- Saturday, November 23, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020 came to an end on Sunday (8) and India signed off as a participant that would be satisfied with its overall show.
The Asian nation started with a bang, tapered off in the middle stage but then raised its level in the finishing days to wrap it up with a major success. India finished the Olympics with a medal haul of seven, the best ever in history which bettered the previous best of six registered at the London Games in 2012.
India saw some unique achievements in this Olympics. While they won a medal in hockey after a gap of 41 years, they also bagged a gold in a track-and-field event. It was after 13 years that India won an individual gold and the first medal in track-and-field after independence.
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Besides, India also won their first silver in weightlifting, the first medal in boxing after nine years while in badminton, they accomplished a hat-trick of medals after the bronze in 2012 and silver in 2016. In fact, India at Tokyo saw the most number of debutants ending up on the podium.
Shuttler PV Sindhu became the first Indian woman to bag two Olympic medals (bronze at Tokyo after silver at Rio in 2016) while Mirabai Chanu and Ravi Kumar Dahiya won silvers in weightlifting and wrestling, respectively. Bajrang Punia also won a bronze in wrestling, Lovlina Borgohain won a bronze in boxing and the icing on the cake was Neeraj Chopra winning the gold in javelin throw on the penultimate day of the Games.
The Indian men’s hockey team won a bronze, which made the Tokyo Games the first ever in which India won medals both in the team and individual sports. The country missed some medals narrowly as the women’s hockey team finished fourth and so did golfer Aditi Ashok.
And all the moments of pride came at an Olympics which was not problem-free. The event had been postponed by a year due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The participants had to wait for a year to keep themselves fit for the medal while for the organisers, the problems were not over even after the Games started this year as the pandemic is still continuing.
There were also moments of disappointment. The 15-member-strong shooting contingent was considered to be favourites to win a medal but it failed miserably and there were issues (like gun malfunctioning) and talks (like ego clashes) that ruined a potential success story. The archery team also failed to win a medal while MC Mary Kom failed to convert her bronze won in 2012 into a gold this time, losing a bout which many considered unfortunate.
Yet, India’s performance at the Tokyo Games was bigger than unprecedented with seven medals. It spoke about confidence, best personified by Chopra who owned the highest podium while the great Johannes Vetter wilted.
Overall, the seeds were sown for India’s Olympic journey at Tokyo. The country is still not there yet but the future certainly looks promising.
We look forward to Paris 2024.
