What an eventful last 16 days the sporting world witnessed. There were some setbacks, some upsets, some champions continuing their dominance, while new champions coming to the fore. There was a lot of expectation this time around as the country was sending its largest-ever contingent with some of the names that had proven themselves at the world stage, overall India did not disappoint and bagged as many as seven medals.
While it could be argued that India could have performed even better, let's keep that discussion for another day. For now, the country could be proud of its efforts, having bettered their previous best tally of London 2012 where they had achieved six medals.
While India did not have a gold medal tally till the very end, it did get something to reflect on the tally by the time Olympics got over. With that medal gold at Tokyo 2020, India have now taken their overall gold medal tally to double digits.
It was India's fast track and field star in decades, Neeraj Chopra, who won a historic gold in the men's javelin throw finals with a best throw of 87.58 m. While Chopra's gold was the first in athletics for India in over 100 years, it was also the second individual gold after Abhinav Bindra's medal in 2008. With this, India wrapped up the country’s best-ever Olympics performance.
India ends Tokyo 2020 at the 48th position
As far as the final standings are concerned, India ended their Tokyo 2020 at a much-better 48th position. It was Chopra's gold that drastically improved India's ranking which was in the sixties, prior to the javelin thrower's effort. This also makes this the country's best-ever performance in the 21st century.
While India had finished Syndey 2000 at the 71st position, they improved those rankings in the subsequent two games as they finished 65th at Athens 2004 and 50th 2008. Meanwhile, despite bagging six medals, India finished 55th in London in 2012 since there was no gold medal. Rio 2016 also ended without gold and India ended 67th. However, at Tokyo 2020, India has taken a jump and stand at the 48th position.
Here is the list of all the gold medals that India have won in their Olympic history:
Gold Medal number | Name of Athlete/Team | Discipline | Year |
1 | Indian men’s hockey team | Field Hockey | 1928 |
2 | Indian men’s hockey team | Field Hockey | 1932 |
3 | Indian men’s hockey team | Field Hockey | 1936 |
4 | Indian men’s hockey team | Field Hockey | 1948 |
5 | Indian men’s hockey team | Field Hockey | 1952 |
6 | Indian men’s hockey team | Field Hockey | 1956 |
7 | Indian men’s hockey team | Field Hockey | 1964 |
8 | Indian men’s hockey team | Field Hockey | 1980 |
9 | Abhinav Bindra | 10m air rifle shooting | 2008 |
10 | Neeraj Chopra | Men’s Javelin throw final | 2021 |