Team India's performances in various events as the games progressed.
How it started
Olympics started on a great note for India as Mirabai Chanu being the top contender for a medal in the Women's 49 Kg Weightlifting event did not disappoint and won India's first medal in Tokyo and second medal in the weightlifting after nearly 21 years wait.
Mirabai Chanu won Silver and set the tone for the rest of the Olympics. India never had such a great start to the Olympics. It engaged the entire India into watching it even more closely.
Few setbacks on the way
When a clean and jerk attempt of 115kg lifted an entire nation! ♥️
— #Tokyo2020 for India (@Tokyo2020hi) August 8, 2021
A very happy birthday to #Tokyo2020 silver medallist - Mirabai Chanu 🥳🎉#BestOfTokyo | #UnitedByEmotion | #StrongerTogether | #IND | @mirabai_chanu pic.twitter.com/hhrt5mgFD6
Unfortunately, Indian Shooters did not fare well at the Games. They were India's biggest hope.
India has always had great faith in our shooters to bring medals and if you go through the history our shooters have not disappointed as Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won silver in Athens 2004, Abhinav Bindra won gold in Beijing 2008, Vijay Kumar won silver in London 2012 and Gagan Narang won Bronze in London 2012.
For Tokyo 2020 Olympics as well India did have a very good shooting contingent but unfortunately it did not materialise. Nevertheless, the young shooters would have gained tons of experience and that will only make them better. The malfunctioning of Manu Bhaker's equipment jeopardised her chances in the 10m Air Rifle event.
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| Manu Bhaker |
Indian Archers also had to return empty-handed as World No. 1 Deepika Kumari fell short as well. The silver lining being her entry into Quarterfinals along with her husband Atanu Das in their respective events.
Indian Table Tennis squad looked in good form and gave tough fights before going down in their individual events. One of the memorable ones is Sharath Kamal's performance against gold medal winner Ma Long.
Great News from Boxing
Amid all this came the moment of Joy from Boxing as Lovlina Borgohain won her quarterfinal bout and entered the semifinal of the event. Lovlina with such a great stance and perfect skills impressed us all and assured a medal for India. She ultimately settled for Bronze.
Lovina's Idol and Olympic medalist Mary Kom bowed out with a happy face but from a controversial bout. The rest of the Boxing contingent did well but could not make it to medal-winning rounds.
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| Lovlina Borgohain | PC- Olympics |
Hockey
India's Hockey performance was one of the major highlights of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. They were able to script history and reminded everyone of India's glorious past in Hockey.
Indian Men's Hockey team were on a roll winning all the group stage matches except one. They finished second in their Group. After finishing second they met Great Britain in the Quarterfinals. India Won it 3-1.
They lost to Belgium in the semifinal by a scoreline of 2-5 but still, there was plenty to play for. In a nail-biting bronze medal match, India defeated Germany 5-4. India waited for 41 years to win a medal at the Olympics in Hockey and this win made the entire country erupt in Joy.
Indian Women's Hockey team did not get off to a good start to the tournament as they lost the first three matches. The turning point came when they won against Ireland by 1-0 and then never looked back. They qualified for the quarterfinals by defeating South Africa by 4-3.
Then came one of the best moments in the Indian Women's Hockey as they defeated the gold medal favourites Australia by 1-0 to enter the semifinals. That match and moment will be remembered by the entire India in years to come and will inspire a lot of girls to take up Hockey.
They lost the Semifinal and the Bronze medal matches but certainly won the heart of billions with their stellar performances.
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| PC- Olympics |
Badminton
A great medal prospect for India at the Olympics was PV Sindhu who did not disappoint. She looked in great form from the word go and did not drop a set until the semifinals. Her opponent Tai from Chinese Taipei was better on the day and defeated Sindhu to set up a gold medal match for her.
Sindhu came back from the loss in the semifinal with great vigour and won the bronze medal match. It is her second medal in the Olympics making her only the second Indian athlete to win 2 medals in Olympics after Sushil Kumar who has two medals in Wrestling.
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| PV Sindhu |
Wrestlers had mixed outing
In the last few days of the games, India's medal hopes were pinned on the wrestlers. Ravi Kumar Dahiya barged into the finals of the event by winning 3 bouts on the same day. He won the semifinals by Fall, which is the best possible result for a wrestler. He lost in the Finals but ensured another Silver medal for India.
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| Ravi Kumar Dahiya |
India's medal hopes were resting on another wrestler called Vinesh Phogat but she could not last long and bowed out in her second bout. It was a big loss for India.
Moving on India's medal chances from wrestling was reinvigorated by Bajrang Punia who reached the semifinals of the event. He lost the bout but won the bronze medal match the very next day becoming India's sixth medal winner.
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| Bajrang Punia |
History made in Athletics
India since the beginning of the Olympic games had no medal in Athletics. Even though with such an abysmal track record in Athletics India did have great hopes from the Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra. Oh Boy did he deliver, that look every time he went for a throw signified that his preparedness and confidence matched what is required to win at the Olympics stage.
With a throw of 87.58m, he became the first Indian to win a (Gold) medal in athletics for India at the Olympics. Only second Indian to win a gold medal in an Individual event.
This gold was everything that Indians ever wanted in Athletics and Neeraj Chopra provided exactly that. He defeated his opponents by a very clear margin.
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| Gold Medal for Neeraj Chopra | PC- Olympics |
Few other Special Performances
Bhavani Devi became India's first fencer to compete and win at the Olympics. She won her first-round quite easily and then lost in the second round to the No. 4 ranked Manon Brunet of France.
Extraordinary performance by Aditi Ashok in Golf. She narrowly missed out on a medal. She was in the top 2 until round 3 of the event and on the last day, she slipped down to finish 4th. It was such a treat watching her compete with some of the best in the world.
Conclusion
With 7 medals including 1 gold, India perfected its medals tally from London 2012 to make Tokyo 2020 Olympics its best-ever. This Olympics for India was much beyond just medals, it was about writing history, inspiring young talents and diversifying India's participation.
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