Sports

OLYMPICS
Olympics | Ancient History | Modern History | India in Olympics | Indian Achievers | 2004 | 2008 | 2012 | 2016

India's Best Olympians

Indians have won totally nine gold medals, eight in Hockey, six of them successively, one gold medal in Shooting, six silver medals ( 2 in Athletics, 2 in Shooting and 1 each in Hockey and Wrestling) and twelve Bronze medals from the Olympics so far.

1900 Paris, France

Winner / Player/ Team

Event

Medal /Achievement

 

Athletics

 

Norman Pritchard

  • 200 m. sprint

  • 200 m hurdles

  • 110 m hurdles

  • Silver Medal

  • Silver Medal

  • 5th place

1920 Antwerp, Belgium

Chugle

Athletics -marathon

  • 19th place

1928 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Hockey team under Captain Jaipal Singh till semifinals and under Vice captain Eric Pinniger in the finals. The team included Dhyan Chand who scored three goals in the last four minutes of the finals to sweep the Indian team to victory.

Hockey

Gold Medal by beating Holland 3 - 0 (India's first ever Olympic gold medal and victory in a world tournament)

 

Athletics

 

  • Mervyn Sutton 

  • M C Dhawan

  • 110m hurdles

  • triple jump

  •  Reached semifinals

  • Cleared 44 feet and 9 ¾ inches

Hockey team under Captain Lal Shah Bokhari. Dhyan Chand (12) and Roop Singh (13) scored the maximum goals during the two  games played against Japan (11-1) and USA (24-1).

Hockey

Gold Medal by beating USA 24-1- the first biggest 

1936 Berlin, Germany

Hockey team under Captain Dhyan Chand. It was to be Dhyan Chand's last Olympic games

Hockey

Gold Medal by beating Germany 8-1 in the finals held on August 15 1936.

Zawweik from Burma

Weight lifting (India's debut)

15th place 75-kg class

1948 London, G. Britain

Hockey team under Captain Kishan Lal

Hockey

Gold Medal by beating Britain 4-0 in the finals (India's first  gold medal as a free country).

Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav. 

Wrestling

6th place in (freestyle/flyweight)

Henry Rebello

Athletics- Triple Jump

He made a new national mark of 50 feet and two inches, but could not participate in finals due to injury.

1952 Helsinki, Finland

Hockey team under Captain Kunwar Digvijay Singh Babu. Balbir Singh scored the maximum goals -9 out of the total goals scored in the three games played.

Hockey

Gold Medal by beating Holland 6-1 in the finals

Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav

Wrestling

Bronze medal-bantamweight freestyle

1956 Melbourne, Autralia

Hockey team under captain Balbir Singh. Udham Singh scored a total of 15 goals, the highest tally by an Indian at an Olympics till that date

Hockey

Gold Medal beating Pakistan 1-0 in the finals ( India's sixth consecutive Olympic gold medal,  a record for any country in any team sport in the Olympics

D Rajagopal

Weight lifting

10th place in plus 90-kg class

1960 Rome, Italy

Milkha Singh

Athletics - 400m sprint

4th place, missed a medal by one-tenth of a second despite a time faster than the then world record

L K Das 

Weight lifting

12th place in the 60-kg section.

Hockey team under captain Leslie Claudius

Hockey 

Silver Medal, Pakistan beat India 0-1 in the final.

1964 Tokyo, Japan

Hockey team under Captain Charanjit Singh. Shankar Lakshman, Indian goalkeeper who saved India from defeat was justifiably awarded 'Man of the match'.

Hockey

Gold Medal in a narrow win beating Pakistan 1-0 in the finals

Dr Karni Singh the erstwhile Maharaja of Bikaner

Shooting

Bronze medal

Gurbachan Singh Randhawa

Athletics 110m hurdles

Fifth place

M L Ghosh 
L K Das 

Weight lifting

14th place - 56kg class
13th place - 60kg event

1968 Mexico city, Mexico

Hockey team under Captains Prithipal & Gurbux Singh

Hockey 

Bronze Medal with Pakistan winning the gold and Australia the silver medal.

1972 Munich, W. Germany

Hockey team under Captain Harmeek Singh

Hockey

Bronze Medal with Germany winning the gold and Pakistan the silver medal

Anil Mondal 

Weight lifting 

Placed 12th in the 52-kg category

1976 Montreal, Canada

Sriram Singh

Athletics- 800m final 

Seventh place

1980 Moscow, USSR

Hockey team under Captain Vasudevan Bhaskaran

Hockey

Gold Medal after 16 years by winning over Spain 4-3 in the finals

1984 Los Angeles , USA

P.T Usha

Athletics- 400m hurdles

Lost the bronze medal by 1/100th of a second

P.T.Usha, M.D.Valsamma, Vandana Rao, Shiny Abraham

Athletics- 4 X 400 m Women's relay

7th place

Mahendran

Weight Lifting

10th in the 52-kg class

1992 Barcelona, Spain

Deepankar Bhattacharya

Badminton

Made it to the second round lost to top seeded Chinese player in the second round.

Adhishekar 

Weight Lifting

Placed 12th in the 52-kg event

Leander Paes and Ramesh

Tennis

Reached the quarterfinals of the doubles narrowly missing the bronze

1996 Atlanta, USA

Leander Paes

Tennis

Bronze medal

2000 Sydney, Australia

Karnam Malleswari

Weight Lifting

Bronze Medal in 69kg category

2004 Athens

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore Shooting Silver Men's double trap

2008 Beijing

Abhinav bindra Shooting Gold Men's 10 m Air Rifle
Vijender Singh Boxing Bronze Men's 75 kg
Sushil Kumar Wrestling Bronze Men's 66 kg Freestyle

2012 London

Vijay Kumar Shooting Silver Men's 25 Rapid Fire pistol
Sushil Kumar Wrestling Silver Men's 66 kg Freestyle
Saina Nehwal Badminton Bronze Women's singles
Mary Kom Boxing Bronze Women's flyweight
Gagan Narang Shooting Bronze Men's 10 m Air Rifle
Yogeshwar Dutt Wrestling Bronze Men's 60 kg Freestyle