The 2024 Paris Olympics are here and India’s 117 best athletes have either reached the French capital or are on their way. While their events are different, schedules are different, but they have one thing in common – all 117 of them have their eyes set on the medal. India head into the 2024 Paris Games on the back of seven medals from Tokyo edition.
The Indian athletes have been making headlines of late and had a record medal haul in the Asian Games 2023. While the athletes train hard for some of the most important days in the sporting history ahead, let’s go through India’s performance in the 2008 edition of the quadrennial tournament held in Beijing.
Indian medal winners at 2008 Beijing Olympics
Abhinav Bindra – Gold (Shooting)
Indian legendary rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra recorded India’s first individual gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in the 10m air rifle. A two-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist, Bindra narrowly made a cut through the qualifying round. However, in the final, Bindra took the command and didn’t let his score drop below 10 in any of the rounds. His final score stood at 700.5, beating Athens 2004 gold medalist Qinan Zhu.
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Vijender Singh – Bronze (Boxing)
Nine days after Bindra won India’s first individual gold, Vijender Singh picked a bronze for the nation in the middleweight category. In the quarterfinal, Singh took down Carlos Gongora of Ecuador 9-4, and assured India its first boxing Olympic medal. In the semifinal, Singh could not make his way past Emilio Correa and lost 5-8 to Cuban.
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Sushil Kumar – Bronze (Wrestling)
Sushil Kumar, a 2006 Asian Games bronze medalist further extended India’s medal tally at the global sporting spectacle by winning the first wrestling medal in 56 years. Kumar made a solid comeback in the tournament after losing to Ukraine’s Anrdiy Stadnik in the opening round of the 66kg freestyle wrestling. Kumar defeated Kazakhstan’s Leonid Spiridonov 3-1 and won another bronze on the same day as Vijender Singh.
