2020 - The year of hope for Indian Olympic sports

Weightlifting

Mirabai Chanu

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.