2020 - The year of hope for Indian Olympic sports

The year 2020 will be a big year for Indian sports. The Tokyo Olympics 2020 brings with it a lot of expectations from Indian athletes and we hope they are able to live up to the pre-Olympics hype and expectations.

Till date, India has managed to bag a total of 28 medals in the Olympics, including nine Gold medals. All but one of these Gold medals have come in hockey (with the last Gold in hockey coming in 1980).

The only Gold medal from the Olympics medal tally apart from hockey was bagged by Abhinav Bindra in the 10m Air Rifle Shooting event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In terms of the overall picture, India's best-ever showing in terms of number of medals was in 2012 when the country clinched a total of six medals.

At the Tokyo Olympics 2020, if the athletes perform up to expectations and luck is with the Indian contingent, there is a high possibility that the Indian athletes break the record for most medals clinched by the country in a single edition of the Olympics.

On that note, let's take a look at the biggest prospects for landing a medal at the quadrennial event.

Shooting

A record 15 shooters have booked their spot in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and will be keen on clinching a medal for the country.

The 15 shooters who have qualified for the Olympics will be representing India in multiple events such as the 10 m Air Rifle, 10 m Air Pistol, 50 m Rifle 3 Position, 25 m Pistol and Skeet. That being said, here are a few shooters who are prime contenders for a medal.

Saurabh Chaudhary has been producing outstanding results from the past few tournaments he has taken part in, including his six Gold medal wins at the ISSF World Cups that were held last year. Apart from that, he also won a Gold medal at the Asian Airgun Championship and two Silver medals at the Asian Shooting Championship. With the women’s 10 m Air Pistol event being India's strength as well, Saurabh will have a realistic chance of medals in both the men’s 10 m Air Pistol and mixed team 10 m Air Pistol events.

Manu Bhaker is the biggest hope for India in the women’s 10 m Air Pistol event. In 2019, she won five Gold medals at the ISSF World Cups and also clinched two Gold medals at the Asian Shooting Championship.

Apurvi Chandela will be the biggest medal hope in the women’s 10 m Air Rifle event. Last year, she won three Gold medals at the ISSF World Cups. In the same event we also have Anjum Moudgil as a strong contender although her pet event would be the 50 m Rifle 3 position. With India having a strong men’s 10 m Air Rifle team, we can expect a medal in the mixed team 10 m Air Rifle event as well.

Badminton

India will hope to have representation in all the 5 badminton events at the 2020 Olympics. But two of India's star badminton players, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth are struggling to make it to the Olympics since injuries and bad form have impacted their rankings adversely.

PV Sindhu will be our biggest medal hope in badminton. She became the first Indian to win a World Championship Gold medal in 2019. Her performance during the tournament was outstanding with wins over the top players in the world including Tai Tzu-Ying in the quarterfinals, Chen Yufei in the semifinals and Nozomi Okuhara in the final. Although the rest of the year was not that good for her, she is known to raise her game in big tournaments which is clearly evident by the Olympics medal and 5 World Championship medals. With her dedication and focus before the big events and Gopichand's guidance, we can surely hope that she would be able to convert her previous Olympics' Silver to a Gold this time round.

Apart from Sindhu, we also have an outside chance of a medal in men’s singles (with Sai Praneeth winning a Bronze at the World Championship) and men’s doubles (with Satwik Sairaj and Chirag Shetty’s commendable performances in the 2nd half of 2019).

Wrestling

The Indian wrestling team bagged their best ever medal haul at the 2019 World Championships with 5 medals. Considering the consistency our wrestlers have been displaying of late, we can definitely expect at least a couple of medals from them.

Bajrang Punia will be the biggest hope for a medal in wrestling with a Gold medal as a distinct possibility. He has 3 World Championship medals to his credit including a Bronze at the 2019 World Championships and was also ranked World No. 1 in the 65 kg freestyle category in 2019.

