Sindhu shuttles to glory; Hockey on historic highs at Tokyo Olympics

This Sunday, the shimmer of India’s sporting history was amplified by two historic wins at Tokyo Summer olympics. With a remarkable victory over China’s He Bing Jiao in Women’s single Badminton Bronze medal match, 26-yr old PV Sindhu became the only woman in India’s sporting history to win two consecutive olympics medal. The Silver medalist of Rio Olympics, Sindhu beat her opponent in two straight sets of 21-13, 21-15.

President Ramnath Kovind congratulated Sindhu on her unprecedented feat. He tweeted “P V Sindhu becomes the first Indian woman to win medals in two Olympic games. She has set a new yardstick of consistency, dedication and excellence. My heartiest congratulations to her for bringing glory to India.”

In another historic win, after a 4 decade long wait Indian Men’s Hockey team defeated Great Britain by 3-1 to play in semi finals. Though India lost the semi final match against Belgium but the trail for the bronze remains alive. India won its last Gold in hockey in Moscow olympics in 1980.

For the first ever time Women Hockey team lead by Rani Rampal too clinched the semi final berth by defeating Australia 1-0.

The Sliver medal feat of Manipur’s Mirabai Chanu on the opening day is a hallmark of opulence of the Indian saga at Tokyo olympics. She is only .

the second Indian after Karnam Malleswari to win a medal in weightlifting in over two decades.

Feeling proud on this first day  winning moment, the Prime Minister of India Mr Narendra Modi had tweeted,

“Could not have asked for a happier start to @Tokyo2020! India is elated  by @mirabai_chanu’s stupendous performance. Congratulations to her for winning the Silver medal in weightlifting. Her success motivates every Indian. #Cheer4India #Tokyo2020”

With a bronze already in the bag, Assam’s boxer Lovlina Borgohain’s too will compete in the semifinals of the 69kg women category on August 4 2021. 

Earlier in the day, Olympic debutant Kamalpreet Kaur competed in the finals of the women’s discus throw and stood 6th in the final rankings. This was the first ever final in the sport for an Indian athlete. 

The Voices explores a few shades of the current games.

Tokyo Olympics Stats- As it unfolds in the shadow of a global Pandemic

After a delay of about 1 year due to the pandemic, opening of Tokyo Olympics-2020 took place on 23^rd July 2021. All the participants have already been vaccinated. A total of 11,656 athletes of ages ranging from 12 to 66 years representing 206 countries (including IOC Refugee Olympic Team, comprising of 29 athletes who have been displaced from their respective home nations because of some conflict or natural disaster etc.) are participating in 339 sporting events. They all are the contenders for around 5000 gold, silver and bronze medals.

Notable sports Debut at Tokyo 2021 – Tokyo olympics will feature these sports for the first time. 3 on 3 basketball, skateboarding, karate, sport climbing and surfing.

Tokyo Olympics also marks the highest ever number of participation from LGBTQ+ community. Number stands around 80. India’s Dutee Chand too became the first individual from the community to participate in the games. She came out as a lesbian in 2019. 

On the global level most of the major countries have sent more women than men athletes for the Tokyo Olympics-2021. Meanwhile India too has sent its highest number of women participants in its history of Olympics.

Gender wise list showing data relating to some major countries including strength of Indian players participating in Tokyo Olympics-2021

Country	Women	Men	Total Number of participants
United States	329	284	613
Australia	252	219	471
China	298	133	431
Great Britain	201	175	376
Canada	225	145	370
ROC*	183	146	329
India	56**	71	127 (Including 2 reserves and and 2 alternates)

(* Russian Olympic Committee) (**Country’s highest till now)

India @ Tokyo 2021

State wise participation from India

Northern and southern states have contributed the highest number of players who have qualified for Olympics-2021. 7 players from North East  includes the name of Mirabai Chanu who grabbed the silver medal on the very first day of the mega event.

State wise number of Indian players participating in Tokyo Olympics-2021

Sr. No.	State	Total Number of participants	Sr. No.	State	Total Number of participants
1	Haryana	29	12	Jharkhand	3
2	Punjab	19	13	West Bengal	3
3	Tamilnadu	12	14	Andhra Pradesh	2
4	Uttar Pradesh	9	15	Gujarat	2
5	Kerala	8	16	Madhya Pradesh	2
6	Maharashtra	8	17	Telangana	2
7	Delhi	5	18	Assam	1
8	Manipur	5	19	Himachal Pradesh	1
9	Odisha	5	20	Mizoram	1
10	Karnataka	4	21	Sikkim	1
11	Rajasthan	4	22	Uttarakhand	1
	Sub Total=	108		Grand Total	127

India’s medal tally in the last three Olympics:

Year/Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total Medals
2008 Beijing Olympics	1	–	2	3
2012 London Olympics	–	2	4	6
2016 Rio Olympics	–	1	1	2

Indian players have won for the nation, a total of 28 medals since 1900 Olympics, both in individual as well as team events (Excluding Tokyo Olympics-2021), out of which 11 are from hockey, 5 from wrestling, 4 from shooting, 2 in athletics, 2 in boxing and 2 in badminton, 01 in tennis and 01 in weightlifting.

Here are the 10 countries with the most Olympic medals:

Sr. No.	Country	Number of medals
1	United States	2827
2	United Kingdom	883
3	Germany	855
4	France	840
5	Italy	701
6	Sweden	652
7	China	608
8	Russia	546
9	Norway	520
10	Canada	501

With the help of this info graphic, we can compare the positions of different countries in respect of Olympic medals grabbed till the commencement of Tokyo Olympics-2021.

Present medal tally of Tokyo Olympics-2021 with five leading countries along with the position of India.

(As on 2.08.2021)

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	29	17	16	62
2	USA	22	25	17	64
3	Japan	17	6	10	33
4	Australia	14	4	15	33
5	ROC	12	21	17	50
43	India	0	1	1	2

(* Russian Olympic Committee)

The sporting fiesta continues and so does the journey towards eternal glory written in sweat, blood and grit by these modern day gladiators  . 

Data compiled by Sunil Kumar Gund

Story edited by NK Jha