Medal-up India!

Saturday, August 7, 2021, will go down in the history of India – not just of Indian sports – in golden letters, as it was on this day that the country was able to register its best-ever medal haul at a single edition of the Olympic Games. India had earlier recorded the highest tally of six medals in the London Olympics held in 2012. While it was wrestler Bajrang Punia who had equalized India's London Olympic record by winning the sixth medal – a bronze – in Tokyo on Saturday afternoon, he was quickly followed by Neeraj Chopra who won the gold medal in the Men's Javelin Throw final to take India's medal tally to the all-time highest so far. India's position in the overall medal tally has also improved like anything, reaching for the first time the 47th spot. Neera Chopra on the other hand also became the second individual player from India after Abhinav Bindra had won the first-ever individual gold medal for India; his event was Men's 10m Air Rifle Shooting category, and he had won his gold medal in Beijing in 2008. This was Neeraj Chopra's first appearance at the Olympics, but his journey towards clinching an Olympic berth has not been easy, having been marked by a few injury setbacks hindering his goal. The Tokyo Olympics will also remain memorable for Assam as it was for the first time in the history of the Games that a sportsperson from the state – Lovlina Borgohain – won a medal, a bronze. Looking back, one will find that while the first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896, it took India only four years before seeing their first representation at the Summer Olympic Games. It all started for India in 1900 when the country's lone athlete Norman Pritchard to Paris won two silver medals in Men's 200 metres and Men's 200-metre hurdles. India has been participating in every Summer Olympics since then, by sending the first Olympic team in 1920 which comprised four athletes and two wrestlers. It was however only in 1928 when the next medal was won, and thus marking the beginning of domination of the Indian hockey team in the world.