The Olympic stage is set and the players are ready for the World’s biggest and oldest sporting event. A total of 11329 athletes from across the world will be participating this year, this shows the amount of hardwork and determination needed to make the cut. The elite of the elite will make it to the podium and come back as the Nation’s centre of attraction and their names will be carved forever in history. The Indian team will be participating in 18 out of the 33 events in this year’s Tokyo Olympics. A total of 119 athletes will be competing, the most ever for an Indian team.
According to the Gracenote Report, India is expected to bring home 17 medals this time. Our best performance in the Olympics was the 2012 London Olympics where we won 6 medals. This time the number of athletes is more and we have numerous world champions that include Olympic debutants looking to step up onto the podium. The shooting team is expected to bring in a lot of medals as the youngsters have performed exceptionally well in the World Cups.
Billions of aspirations once again will look with hope towards the screens as the players will carry the dreams and pride of the nation once again. We are slowly building up our standards and the players are excelling on the international turf. Every Olympics has paved the way for more athletes and new champions are made in the process. The predictions have a real chance this time to become reality and history can be made in Tokyo if all the right pieces come together to fit in.
Wrestling
Men’s 65 kg freestyle
Bajrang Punia, the freestyle wrestler from Haryana will be making his debut at the Olympics this year. He has had top finishes in the International arena, having won 2 bronze and a silver in the World Championships and winning his second Asian Championship in 2020. He also reached the world number one ranking in the 2018 season where he won four medals across the year. He is known for his stamina and pure strength inside the ring. Punia is already the favourite to win the 65 kg freestyle after his recent podium finishes. Indian wrestlers have had a good outing at the past three Olympics winning medals in each of them. India’s first independent Olympic medal came in wrestling when K.D. Jadhav won the bronze in the Helsinki Olympics in 1952. It will be incredible to see the country’s first wrestling gold in the Tokyo Olympics. His predecessor won the bronze in the 2012 Olympics. The wrestling event starts from the 1st of August.
Women’s 53 kg freestyle
Vinesh Phogat, a probable gold medallist in the Tokyo Olympics secured the first wrestling berth for India in the Tokyo Olympics. She shifted her weight category from 50 kg to 53 kg freestyle two years ago as the former does not feature in the Olympics . This will be her second outing at the Olympics, in Rio she had to be taken in a stretcher after she tore her ACL in the quarterfinal of the 48 kg . This time she will be looking to go all the way, she defeated Rio olympics silver medalist Sofia Mattsson and the then world number one Sarah Hilderbrandt on her way to winning the title. The world number one and Tokyo's top seed can carry through her determination and grid to win the gold for India.
Boxing
Women’s 51kg Category
Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom is one of the finest athletes the amateur boxing world has ever seen. She has won the World Amatuer Boxing Championship six times, the only woman to do so and she is the only boxer to win a record eight championship medals. She has been making India proud since 2001 and has continuously won international medals since then. She was the only female boxer from India in the 2012 Olympics and won the bronze. She has won the Asian Championships five times, she also has the Commonwealth games and Asian Games. The only Gold she is yet to win in her illustrious career is the Olympics. This will be her second Olympics and she has vast experience and is not new to big stages like this. It will be a perfect addition to her trophies and records.
Men’s 52 kg Category
Amit Panghal first came up in the news as he won the National Boxing Championship 2017 in his debut appearance and even more he won the bronze in the 29th edition of Asian Amateur Boxing Championship in Tashkent. The very next year, he made International headlines by winning the silver medal in the Gold Coast Commonwealth games in Australia. Amit also won the oldest international amateur boxing competition in Europe the Strandzha Cup in 2018 and successfully defended it the next year. In 2019, he continued making history by becoming the first Indian boxer to win the silver medal in AIBA world boxing championship. He has been making strides and winning medals every year, the latest being a bronze medal in the Governor’s Cup in Russia. Since he is not new in making history, might as well create history at the Tokyo Olympics by becoming the second male boxer to win a medal in the Olympics.
Archery
Women's individual recurve
Deepika Kumari the world number one is one of the favourites for a podium finish in the Tokyo Olympics. She is one of the finest archers India has ever produced and can create history by bringing the first medal in archery for India at the Olympics. In Olympic news, after missing out on the London Olympics, she now has another chance to aim for an Olympic medal in Tokyo. She has won a total of nine golds, twelve silver medals and seven bronze medals at the World Cup. Kumari recently won Three Gold medals in the World Cup held at Paris a few weeks ago. She is the only female archer from India in this year’s Olympics.
Weightlifting
Women’s 49kg
Mirabai Chanu is the lone female weightlifter from India in this Tokyo Olympics. She aims to become the second weightlifter after Karnam Malleshwari to win an Olympic medal for India. She came into limelight by winning the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. Her biggest win came in 2017 when she won the World Weightlifting Championship in the US. She has the national record in the 49kgs category, she lifted a total of a whopping 205 kgs. She is fourth placed this year in snatch records, she has shown her strength in clean and jerk. Her lifts this year have shown that she has good chances of being in the podium and maybe on the top of the podium.
Interesting Fact : Sushil Kumar is the only Indian athlete to have two Individual Olympic medals. He won the Bronze medal in Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the Silver medal in the 2012 London Olympics at the 66 kg freestyle Wrestling event.
Also read: Indians looking for record podium finishes at the Tokyo Olympics (Part 2)
