New Delhi: At a time when some of India’s top wrestlers, including Olympians, are leading a protest demanding the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a look at sporting history shows that a fifth of the country’s Olympic medals have come from wrestling.
India, which started its Olympic saga in Paris in 1900, has won a total of 35 medals — gold, silver, and bronze — in 24 Olympic Games, of which seven have been in wrestling.
Kolkata-born Englishman Norman Pritchard is regarded as the country’s first Olympic medallist, winning two silvers when he competed for India in 1900.
ThePrint looks at all the medals India has won at the Olympics, from a decades-long winning streak in hockey to the best tally yet at Tokyo in 2021.
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Paris, 1900: Silver medals on the track
Competing in the 200m hurdles at the 1900 Paris Olympics — the second Games after the ancient event was revived in 1896 — Pritchard set an Olympic record of 26.8 seconds in the semifinals, and bettered his time in the final to 26 seconds. However, it was the silver medal that Pritchard took home, as the US’s Alvin Kraenzlein had set another new record — 25.4 seconds — to clinch the gold.
Pritchard would go on to win a second silver medal in the same Games, this time in the men’s 200m sprint
Men’s hockey winning spree
Amsterdam, 1928 — Gold: The Indian hockey team won its first Olympic gold medal in Amsterdam. The win was credited to hockey wizard Dhyan Chand, who scored 29 goals in five matches.
Los Angeles, 1932 — Gold: At the 1932 Olympics, in a match with a reduced field, Roop Singh, Dhyan Chand’s younger brother, scored 10 goals, while Dhyan Chand himself scored eight to lead India to a second consecutive gold medal.
Berlin, 1936 — Gold: Leading India to an 8-1 victory over Germany in the finals, Dhyan Chand helped the team secure its third consecutive gold medal. The match also saw Dhyan Chand scoring his second hat trick in an Olympic final.
London, 1948 — Gold: The hockey team clinched the first gold medal for India after Independence. Balbir Singh Senior, who contributed 19 goals in three games on the way to the title, helped India thrash the UK 4-0.
Helsinki, 1952: Gold in men’s hockey, bronze in wrestling
In Helsinki, Balbir Singh Senior made history by scoring five goals against the Netherlands in an Olympic men’s hockey final, playing in the cold and under the midnight sun, and securing India’s fifth Olympic gold medal in a row.
Wrestler Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav clinched India’s first individual Olympic medal the same year with his bronze in the men’s freestyle bantamweight category. Known as the Pocket Dynamo, he had mastered a technique called dhak, where a wrestler throws his opponent to the ground with a headlock.
Melbourne, 1956 — Gold: Registering its sixth consecutive Olympic gold, India defeated Pakistan 1-0 in the tournament final. Captain Balbir Singh Senior played despite suffering a fracture to his right hand during the game. In his memoir, Singh wrote that his “biggest achievement was playing for an independent India. It was a great honour to bring pride to a sovereign country.”
Rome, 1960 — Silver: India’s unmatched gold medal record in hockey was broken in the final at Rome in 1960 when it lost to Pakistan 1-0.
Tokyo, 1964 — Gold: The Indian hockey team quickly regained its Olympic dominance by claiming gold in 1964. India advanced to the semifinals after going 4-2 in the group round after defeating Australia. The final was their third straight meeting with Pakistan, and this time they prevailed in the penalty shoot-out.
India’s hockey team went on to win bronze medals at Mexico City in 1968 and in Munich in 1972.
Moscow, 1980 — Gold: A seventh-place result at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, which was the Indian hockey team’s lowest-ever Olympic finish, motivated the team for Moscow. In the final, the Indian team beat Spain 4-3 to win the gold medal. It remains the last hockey gold for India at the Olympics.
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Atlanta, 1996: Bronze in men’s singles tennis
India had gone without a medal for three consecutive editions until Leander Paes won a bronze in tennis in Atlanta. Paes lost to Andre Agassi in the semifinal but went on to beat Fernando Meligani in the bronze medal match.
Sydney, 2000: Bronze in women’s weightlifting
Karnam Malleswari brought home a bronze medal in the women’s 54 kg weightlifting in Sydney — becoming the first Indian woman to get an Olympic medal.
Athens, 2004: Silver in men’s double trap shooting
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, then a major in the Army — and now a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP — became India’s first Olympic medallist in shooting by winning silver in Athens.
Beijing, 2008: Gold and 2 bronze medals
Still remembered as a watershed moment, Abhinav Bindra’s victory in the men’s 10m air rifle event at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing was India’s first individual Olympic gold medal.
The year was special, as Bindra was not alone. Vijender Singh secured a bronze at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, becoming the first Indian boxer to earn an Olympic medal.
India also won its first wrestling medal in 56 years, with Sushil Kumar securing bronze in. the men’s 66 kg category.
London, 2012: Several wins
It rained medals for India in 2012. Shooter Gagan Narang earned the bronze medal in the men’s 10m air rifle event, while shooter Vijay Kumar grabbed silver in the 25m rapid pistol.
Boxer Mary Kom — the only Indian woman boxer to qualify — won bronze in her Olympic debut that year in the women’s flyweight (51 kg) category.
In wrestling, too, Yogeshwar Dutt won a bronze in the 60 kg category. He became the third Indian wrestler to earn an Olympic medal after K.D. Jadhav in 1952 and Sushil Kumar in 2008.
Sushil Kumar also won a silver medal in the men’s 66kg wrestling, becoming India’s first two-time individual Olympic medallist.
Saina Nehwal became the first Indian badminton player to achieve an Olympic medal when her semifinal opponent, Wang Xin of China, was forced to retire due to injury.
Rio, 2016: Women ruled
Following Nehwal, ace badminton player P.V. Sindhu won a silver medal in women’s singles badminton at Rio De Janeiro.
This was also the year wrestler Sakshi Malik became the first woman Indian wrestler to earn an Olympic medal after winning a bronze in the 58kg category, ensuring that the country had won a wrestling medal in three consecutive Olympic Games.
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Tokyo, 2021 (2020 Olympics) — India’s best medal tally to date
This was India’s best Olympic year with a gold medal after 12 years. With his victory in the javelin throw, Neeraj Chopra became India’s second individual Olympic champion. This was the country’s first medal in track and field since Pritchard in 1900.
In total, India won seven medals at Tokyo, its best tally to date.
This was the year the men’s hockey team made a comeback after the 1980 Moscow Games, winning a bronze — their third bronze, after 1968 and 1972, and 12th Olympic medal overall.
Mirabai Chanu won a silver medal in the women’s 49 kg weightlifting. A first for her, Chanu was also the second Indian weightlifter to earn an Olympic medal after Karnam Malleswari.
Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain won a bronze in the women’s 69kg welterweight event, becoming the third Indian boxer to do so.
Meanwhile, wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya won a silver in the men’s 57kg freestyle wrestling, while Bajrang Punia won a bronze in the men’s 65 kg wrestling — becoming the third Indian first-timer to bring home a medal in Tokyo 2020.
P.V. Sindhu’s bronze medal in women’s singles in badminton added to the list. She became the first Indian woman and only the second Indian athlete to earn two individual Olympic medals, following Sushil Kumar.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)