As we head into a new Olympic season, we profile 5 times Indian athletes brought Olympic glory to the country:
Leander Paes wins singles bronze
Trending
He may be known as a doubles specialist, and not without reason. 17-time Grand Slam winner Leander Paes won every single one of those titles in combination with another player, but his sole Olympic medal was in the singles.
At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, in the United States, Leander Paes was not among the seeded players in the men’s singles. Entering the tournament as a wild card, Paes was likely not expected to excel.
Pitted against 11th seeded Richy Renberg of the United States in his first match, Paes beat the American and progressed to the third round to eventually face third seeded Swedish ace Thomas Enqvist.
Paes absolutely excelled at the tournament, first dismantling Enqvist to beat him in straight sets; having beaten one of the toughest opponents he could be up against, Paes then beat Italy’s Renzo Furlan in the quarter-finals, again beating the 12th seed in straight sets.
He would eventually face then World No. 1 Andre Agassi in the semi-finals, and although he lost to the American top seed, Paes seriously taxed him, taking Agassi to a tiebreak in the first set.
Following that loss, he played Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni, coming down after dropping a set to thoroughly beat his rival
That superlative performance would win Paes Olympic glory in an extremely proud moment for both player and country.
Mc Mary Kom wins bronze
The boxer made history for India even before she participated in the actual Olympic Games. The only woman in Indian history to qualify for Olympic boxing, Mary was the daughter of Manipuri field workers who practiced the state’s slash-and-burn agriculture for a living.
She began training for the Olympics very early in her teens, and with 2012 the first year women’s boxing was a part of the Olympics, Mary qualified.
Not only was her road to the Olympic Games a difficult one, the boxer had a harrowing experience at the games after her equipment was stolen. Despite this, and being forced to travel to the Olympics without her coach, Mary overcame the odds to win bronze at the event.
She described the “love the country gave me” as immense.
Karnam Malleswari winning bronze
Indian weightlifter Karnam Malleswari made history in Sydney where, in 2000, she became the first ever Indian woman to win a medal at the Olympic Games.
The then-25 year old lifted 110kg in the snatch and 130kg in the clean-and-jerk to lift a total of 240kg, the third-best at that year’s Olympics.
With no past Indian idols to look up to, difficulties in finding training and being a pathbreaker in a sport that was never considered traditionally ‘female’ in India, Malleswari broke a number of barriers to bring Olympic glory to the country.
Abhinav Bindra’s gold win
Bindra’s name has now become closely associated with the Olympics, but he was successful in the sport before the 2008 Olympic Games. A young Bindra grew up with a shooting range on the premises of his home in Punjab, where he practiced the sport.
The youngest participant in the 1998 Commonwealth Games, Bindra burst onto the scene three years later when he medaled at the 2001 Shooting World Cup in Munich. He had participated in the Olympic Games in Sydney the year prior, but without much success.
The Olympics would be hit and miss for Bindra, who in 2004 broke the existing Games record, but despite this was unable to medal.
He had success at the Commonwealth Games to follow, however, and in 2006 qualified for the Beijing Olympics to be held in 2008 – and it was there that Bindra won India’s first ever individual gold medal at the Olympics. With that win, he also ended a nearly 30-year Olympic gold medal drought for the country.
Khashaba Jadhav wins independent India’s first Olympic medal
Maharashtra-born wrestler Khashabha Jadhav represented India at the Olympics in the wake of Indian independence, only a handful of years after the British had ceased occupation of the country.
Jadhav had been involved in the Quit India movement, India’s civil disobedience movement against British occupation, prior to participating in the Olympics, and was an active freedom frighter.
He then participated in the London Olympics of 1948, barely a whole year after India’s independence, and there finished in 6th in his weight category, despite not having trained with any Olympic equipment or under tournament regulations before. It was the highest Olympic finish by an Indian at the time although Jadhav had missed out on a medal.
Jadhav’s road to the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, was an arduous one. After alleging nepotism by the authorities, the wrestler was forced to ask others to intercede on his behalf to enable him to participate.
Despite truncated training, a lack of proper equipment and time to prepare, Jadhav participated in the 1952 Olympics and won bronze – the first ever Olympic medal for independent India.
