Mumbai, Jul 20 (IANS): Indian sports underwent a renaissance in 1996 in Atlanta when Leander Paes won a bronze medal in men's singles tennis, ending a 44-year-old drought for the country's second individual medal at the Olympics.
As the clock ticks down for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, the question is whether India will undergo another transformation in the French capital.
That medal bagged by Leander Paes kind of triggered the growth points in Indian sport and since then the country has claimed at least one medal from the subsequent editions of the Olympic Games with at least one medal and 12 years after Atlanta, Abhinav Bindra added gold to glory by bagging India's first individual gold medal in shooting.
It was from the same Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 that India, after a gap of more than half a century, returned with multiple medals as Vijender Singh clinched a bronze medal in middleweight boxing and wrestler Sushil Kumar came through the repechage rounds to bag bronze in men's 66kg freestyle.
India hit another peak four years later when an 83-member contingent returned with six medals -- two silver and four bronze. And in the last edition of the games in Tokyo, which were held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, India set another record by achieving their best-ever medal haul of seven including a historic maiden gold in Athletics by javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and a bronze in men's hockey that ended a 41-year wait for glory in the sport that India has dominated for decades, winning eight gold medals.
At the 33rd Olympic Games which will be officially declared open on July 26, Indian sports will face another trigger for transformation as it is for the first time that the country is hoping to win medals in double digits.
India's progress in sports will be put to a true test in Paris. It will be the responsibility of the contingent of 117 sportspersons -- 37 female and 70 male to return with a big haul.
India will be looking forward to many of its sportspersons making historical achievements in Paris. Having won the first gold medal in athletics, Neeraj Chopra is eyeing another medal -- hopefully gold. The 26-year-old from Haryana will be India's biggest hope in Paris and is looking forward to back-to-back gold medals.
Chopra has continued to excel after winning gold in Tokyo, repeating his success at the World Championships and the Golden League Final. Though his struggles with injuries have thrown a spanner in the wheel and made him miss a few events, Chopra is still India's best bet for a medal in Paris. The relay teams have also done well in recent times, especially at the World Championships where it reached the men's 4x400 team reached the final.
Woman shuttler P.V. Sindhu is also eyeing history, hoping to become the first Indian to win three individual medals in the Olympics, having won a silver medal in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and a bronze in the Tokyo Olympic Games. If Sindhu wins a medal in Paris, she will become the first Indian sportsperson to win an individual medal in three consecutive editions of the mega-events.
Besides Sindhu, the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be India's biggest hope in Paris. The former World No.1 pair has made giant strides in the last couple of years and will be hoping to become the first male shuttlers to win Olympic medals.
Also high on the medal radar will be boxer Nikhat Zareen, a two-time World Champion in the women's 45-50 weight category. Zareen has also bagged gold in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022 and bronze in the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
Just like Sindhu and Neeraj Chopra, boxer Lovlina Borgohain and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu will be hoping to claim a medal in the second successive Olympic Games. Lovlina had won a bronze medal in Tokyo and now after moving up into a higher weight category (women's 75kg). The boxer from Assam had endured a lean period after Tokyo but has recently regained form and bagged a gold medal in the 2023 World Championship and silver in the Hangzhou Asian Games. Ditto for Mirabai Chanu, who won a silver medal in the 49kg weight category in Tokyo and will be India's lone representative in weightlifting in Paris. Chanu also won a gold medal in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022 but the competition in Paris will be far tougher.
India will also be hoping to repeat its medal-winning effort in men's hockey. Having ended a 41-year drought by bagging a bronze in Tokyo, India will be looking to end a 52-year barren period by winning medals in back-to-back Olympic Games after the 1972 edition in Munich. Craig Fulton has picked a strong side comprising young and experienced players but a recent slump in rankings and below-par performance in the FIH Pro League has undone the gains from the Hangzhou Asian Games where India won a gold medal after the 2014 Asian Games.
In the French capital, India will be hoping for medals from shooting, boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, athletics, badminton, hockey, and archery.
The shooters will be shouldering the biggest burden of the hopes as they will be hoping to find success for the first time since the 2012 Games when Vijay Kumar and Gagan Narang won silver and bronze medals respectively.
India shooters fired blanks at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and also at the Paris Olympics. Our biggest hopes in the 29-member shooting squad will be centred around rifle shooters like Sarabjot Singh, Manu Bhaker, Sift Kaur Samra, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Swapnil Kusale and Rhythm.
With the government spending crores of rupees in training, equipment, and exposure trips for these sportspersons in the last few years, the Indians go into the Paris Olympic Games with high hopes and expect their best medal haul.
Numbers
India's overall medal tally in Olympics -- 35 (10 gold, 9 silver, 16 bronze)
India will be participating in 16 sports
Total Indian sportspersons in Paris: 117
Total Males - 70
Total females - 47
The biggest component of the Indian contingent
Athletics -- 29
Shooting -- 21
Oldest participant from India -- Rohan Bopanna -- 44 years