Leaving aside the golden period of Indian hockey from 1928-1956 - where the country won six gold medals on the trot, India's Olympic success hasn't been anything great. The question that why a country with a billion people cannot be an Olympic superpower has been a constant in Indian sports.
Overall India has won just 26 medals - nine gold, six silver and 11 bronze. US Swimmer Michael Phelps alone has 18 gold medals, and this tells how underwhelming India’s performance has been at the quadrennial event.
India’s Olympic revival of sorts started with the Beijing Games in 2008 when Abhinav Bindra won the first ever individual gold medal for the country as India went on to win three medals overall. Four years later, India doubled their tally to six and achieved their best ever medal haul at the London Games in 2012 but failed to win a gold.
Here we look at some of the best moments of India’s Olympic history so far:
First Hockey Gold, 1928 Amsterdam
India became hockey giants and were on a rampage after the 1928 Amsterdam Games but the first gold has to be the most special one. A legend in Major Dhyan Chand burst onto the scene and scored a whopping 14 goals in five matches to put his name in the history books as India became champions by thrashing hosts Netherlands 3-0 in the final. Between 1928 and 1980, Indian hockey team won eight gold medals (1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964, 1980) and it surely was the golden period in the country’s sports history.
Abhinav Bindra, Gold, 2008 Beijing
Despite's hockey's glorious run, an individual gold was always missing. Shooter Abhinav Bindra ended that dry spell when he entered the record books in Beijing. on August 11, 2008, the man from Chandigarh won country’s first ever individual Olympic gold with a stunning comeback victory in the men's 10 metres air rifle event. The wait was over and Bindra became India’s golden boy. It was also India’s first Olympic gold since the hockey team’s triumph in 1980.
Leander Paes, Bronze, 1996 Atlanta
The Superman of Indian tennis has defied age and time and again surprised with his comebacks. He has won 18 Grand Slam doubles titles but winning the bronze medal at 1996 Atlanta Olympics is undoubtedly the biggest high of his career. Ranked 127 in the world at that time, Paes was a wildcard participant and a win or two would have been a great achievement for him. But he went on to beat some of the top players before losing to the top-seed and home favourite Andre Agassi in the semis.
Sushil Kumar, Bronze and Silver, 2008 Beijing and 2012 London
Sushil may have been recently in the news for the wrong reasons but he is one of the greatest Olympians India has. He became the first Indian to win a wrestling medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics since 1952, and the silver in London 2012 made him the first Indian to win two medals in an individual event. After the semi-final win, Sushil caught a stomach bug and was suffering from severe dehydration and muscle cramps. Still he gave a good fight against his Japanese opponent Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu in the final but lost by a narrow margin.
Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav, Bronze, 1952 Helsinki
Independent India hadn’t won a single medal and hockey was our only saving grace. But wrestler KD Jadhav clinched a bronze in 52-kg freestyle in 1952 to rewrite history books. Known as the ‘Pocket Dynamo’, Jadhav came from a family with a rich wrestling history and before the Helsinki Games was also part of the 1948 London Olympics where he finished sixth in the flyweight division.
Karnam Malleshwari, Bronze, 2000 Sydney
Not only was Karnam Malleswari the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, she was the first from a country to win an Olympic medal in weightlifting. Her bronze in the 69-kg category, with an effort of 110kg in snatch and 130kg in clean and jerk, was the only medal India won in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It was a medal that no one had expected, but Malleshwari shocked everyone and had she not faltered in her last attempt to lift 137.5 kg, she would have won gold.
Vijender Singh, Bronze, 2008 Beijing
Vijender’s bronze medal in 2008 Beijing Olympics holds special significance because boxing was a nonstarter in India until then at but his win started a revolution in India. Vijender lost in the semis at Beijing but by making it to the last four of the middleweight category, he assured India of its first Olympic medal in boxing. He failed to win a medal at London Olympics but performed consistently at the international level before becoming a pro-boxer in 2015. Vijender has been unbeaten since becoming professional and recently won the Asia Pacific super middleweight title by beating Kerry Hope in Delhi.