Several of India’s most iconic athletes have represented themselves and the country on the world stage, bringing laurels to the nation. They have represented the tricolour at the Olympic Games. However, Olympic medals apppear to have eluded these sportsmen and women, who have all trained hard and found significant success in their respective sports.
Mahesh Bhupathi
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One of India’s most decorated tennis players, Mahesh Bhupathi has had significant Grand Slam successes over a career that spanned nearly two decades. The Chennai-born ace is most well-known for his long and successful association with 17-time Grand Slam winner Leander Paes, with the two winning three of Bhupathi’s four doubles Grand Slam titles together.
What is perhaps not as well-known is the fact that Bhupathi had more success in the mixed doubles.
Bhupathi was the first ever Indian to win a Grand Slam title, taking the 1997 French Open mixed doubles title with Japan’s Rika Haraki. Bhupathi would partner with Paes to then win again at the French Open, taking the title at Wimbledon that same year.
The two won another Grand Slam title together – this time again on the clay courts of Roland Garros, in 2001. They played as a pair at two Olympic Games – in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008, managing to reach the quarter-finals in the latter. Paes and Bhupathi would lose to eventual champions Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, who took doubles gold.
Their personal relationship has been fraught with issues that have played out publicly over the years, and this is perhaps a contributing factor to why Bhupathi is yet to win Olympic laurels.
Former partner Paes does have an Olympic medal, although that is in the singles. The two are among the best doubles players in the history of the game, and had their professional relationship not been seriously fractured, the pair would likely have won an Olympic medal given their combined skill and expertise and the evident on-court camaraderie and coordination that won them multiple Grand Slam titles.
Sardar Singh
Hockey prodigy and current Indian hockey team captain Sardar Singh is regarded as one of the most talented midfielders in the sport today. The Punjab-born player became India’s youngest ever captain when, at 22, he led the team at the 2008 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.
The team has flourished under Singh’s attacking skill and leadership, winning medals at the Asian Games, the Hockey World League, and at the Commonwealth Games.
India was part of the 2012 Summer Olympics qualifiers, winning gold at the qualifiers. Sardar Singh had been adjudged player of the tournament at that event, although India was unable to progress beyond 12th spot at the actual Games.
Let down possibly by a lackluster charge from a team unable to match his captaincy, Singh, despite his skil, has been unable to win Olympic laurels.
The team qualified for the 2016 Games in 2014, and with renewed young talent in the squad, look to be in a strong position to do well at the Olympic Games in Rio this year. Could they end Indian hockey’s Olympic drought?
Gurbachan Singh Randhawa
Iconic Indian decathlete Gurbachan Singh Randhawa represented the nation at a number of prestigious international athletics meets, and was successful at each. The Punjab-born athlete’s best results came at the Asian Games in 1962, where he won the gold medal in the decathlon.
He qualified for the Olympic Games in the past, consecutively in 1960 and 1964 in three separate events – the decathlon, the high jump and the hurdles, but was unable to medal in any.
In 1964, Randhawa managed a 5th place finish at that year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan in the 110m hurdles.
Depsite his immense talent, Randhawa was unable to ever medal at the Olympics, and has since retired.
PT Usha
Nicknamed the ‘Payyoli Express’, P.T. Usha is one of India – and world athletics’ – most well-known women. The track-and-field legend began training when she was still in school, and at the age of 16 made her debut at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.
Unfortunately, perhaps due to age and inexperience, Usha was unable to fire at those Games.
She excelled in the years to come, winning a mammoth thirteen gold medals at Asian Track and Field meets and seta number of records in the process. At the 1984 Olympic Games, Usha managed to finish on top in the semi-finals of the hurdles, missing out on a medal by a fraction of a second.
Although she qualified for the 1988 Olympic Games, Usha was unable to replicate her 1984 performance, and remained without an Olympic medal – but remains one of the country’s most extensively decorated athletes.
Milkha Singh
The ‘Flying Sikh’, Milkha Singh was an Indian athletics icon for a number of reasons. The first ever Indian to win individual athletics gold at the Commonwealth Games, Singh remained the only Indian athlete to do so for the next five decades.
He had his biggest successes at the Asian Games, winning five gold medals over two Games, with two of those medals coming the same year as his pathbreaking Commonwealth Games medal win.
Milkha Singh represented India at the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, and the two Olympics after it – Rome in 1960, and Tokyo in 1964, with his best results on the Olympic stage coming in Rome.
Entering the tournament as its likely winner, Milkha Singh ran in the 400m in Rome, and was literally the frontrunner until the 200m mark, when he appeared to lose momentum. He would eventually lose his lead and a front row finish, completing the event in 4th place, just shy of a medal.
Although he set a national record with his finishing time, Singh missed out on what would be his closest shot at an Olympic medal.
