Here’s how India stepped into a new dawn since the turn of the century in the Summer Olympics

We covered the first part of India’s journey in the famed Olympics where we witnessed how Field Hockey became the heartthrob for us in the Summer Games until 1980. Following that though, the Indian contingent missed out on quite a few opportunities to bag medals despite coming within inches of history.

In 1984, PT Usha popularly known as the ‘Payyoli Express’ registered a handful of memorable performances on her way to Los Angeles. However, when history came knocking, she missed out on the tantalizing bronze medal by the finest of margins clocking 0.01s.

The 1988 Olympics in Seoul saw India struggling while in 1992, Leander Paes and Ramesh Krishnan showed grit to qualify for the quarters in the men’s doubles but eventually fell short against Goran Ivanisevic and Goran Prpic.

Paes redeemed himself four years later when he claimed the bronze medal in Atlanta, outclassing Fernando Meligeni and Thomas Enqvist along the way. This was also India’s first individual medal in the last 44 years after flirting with history from extremely close quarters.

The turn of the century, however, also saw India bring a change in their fortunes with Karnam Malleswari becoming India’s first female Olympic medallist at the 2000 Olympics. She put Sydney in her thumping spell, clinching bronze in weightlifting in the women’s 69 kg category.

Athens saw India’s shooting precision when Rajvardhan Singh Rathore won the silver medal in men’s double trap event while Kunjarani Devi fell short of a bronze medal in women’s weightlifting 48 kg. The illustrious duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, dotingly called Lee-Hesh came mighty close to a medal but lost out on the bronze.

In 2008, when the Summer Games caravan arrived in Beijing, for the first time the Indian men’s hockey team didn’t qualify which was a shocker while also for the first time in the glistening antiquity of the event, India secured three medals. Vijender Singh became the first-ever Indian boxer to grab a medal at the Summer Games, clinching bronze in 75 kg while Sushil Kumar grabbed bronze in the 66 kg freestyle wrestling while Abhinav Bindra rewrote the history books by becoming India’s first individual gold medalist, acing the 10m Air Rifle shooting.

Beijing saw India double its medal tally in 2012 as they bagged six medals, two of them being silver while four of them were bronze. Sushil Kumar clinched silver in 66 kg, Yogeshwar Dutt claimed bronze in 60 kg, Vijay Kumar bagged silver in Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol and Gagan Narang claimed bronze in Men’s 10m Air Rifle. Women’s boxing made its debut in the 2012 Summer Games and Indian icon, Mary Kom bagged bronze in the 51 kg division. Saina Nehwal clinched bronze, becoming the first Indian to register a medal in badminton as her opponent in the Bronze medal match, Wang Win had to withdraw after suffering an injury despite being in the leader’s seat.

The 2016 edition of the Summer games did witness the Indian medal tally go down as PV Sindhu bettered India’s badminton haul, clinching the silver medal while Sakhshi Malik bagged the bronze in the 58 kg division in women’s wrestling. There were quite a few fourth places finishes that witnessed Dipa Karmakar, the doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna and Abhinav Bindra falling short of the hallowed bronze medals in their respective disciplines.

2021 saw India shatter all records in the history of the Summer Games as they bagged seven medals, leaving everyone in awe of their motivating performance. Mirabai Chanu landed the first of the seven, clinching silver in women’s 49 kg weightlifting. Sindhu bagged her second medal in the Olympics as she claimed bronze in badminton while Lovlina Borgohain snatched bronze in women’s 69kg division.

Wrestling continued to see India sprinkle their stardust as Ravi Dahiya bagged a silver in the 57 kg while Bajrang Punia clinched the bronze medal in 65 kgs. The Indian hockey team returning to action, ended what was a 41-year-old drought, snaffling the bronze medal for themselves, beating Germany 5-4 in an oscillating third-place match-up.

However, it was Neeraj Chopra who wrote the most shining chapter in Indian history of Olympics, bagging India’s first gold medal in track and field events, snatching the gold for himself in men’s Javelin throw, surpassing legends of the sport. The likes of golfer Aditi Ashok, wrestler Deepak Punia and the women’s hockey team managed to come close but eventually lost out on the medals. Ever since the century has turned, so has India’s fortunes and as the latest edition of the Summer Olympics is all set to get underway today, let’s hope that India continues to roar even louder and make this year’s Summer Games a ride to remember.