On 26 July, a contingent of India’s top athletes led by badminton superstar PV Sindhu and table tennis ace Sharath Kamal, will for the first time in Summer Olympics history, parade on one of a hundred boats down a 6-kilometer stretch of the Seine River as part of the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony. Paris being the fashion capital of the world, the Indian Olympic Association has pulled out all the stops, fitting its athletes in tricolour uniforms designed by Tarun Tahiliani, one of India’s leading fashion designers.
The sportsmen of Team India will be seen in their kurta bundi, crafted from lightweight moss cotton, ensuring breathability and comfort, whilst the sportswomen will be draped in a sari, a symbol of grace and cultural identity, which has been re-imagined in viscose crepe for a natural drape and paired with a high-neck blouse.
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While India’s performance has been less than dominant, India’s representation at the Summer Olympics over the past few editions has steadily increased, and at Tokyo 2020, the Indian contingent was made up of 124 athletes, the largest that India has ever sent.
Since the Paris 1900 Summer Olympics, India has won a total of 35 medals. Medals have been awarded to India for its dominance in Hockey, as well as a wide range of individuals sports such as shooting, wrestling, weightlifting, and badminton. In Tokyo 2020, India achieved its highest medal count of seven (7) and its first ever track and field Olympic gold medal through Neeraj Chopra’s stellar performance in javelin.
Paris 2024 could be India’s best medal haul at the Summer Olympics.
What can we expect from India at Paris 2024?
Track and Field – Neeraj Chopra is a potential medallist for Javelin; he seldom disappoints, winning medals and setting new records with staggering consistency. He won gold at the 2023 IAAF World Athletics Championships in the men’s javelin event with a best throw of 88.17m and will also be looking to defend his gold medal from Tokyo 2020. Chopra will first appear during the qualifying stages on 6 August and make a reappearance in the javelin finals on 9 August at 04:25 (AEST).
Neeraj Chopra will be part of the 30-member track and field team representing India, which also includes three athletes making their Olympic debut at Paris 2024 – hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, shot putter Abha Khatua and steeplechaser Parul Chaudhary. India’s athletes will first make an appearance on Day 1 of the track and field program, in the 20km race walk, represented by Priyanka Goswami, Akshdeep Singh, Vikas Singh and Paramjeet Bisht.
India’s 4 x 400m Men’s and Women’s teams secured their spot at Paris 2024 courtesy of their performances at the World Athletics Relays Championship Bahamas 2024. While their qualifying times puts them out of the running for medals, the quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal and Rajesh Ramesh hold the existing Indian men’s national record of 2:59.05 in the event and the standing Asian record. Meanwhile, India’s 4x400m Women’s relay team fronted by Vithya Ramraj, MR Poovamma, Rupal and Prachi Choudhary will be looking to better their Asian Relay Championships 2024 time of 3:33.55 seconds.
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Hockey – India, world No. 3 in the latest FIH men’s rankings, will be the second-best ranked hockey team in their pool after world No. 2 and reigning champions Belgium. Australia, Argentina, Ireland and New Zealand are the other four teams joining India in Pool B at Paris 2024. The Indian men’s hockey team, led by Harmanpreet Singh, will be looking to level up their Tokyo 2020 results, having finished with a historic bronze medal, the team’s first Olympic medal in hockey after a 41-year gap. Based on current rankings and Tokyo 2020 results, the Indian men’s hockey team are potential contenders for a medal.
India should secure the win in their opening match against New Zealand on 28 July at 01:30 (AEST), and will need to immediately back this up in what will be a challenging contest against Argentina on 29 July at 20:45 (AEST). A win against Ireland should provide India the momentum needed to take on their toughest matches of Pool B against Belgium and Australia respectively. India’s journey to the podium will undoubtedly be hard fought, penalty corner conversions will be key and supporters should expect to see the team playing on 8 August.
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Badminton – PV Sindhu is the youngest Olympic medallist India has produced. When the Indian badminton star won the first of her two Olympic medals, a women’s singles silver at Rio 2016, she was just 21 years 1 month and 14 days old. At the time of her bronze medal triumph at Tokyo 2020, which made her the first and only Indian woman to date to win multiple Olympic medals, PV Sindhu had just turned 26.
PV Sindhu will be at Paris 2024, returning for her third Olympic Games and will be one of seven shuttlers representing India. Having secured a silver and bronze in her previous Olympic appearances, PV Sindhu will be determined to add the elusive gold medal to her collection.
