Medals on mind as India eye best-ever performance at Paris Olympics

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

Mumbai: Indian sports underwent a renaissance in 1996 in Atlanta when Leander Paes won a bronze medal in men’s singles tennis, ending a 44-year-old drought for the country’s second individual medal at the Olympics.

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

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That medal bagged by Leander Paes kind of triggered the growth points in Indian sport and since then the country has claimed at least one medal from the subsequent editions of the Olympic Games with at least one medal and 12 years after Atlanta, Abhinav Bindra added gold to glory by bagging India’s first individual gold medal in shooting.

It was from the same Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 that India, after a gap of more than half a century, returned with multiple medals as Vijender Singh clinched a bronze medal in middleweight boxing and wrestler Sushil Kumar came through the repechage rounds to bag bronze in men’s 66kg freestyle.

India hit another peak 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, which were held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, India set another record by achieving their best-ever medal haul of seven including a historic maiden gold in Athletics by javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and a bronze in men’s hockey that ended a 41-year wait for glory in the sport that India has dominated for decades, winning eight gold medals.

At the 33rd Olympic Games which will be officially declared open on July 26, Indian sports will face another trigger for transformation as it is for the first time that the country is hoping to win medals in double digits. India’s progress in sports will be put to a true test in Paris.

It will be the responsibility of the contingent of 117 sportspersons — 37 female and 70 male to return with a big haul. India will be looking forward to many of its sportspersons making historical achievements in Paris. Having won the first gold medal in athletics, Neeraj Chopra is eyeing another medal — hopefully gold.

The 26-year-old from Haryana will be India’s biggest hope in Paris and is looking forward to back-to-back gold medals. Chopra has continued to excel after winning gold in Tokyo, repeating his success at the World Championships and the Golden League Final. Though his struggles with injuries have thrown a spanner in the wheel and made him miss a few events, Chopra is still India’s best bet for a medal in Paris.

The relay teams have also done well in recent times, especially at the World Championships where it reached the men’s 4×400 team reached the final. Woman shuttler PV Sindhu is also eyeing history, hoping to become the first Indian to win three individual medals in the Olympics, having won a silver medal in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and a bronze in the Tokyo Olympic Games.

If Sindhu wins a medal in Paris, she will become the first Indian sportsperson 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 hope in Paris.

The former World No1 pair has made giant strides in the last couple of years and will be hoping to become the first male shuttlers to win Olympic medals. Also high on the medal radar will be boxer Nikhat Zareen, a two-time World Champion in the women’s 45-50 weight category.

Zareen has also bagged gold in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022 and bronze in the Asian Games in Hangzhou. Just like Sindhu and Neeraj Chopra, boxer Lovlina Borgohain and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu will be hoping to claim a medal in the second successive Olympic Games.