The Tokyo Summer Olympics is scheduled to take place from 23rd July to the 8th of August & India is sending its largest contingent for the Olympic Games with a total of 288 members which include 119 athletes (67 male and 52 female). So with a contingent of this size, let’s take a closer look at who exactly will be flying the Indian colours and in what disciplines.
ARCHERY
One of the sports in which India is yet to win an Olympic Medal in Archery which has been a bit tricky subject to ace for the nation, even though there have been incredible talents that have proved their mettle at the World Championships and several other events.
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Things could finally change at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as archery remains the sport in which India is most confident and this time, India has qualified for four out of the five archery events which are:
EVENT | ATHLETE |
Men’s Recurve Individual | Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav, Tarundeep Rai |
Men’s Recurve Team | Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav, Tarundeep Rai |
Women’s Recurve Individual | Deepika Kumari |
ATHLETICS
Over the recent years, we have seen some huge developments in track & field events across the country. When it comes to claiming a medal in athletics, India came close with the late Milkha Singh and PT Usha decades ago but now the nation pins our hopes on Neeraj Chopra to end the long-awaited medal in the Javelin throw. One of his most recent achievements came in Finland at the Kuortane Games where the Indian bagged bronze after a throw of 86.79m.
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EVENT | ATHLETE |
400m Hurdles | Jabir M Palliyali |
4 x 400m Relay | Muhammed Anas, Noah Nirmal Tom, Amoh Jacob, Arokia Rajiv & Naganathan Pandi |
20 KM Walk | Sandeep Kumar, Rahul Rohila, Irfan Kolothum Thodi |
50 KM Walk | Gurpreet Singh |
3000m Steeplechase | Avinash Sable |
Women’s 100m & 200m | Dutee Chand |
Women’s 20KM Walk | Priyanka Goswami, Bhawna Jet |
Mixed 4 x 400m Relay | Sarthak Bhambri, Alex Anthony, Recathui Veeramani, Subha Venkatesan, Dhanlakshmi Sekhar |
Men’s Javelin Throw | Neeraj Chopra, Shivpal Singh |
Men’s Long Jump | Murali Sreeshankar |
Men’s Shot Put | Tajinder Pal Toor |
Women’s Discus Throw | Kamalpreet Kaur, Seema Punia |
Women’s Javelin Throw | Annu Rani |
BADMINTON
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Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu have given us moments of glory in the sport of Badminton, and thanks to them, and the likes of Gopichand & Padukone before them, we are today considered as one of the powerhouses in the sport. India has registered a total of 4 players based on the Badminton World Federation rankings, with an entry in Men’s singles, Women’s singles, and a smashing young duo in the men’s doubles with Satwiksairaj & Chirag Shetty. The Badminton contingent is smaller compared to the Rio Olympics with the likes of Kidambi Srikanth, Saina Nehwal, Ashwini Ponappa and HS Prannoy not qualifying, but with no Carolina Marin in the mix this time due to injury, PV Sindhu will certainly fancy her chances of going for Gold while the talented B Sai Praneeth will be hoping to dig deep and spring a few surprises of his own.
EVENT | ATHLETE |
Men’s Singles | B. Sai Praneeth |
Men’s Doubles | Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty |
Women’s Singles | P.V. Sindhu |
BOXING
After bagging medals in 2008 and 2012 in the ring, India went out without any medals at the Rio Olympics but still has big expectations from the boxing team which consists of 9 boxers with very high potential.
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MC Mary Kom and Amit Panghal have been in good form since 2020 and look perfectly fit to knock quality opponents out on their way up and others will be hoping to follow in their footsteps and make history. Here’s the rest of the Boxing contingent to represent India at the Tokyo Olympics.
WEIGHT-DIVISION | ATHLETE |
Flyweight | Amit Panghal |
Lightweight | Manish Kaushik |
Welterweight | Vikas Krishan Yadav |
Middleweight | Ashish Kumar |
Super Heavyweight | Satish Kumar |
Women’s Flyweight | MC Mary Kom |
Women’s Lightweight | Simranjit Kaur |
Women’s Welterweight | Lovlina Borogohain |
Women’s Middleweight | Pooja Rani |
EQUESTRIAN
Fouaad Mirza will become the third Indian to represent India in the Equestrian event at the Olympics. Imtiaz Anees was the last individual to represent India in the sport at the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a wildcard.
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India has great expectations from Mirza, who broke India’s 36-year long medal drought when he bagged a silver at Jakarta in 2018.