Vinesh Phogat will be the biggest hope for a medal in women’s wrestling. After the disappointment of Rio where she missed out on a medal due to a horrific injury, she will be keen to make up for it with a medal in Tokyo. Her Bronze medal performance at the 2019 World Championships and Gold medals both at the 2018 Asian Games and Commonwealth Games would have given her a lot of confidence and she will hope to extend this winning run at the Olympics as well.

Apart from Bajrang and Vinesh, the other big medal hopes will be Deepak Punia and Ravi Dahiya who had won a Silver and Bronze medal respectively at the World Championships. The other wrestlers could also spring a surprise but they would first need to get through the Asian Olympic qualification tournament.

Boxing

Having failed to win a medal at the last Olympics, the Indian boxers would be keen to get a few medals this time.

Amit Panghal will be the biggest hope for a medal in boxing with a Gold medal as a possibility. He won a Silver at the 2019 World Championship and a Gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games beating the defending Olympic Champion. Although the Asian Olympic qualification tournament is still to be held, with his confidence and fighting spirit, we can definitely hope that he will not only qualify for the Olympics but also win a medal there.

Mary Kom will be the biggest hope in women's boxing. There is nothing that is required to be said about her. Her achievements are beyond numbers and she is the most successful boxer (man or woman) in the history of World Championships with 8 medals including 6 Golds. Here again the Asian Olympic qualification tournament is still to be held, but given her drive and focus we can certainly hope for her to not only qualify for the Olympics but also convert her London Olympics Bronze to a Gold in Tokyo.

The other boxers apart from Amit and Mary (especially Vikas Krishan) could also win a medal but they would first need to qualify for the Olympics through the Asian qualification tournament.

Weightlifting

Mirabai Chanu will be the biggest medal hope in Weightlifting. Her Gold medal at the 2017 World Championships is a testament of her ability. Although she had been dealing with injuries of late, she has made a successful comeback. Recently at the senior weightlifting nationals, she bettered 3 of her own national records while claiming Gold in the 49 kg class. She lifted 88 kg in snatch and 115 kg in clean-and-jerk for a total lift of 203 kg. Her previous best was at the 2019 World Weightlifting championships where she had surpassed the 200 kg mark for the first time with a total lift of 201 kg. If she can continue this upward trend and perform to her full potential, we can certainly hope for a medal from her.

Apart from the above mentioned sports, there are few other sports where we have an outside chance of a medal in the Olympics –

Hockey – We hope the men’s hockey team could spring a surprise and get us back the glory days of the past. The recent twin wins against a strong Dutch side and the close encounters against the World Champions Belgium in the FIH Pro League suggests that they are on the right track.

Archery – With the men’s team and Deepika Kumari having already qualified for the Olympics, we hope for a good performance from them although the archers have flattered to deceive in the past.

Table Tennis – We might have an outside chance here especially in the mixed doubles event where we won an unprecedented bronze at the Asian Games through Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra. Although India had a disappointing outing in the Olympic team qualification event with both the men's and women's team bowing out tamely, we hope they are able to play to their potential in the individual qualification tournament and subsequently at the Olympics to land an unprecedented medal in table tennis.

Athletics – Neeraj Chopra can secure a medal in Javelin throw if he can replicate his form of 2018 where he threw a distance of 88.06 m to claim a Gold at the Asian Games along with a Gold at the Commonwealth Games in the same year. He has just returned from a long injury layoff on a promising note by qualifying for the Olympics in his first event with a throw of 87.86 m. This certainly raises hope that he is on the right track. The Gold medal winning throw at the World Athletic Championship in 2019 was 86.89 m and Neeraj has been able to better that in the first event he participated post his injury. But with all the athletes expected to raise their game at the Olympics, Neeraj would have to better his performances to clinch an elusive medal in athletics.

With so many promising hopefuls, we certainly hope that this Olympics will herald a new chapter in the history of Indian sports and we are able to take a huge step in making India a sporting superpower.

Edited by Kingshuk Kusari