India's top medal hopes at the Tokyo Olympics
Here are the eight athletes and one team that we think are India’s top medal contenders. We will be tracking them closely through the two months leading up to the Games in Japan
AMIT PANGHAL
In a short span of three years, Panghal has gone from rookie boxer to world beater and top Olympics contender. He has not looked back since beating Rio Olympics champion Hasanboy Dusmatov (light flyweight) in the 2018 Asian Games final, after two earlier defeats. He had to move to flyweight division (52kg) for Olympic qualification in 2019 and again beat Dusmatov at the Asian Championships. But his biggest triumph was winning a silver medal at the world championships—a first for Indian boxing. An intelligent and fast boxer, he thrives on counter-attacks and close-in fighting.
MC MARY KOM
Six-time world champion and London Olympics bronze medallist, Mary Kom still has the hunger and guile to win a second Olympic medal. With her vast experience, the 38-year-old can never be counted out. She has dominated the light flyweight division but had to move to flyweight for the Olympics. A bronze at the 2019 world championships has kept
her afloat.
PV SINDHU
The reigning badminton world champion, Sindhu has been amazingly consistent in major badminton tournaments. She won a silver at the Rio Olympics and has since made the finals of all three world championships (2017-2019). She is a big-match player with an all-round game and ability to lift herself in crunch moments.
SAURABH CHAUDHARY
As a 19-year-old, he has bagged 10 World Cup medals, including eight gold, shot world record scores in 10m air pistol, and is currently world No 2. Add to it the Asian Games gold. His combination with another prodigy, Manu Bhaker, make them the favourites in the new mixed team format as well. The pair has not lost in the last two years.
ELAVENIL VALARIVAN
Mentored by Gagan Narang, she has made it to the Tokyo team due to her consistency at the world stage, replacing quota winner Anjum Moudgil in the 10m air rifle individual event. She is the world No.1 and won gold in two World Cups in 2019. A rising star on a hot streak at the right time.
BAJRANG PUNIA
World No.1 in 65kg, Punia thrives on the big stage. He has consistently won medals at major events in the last three years, including gold at the 2018 Asian Games, CWG and silver and bronze at successive Worlds (2018, 2019). He is a complete wrestler—with speed, agility and power and an ability to fight back from nearly hopeless situations.
VINESH PHOGAT
After her Rio disappointment, she has made a stunning comeback, winning gold at the 2018 Asian Games and CWG and a bronze at the 2019 World Championships after shifting up in weight class. Currently the world No. 1 in 53kg, she is on a hot streak with gold medals in her last three events in Kiev, Rome and the Asian Championships. She will benefit from North Korea’s withdrawal as ion Pak Yong there.
NEERAJ CHOPRA
Having burst on the scene in 2016 with a junior world title, the javelin thrower, India’s first global track & field star in decades, has had a poor build up. Laid low by an elbow injury in 2019 and trapped by Covid restrictions in 2020-21, he has competed in just one international in two years. Yet he remains one of the world’s top throwers, and with a 88.06 metre throw that won him the 2018 Asian Games gold and a 88.07 m throw at Indian GP this year, he is inching closer to that elusive 90 m mark that only one man in the world hits right now.
MEN’S HOCKEY TEAM
Indian hockey loves its good old story of hope. So here we are again, riding that same wave, for a long-awaited Olympic medal. After ending 8th in Rio, the Manpreet Singh-led (pic) men have done precious little in major events since: they missed out on a medal at the 2018 CWG after losing to New Zealand in the semis, settled for bronze at the Asian Games and crashed out in the quarters of the World Cup to Netherlands the same year. Under new coach Graham Reid, however, the team has shown promise, beating Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Argentina and Germany over the last couple of years. But whether they can do it under pressure at the biggest stage, remains be .
Travelling the world during the pandemic
Ever since the Tokyo Olympics got deferred by a year due to the pandemic, India’s athletes, like most around the world, have had an unprecedented lead up to the Games. They have had to contend with a range of new experiences—locked up at home or inside training campuses; travelling in anxiety and full PPE for competitions; escaping from other countries as they went into lockdown; quarantining wherever they went; dealing with the stress of cancelled events and suffering from Covid-19 themselves. Now, with two months left, we take a look at where India’s athletes are based right now and the places they have been to in the last few months, braving all kinds of uncertainties to prepare for Tokyo.