FENCING
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CA Bhavani Devi will become the first-ever Indian fencer to take part in the Olympics. The 27-year-old earned her spot in the Olympics after she became one of the two highest-ranked fencers in Qualification from Asia and Oceania in the Adjusted Official Rankings and will be hoping that her performances can pave the way for many more and inspire a nation of 1.2bn to appreciate the sport of Fencing.
FIELD HOCKEY
There’s a reason why hockey is India’s national sport. The Indian hockey team has won a total of eight gold medals at the Olympic games (1928,1932,1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964 and 1980) but in recent years they haven’t been at their best and have not even finished on the podium since winning it in 1980. This men’s team will go into the Tokyo Olympics hoping to end this 41-year wait and have a team led by Manpreet Singh that is perhaps fitter than any side that has previously made their way to an Olympic games.
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Men’s Hockey:
The Men have an uphill task after being drawn against some of the world’s top sides like Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and the host nation Japan. India’s journey is set to kick off against New Zealand on 24th of July.
POSITION | ATHLETE |
Goalkeeper | P.R. Sreejesh |
Defenders | Rupinder Pal Singh, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Birendra Lakra, Amit Rohidas |
Midfielders | Vivek Prasad, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit, Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh (C) |
Forwards | Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Upadhyay, Shamsher Singh |
Women’s Hockey:
The Women’s team under the inspirational Rani Rampal has had a great run over the last few years and are also set to start on the 24th of July and will be facing the Netherlands in the opening fixture. Other teams which are drawn in the same group are Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, and South Africa and India should be confident of making their way out of that group.
POSITION | ATHLETE |
Goalkeeper | Savita Punia |
Defenders | Gurjit Kaur, Deep Grace Ekka, Nikki Pradhan, Udita Duhan |
Midfielders | Neha goyal, Sakima Tete, Sushila Chanu, Nisha, Monika Malik, Navjot Kaur |
Forwards | Sharmila Devi, Vandana Katariya, Lalremsiami, Navneet Kaur, Rani Rampal (C) |
GOLF
The qualification for Golf at the Tokyo Olympics was not determined by any qualifying tournament but was determined by the world rankings which were maintained by the International Golf Federation. Three Indian’s qualified directly among the sixty eligible players for the men’s and women’s teams. Anirban Lahiri who has previously won several events on the Asian Tour and currently plies his trade on the PGA Tour will lend his experience alongside young Udayan Mane who has dominated the PGTI in India. Aditi Ashok will make her way to a 2nd Olympic Games and heads into Tokyo in good form with strong performances on the Asian and European Tours.
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EVENT | ATHLETE |
Men’s Individual | Anirban Lahiri, Udayan Mane |
Women’s Individual | Aditi Ashok |
GYMNASTICS
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Pranati Nayak is the only Indian to enter as an artistic gymnast in the Olympic competition. Nayak secured her spot in the competition in Women’s individual all-around event as the last highest-ranked gymnast; qualifying based on her latest contingent at the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship which took place in Germany.
JUDO
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India entered only one female judoka in the Olympics based on the rankings of the International Judo Federation’s Individual rankings. Sushila Likmabam is the sole representative who won the silver medal in the women’s 48kg weight division at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and is now set to represent the country at the biggest stage.
ROWING
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After winning the silver medal and securing a top-three spot at the 2021 FISA Asia and Oceania Olympic Qualification Regatta in Tokyo, India has managed to qualify one boat in the men’s Lightweight Double Sculls event; the two rowers are Jat Arjun Lal and Arvind Singh.
SAILING
After being absent in the sport of sailing since 2008, India has qualified at least one boat in each of the events by leaving a mark at the 2018 Sailing World Championships and the 2018 Asian Games. Nethra Kumanan will compete in the Laser Radial event, Vishnu Saravanan in Laser Standard class and the pair of Varun Thakkar and Ganapathy Chengappa in the 49er class.
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EVENT | ATHLETE |
Men’s Laser | Vishnu Saravanan |
Men’s 49er | K.C. Ganapathy, Varun Thakkar |
Women’s Laser Radial | Nethra Kumanan |
SHOOTING
India’s biggest hope of bagging multiple silverware in a single sport at the Tokyo Olympics is at the Shooting range. India has sent a total of 15 members in the Shooting contingent which is a mixture of experienced shooters as well as young shooters who found their way into the squad after proving their best at the 2019 ISSF World Championship and the 2019 Asian Championship. There are huge hopes from world #1 Elavenil Valarivan in the 10m Air Rifle event but also on usual candidates like Manu Bhaker, Apurvi Chandela, Rahi Sarnobat and Anjum Moudgil.