Weightlifting – India won its first weightlifting medal at the Olympics in Sydney 2000 from the performance of Karnam Malleswari, securing a bronze medal. Twenty years later, Mirabai Chanu won silver at Tokyo 2020, bringing home India’s second Olympic weightlifting medal, the second Indian woman after PV Sindhu to win an Olympic silver medal. From lifting firewood as a kid to being elevated onto international podiums, Mirabai Chanu’s story is remarkable. As India’s solitary entry in weightlifting at Paris 2024, she will be carrying the weight of a nation on 8 August at 03:30 (AEST), hopefully securing India’s third and first ever Olympic weightlifting gold medal.
Wrestling – Indian wrestlers have delivered a medal every single time at the Olympics since the 2008 Beijing, and wrestling is India’s second-most successful sport at the Summer Olympics after hockey. India’s best chance for a medal will come from Antim Panghal (Women’s 53kg) and Aman Sehrawat (Men’s 57kg), both have been seeded fourth and sixth in their respective weight categories for the Paris 2024 wrestling competition which gets underway from 5 August. The remaining four Indian wrestlers – Vinesh Phogat (Women’s 50kg), Anshu Malik (Women’s 57kg), Nisha Dahiya (Women’s 68kg) and Reetika Hooda (Women’s 76kg) will be unseeded at Paris 2024. They will be randomly drawn into brackets the day before the women’s freestyle wrestling begins in Paris.
Boxing – India have won three bronze medals so far at the Summer Olympics. Lovelina Borgohain (Women’s 75kg) won India’s third bronze at Tokyo 2020 and will be attempting to become only the third Indian and second woman from the country to win back-to-back Olympic medals.
However, all eyes will be on two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen. Fuelled by a strong desire to challenge stereotypes and societal norms, Zareen took up boxing as a 13-year-old and is India’s best chance for a first-ever boxing gold in the Women’s 50kg.
Borgohain and Zareen will be joined in Paris by Preeti Pawar (Women’s 54kg) Jaismine Lamboria (Women’s 57kg), World Championships bronze medallist Nishant Dev (Men’s 71Kg) and Commonwealth Games champion Amit Panghal (Men’s 51kg).
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Shooting – A 21-member Indian shooting team will compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics. This will be India’s largest-ever shooting contingent at the Olympics, eclipsing the 15 from Tokyo 2020. Spearheading India’s campaign to end its medal drought will be 22-year-old shooting sensation from Punjab, Sift Kaur Samra (Women’s 50m rifle 3 positions) and Sarabjot Singh (Men’s 10m air pistol).
India will also be represented in Archery, Sailing, Equestrian, Table Tennis, Rowing, Tennis, Golf, Judo, and Swimming.
To follow India at the Olympics, an India-focused channel is being delivered by Viacom 18 and for Australia’s India diaspora this can be streamed exclusively from Stan Sport.
Indian Olympic – Fun Facts:
- Although India had a single representative in Paris in 1900, Tokyo 2020 marked 100 years since India sent their first official contingent to an Olympics at the Antwerp 1920 Games.
- India has won 35 medals at the Olympics since the 1900 summer games.
- Indian has won a total of 10 gold medals at the Olympics – the men’s hockey team itself accounts for eight of them. Abhinav Bindra for Shooting in Beijing 2008 and Neeraj Chopra round out the remainder.
- The Indian Hockey team won India’s first ever gold medal at the Amsterdam 1928 games, and since then India has won a record eight gold medals in hockey, six of which were consecutive (1928 – 1956).
- Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav was India’s first individual Olympic medallist, winning bronze at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki for wrestling.
- India has won seven Olympic medals in wrestling, and since Beijing 2008 India have won at least one wrestling medal in each of the last four Olympics – Sushil Kumar in men’s freestyle 66kg (2008, 2012), Yogeshwar Dutt in men’s freestyle 60kg (2012), Sakshi Malik in women’s freestyle 58kg (2016), Ravi Kumar Dahiya in men’s freestyle 57kg (2020), and Bajrang Punia in men’s freestyle 65kg (2020).
- Neeraj Chopra was India’s first ever track and field Olympic gold medallist – winning the javelin event with a throw of 87.58 meters.
- PV Sindhu is the youngest Olympic medallist India has produced, being 21 years 1 month and 14 days old when she won the silver medal in the women’s Badminton at Rio 2016.
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