My Olympic medal is my most cherished trophy because I did it for our country: Leander Paes

Indian tennis ace Leander Paes has picked his bronze medal-winning effort at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Games as the most cherished win of his career. He expressed delight at having inspired a host of future Indian athletes and being motivated by them in return.

Leander Paes spoke at length about his glorious tennis career and the Indian sporting scenario in an exclusive chat with Indranil Basu on Sportskeeda Live.

On being asked to pick the most cherished win of his career, the 47-year-old opted for the bronze medal he won in the men's singles tennis event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

"I would say that winning my Olympic medal would be my most cherished trophy. Winning the Atlanta Olympics, because it was in singles, was my most cherished because I did it for our country, I did it for our flag."

Leander Paes mentioned that the medal was even more admirable because it was India's first medal in an individual sport after 44 years, with KD Jadhav having won the last one in wrestling at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games.

"It was a 44-year gap between Mr. Jadhav winning a medal in wrestling till I won in tennis as an individual athlete."

#OnThisDay in 1996, Leander Paes clinched India's first Olympic medal in Tennis despite competing with a severely injured wrist.#FromTheArchives | @Leander | #Atlanta1996https://t.co/1am25fV7W8

— Sportstar (@sportstarweb) August 3, 2020

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Leander Paes on inspiring the future Indian Olympic medallists

Sushil Kumar has mentioned many times that Leander Paes' medal has given him a lot of inspiration

Leander Paes expressed his elation that India had gone on to win at least one individual Olympic medal in every edition of the Games post that.

"But since 1996, I was very happy that in every other Olympics we came back with individual medals."

The 7-time Olympian gave examples of Rajyavardhan Rathore, Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Karnam Malleshwari, Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar and a host of other athletes who have won glory for India at the Olympics post his medal in 1996.

"Whether it was Chilly Rathore in Athens in 2004 in shooting or Saina Nehwal who is one of the real champions in women's sport because she has got a lot of grit and she had to overcome a lot, whether it was PV Sindhu after that or Malleshwari or the shooters like Abhinav or Sushil bhai after that."

Leander Paes expressed happiness for having inspired these champion athletes to take up sport and attain these lofty heights.

"There have been so many individual medal winners who have come post 1996. But I was very happy to be the first one to actually inspire those individual athletes to come out and play."

The 18-time Grand Slam champion highlighted that Sushil Kumar, India's only two-time individual Olympic medallist, has mentioned repeatedly that he was inspired by the former's exploits.

"Sushil Kumar comes out and writes to me fairly often and keeps talking about how my medal inspired him."

Leander Paes signed off by stating that it is a mutual admiration society. He said that he is also being inspired by the performances of these great athletes and that he feels privileged to have donned the India colours during this period of sporting excellence.

"But all these other athletes inspire me to continue achieving for India. I think it is a two-way road of admiration or respect that I have with a lot of athletes in our country and I feel very blessed to have played through these three decades that have turned out some great athletes in India."

Since Leander Paes' medal-winning effort at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, India have bagged a total of 13 individual medals in the next five editions of the quadrennial sporting extravaganza, including Abhinav Bindra's gold medal in shooting.

India would be hopeful that their athletes continue this momentum and bring home a bagful of medals from the forthcoming Tokyo Olympics 2021.

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