Indian Olympic Quest

India was the first colonized Asian nation to take part in the Olympics, beginning in 1900, with Norman Pritchard as the lone athlete, who won two medals in athletics. From the very beginning participation in the games has been linked to the formation of the country’s nationalist identity.

Then after a gap of 20 years India again participated with three athletes in 1920 Antwerp Olympics and with eight members in 1924 Paris Olympics. The credit for this rests with Sir Dorabji Tata for starting the Olympic movement in the country who sent three runners to the Antwerp Games in 1920 at his expense.

Since then India has participated in every Summer Games and also competed at several Winter Olympic Games since 1964. But the more organised, official representation by India, was made in 1928 Amsterdam, with the formation of Indian Olympic Association in 1927 with Dorab Tata as its first president. That year, Indian Hockey team participated in their first Olympic hockey event and won the gold medal under the captaincy of Jaipal Singh.

 

Pic1: Dhyan Chand scoring a goal in the 1936 Berlin Olympic hockey final
Pic2: Dhyan Chand in India vs. France in the 1936 Berlin Olympic semi-finals. India won 10-0.

For the next 6 successive Olympics spanning 28 years from 1928-1956, Indians retained their gold medal for the hockey event. Hockey wizard Dhyan Chand played a major role in Indian victory in the first three successive wins. It was definitely the golden era of Indian Hockey in Olympics, during which India played 24 matches and won all 24, scored 178 goals (at an average of 7.43 goals per match) and conceded only 7 goals. India again won two more gold medals in Olympic hockey in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1980 Moscow Olympics with a total of eleven medals in twelve Olympiads between 1926 and 1980.

 

Pic1: Milkha Singh (second from the left) in the 1960 Rome Olympic athletics final
Pic2: PT Usha (centre) in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic athletics final


Another event in which Indians has left a mark is the athletics, where they have reached the finals of their events in different editions of the Olympics with the likes of Norman Pritchard in 1900 (two silvers in sprint and hurdles), Henry Rebello in 1948 London, Milkha Singh 1960 Rome, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, Sriram singh in 1976 Montreal and P.T Usha in 1984 Los Angeles, to name a few.

 

Pic1: Leander Paes with Bronze medal in 1996 Atlanta Olympic for tennis singles.
Pic2: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore with Silver medal in 2004 Athens Olympics for shooting.

The Beijing Olympics proved to be one of the most successful Olympics for India after a long time. India registered its first Gold Medal in the Olympics here and after 1952 India won more than two medals on the same edition once again. This edition saw its first ever individual Gold Medal by shooter Abhinav Bindra. It also saw three individual medals for the first time by wrestler Sushil Kumar and boxer Vijender Kumar providing the Bronze Medals and Abhinav Bindra, the gold.

You can watch the video of Abhinav Bindra getting Gold medal in Beijing Olympics.

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Players like hockey wizard Dhyan Chand, the flying sikh Milkha Singh, P T Usha, women with the golden legs and the more recent medal winners such as Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Leander Paes and the master with a golden eye Abhinav Bindra have made a mark in the different editions of the Olympics for India and will be remembered for a long long time.

In an effort to churn out more superstars, Indian sporting icons Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone  have started the Olympics Olympic Gold Quest program to identify and support Indian athletes with a proven track record and who have the potential to win Olympic gold medals. In 2010 Leander Paes and Vishwanathan Anand also joined the Board of Directors. Olympic Gold Quest presently supports 21 athletes in the four disciplines of athletics, badminton, boxing and shooting.

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