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EVENT | ATHLETE |
10m Air Pistol | Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma |
Skeet | Angad Bajwa, Nairaj Ahmad Khan |
10m Air Rifle | Deepak Kumar, Divyansh Singh Panwar |
50m Rifle, 3 Positions | Sanjeev Rajput, Aishwary Tomar |
Women’s 10m Air Pistol | Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini Deswal |
Women’s 25m Pistol | Manu Bhaker, Rahi Sarnobat |
Women’s 10m Air Rifle | Apurvi Chandela, Elavenil Valarivan |
Women’s 50m Rifle, 3 Positions | Anjum Moudgil, Tejaswini Sawant |
Mixed 10m Air Rifle Team | Deepak Kumar & Anjum Moudgil |
Mixed 10m Air Pistol Team | Saurabh Chaudhary & Manu Bhaker |
SWIMMING
India will send a total of three athletes in the swimming contingent who will take part in three different types of events.
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There’s a lot of positive chatter around the fact that Srihari Natraj or Sajan Prakash could create history by bagging an Olympic Medal in swimming at the Tokyo Olympics, but it’s still a very difficult task. The main reason behind it is Prakash’s 1:56:38 seconds swim in the Men’s 200m butterfly stroke which earned him direct qualification. Later, Natraj also made way with his “A” level qualification time to book his place in the 100m backstroke event. Manna Patel made her entry through Universality Invitation.
EVENT | ATHLETE |
Men’s 100m Backstroke | Srihari Nataraj |
Men’s 100m Butterfly | Sajan Prakash |
Men’s 200m Butterfly | Sajan Prakash |
Men’s 200m Freestyle | Sajan Prakash |
Women’s 100m Backstroke | Maana Patel |
TABLE TENNIS
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After doing well at the Asian Olympic Qualification event which took place in Doha, Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra, G Sathiyan and Sutirtha Mukherjee rightfully earned their spot for the Tokyo Olympics. Most likely to win from the Table Tennis contingents are Sharath and Batra in the mixed double’s category as they made some shocking knockouts in the mixed doubles category at the Olympic qualifications. Here’s a full list of India’s TT contingent:
EVENT | ATHLETE |
Men’s Singles | Sarath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran |
Women’s Singles | Manika Batra, Sutirtha Mukherjee |
Mixed Doubles | Sharath Kamal & Manika Batra |
TENNIS
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The journey of India and Tennis has been a roller coaster and while we have previously always been used to a few big name appearances at the Olympics on the Tennis court, this year it’s a two-woman contingent. Leander Paes brought some joy when he won bronze in 1996 but since then there has been a lot of heartbreak for the Tennis contingent at the Olympics. The latest one was in the mixed doubles category where Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna came close but fell short of qualifying, leaving just Sania and partner Ankita Raina to fight their way through in the Women’s Doubles.
EVENT | ATHLETE |
Women’s Doubles | Sania Mirza & Ankita Raina |
WEIGHTLIFTING
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After leaving a mark at the 2016 Rio Olympics, India’s Saikhom Mirabai Chanu finished second in the Weightlifting rankings in women’s 49kg weight category based on the IWF World Rankings and will be the only entrant in Weightlifting in the Tokyo Olympics. She has recently bagged a bronze at the Asian Championship by lifting 86kgs and also has a world record in the Clean and Jerk and is a serious medal hope for India.
WRESTLING
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India has won at least one Olympic medal in Wrestling since the Beijing Olympics back in 2008. Going into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, fans have huge hopes from the Wrestling team to do the same this time out as well. India earned a total of eight quota spots for the Wrestling contingent but due to a positive doping test, Sumit Malik had to return. It is a squad brimming with talent and experience and will bank of names like Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, Ravi Kumar etc. bringing home a majority of India’s medals.
EVENT | ATHLETE |
Men’s 57 KG Freestyle | Ravi Kumar Dahiya |
Men’s 65 KG Freestyle | Bajrang Punia |
Men’s 86 KG Freestyle | Deepak Punia |
Women’s 50 KG Freestyle | Seema Bisla |
Women’s 53 KG Freestyle | Vinesh Phogat |
Women’s 57 KG Freestyle | Anshu Malik |
Women’s 62 KG Freestyle | Sonam Malik |
[Image Credit: Kiren Rijiju]
Shashank Iyer