India Turns 78: A Look At India's Remarkable Sporting Feats Over The Years

India's journey in the Paris Olympics was not as per what the fans would have expected as the contingent of 117 athletes came back with just 6 Olympic medals but, there have been some of the iconic moments in Indian sporting history that were embarked with sheer excellence and went above limits. As India steps into its 78th year of Independence, Here's a look at some of the monumental sporting achievements in independent India's history.

KD Jadhav, Independent India's first Olympic medalist. Winning a bronze in wrestling at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Jadhav was a star of his time, revered by many. After winning the Bronze Medal, Jadhav's arrival back to India was met with great pride and celebration as excited fans extended a 15-minute trip into a seven-hour festivity.I

From 1948 to 1964, the Indian Men's Hockey team reached five consecutive finals; winning four. While the victories in the 1948, 1952 and 1956 Olympic games came flawlessly, the Indian team lost the final in 1960 against Pakistan but avenged their loss by clinching the gold medal again in 1964.

With the guidance of the renowned Syed Abdul Rahim, India's iconic football coach, the Blue Tigers achieved gold medal triumphs at the Asian Games in 1951 and 1962. During the same period, India also became the first Asian side to secure 4th position in Melbourne Olympics. Winning a gold medal during the Asian Games in 1962 was the Indian football team's last biggest glory on the international stage.

Viswanathan Anand emerged as India's inaugural grandmaster after winning the Shakti Finance International chess tournament. An achievement worth mentioning from this competition was his victory over Russian grandmaster Efim Geller. For his remarkable achievement, Viswanathan Anand was awarded Padma Shri at age 18.

The French Open 1999 marked a significant moment for Indian tennis when Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi made history by becoming the first Indian duo to win a Grand Slam title. Shortly after that, Bhupathi and Paes won their second Grand Slam at Wimbledon after being behind in the first set. This laid the foundation of Indian tennis for the generations to come. Additionally, it is important to remember that Leander Paes also secured a bronze medal for India in men's singles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, becoming the first Asian to achieve this feat in Olympic tennis history and remains the only Indian to do so until now.

Abhinav Bindra made history by becoming the first Indian to win a gold medal in an individual sport at the Olympics. Bindra achieved a gold medal in the men's 10-metre air rifle shooting event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. With the scores level going into the last round, Bindra scored a near-perfect 10.8 on his final shot against Finland's Henri Häkkinen, who scored 9.7 to script history as India's first individual Gold medalist at the Olympics.

Neeraj Chopra made history by winning a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This moment by Neeraj Chopra was historic because no Indian athlete had won an Olympic medal ever in Track & field events. The Javelin, thrown by the 23-year-old, pierced the sky and reached 87.58m for first place. Chopra doubled his feat by clinching a silver medal in the recently concluded Paris Olympics and joined the elite list of Indians who had won double Olympic medals such as Sushil Kumar, PV Sindhu and Manu Bhaker.

With a population of more than 1.4 billion people, these achievements might seem quite low in numbers. But, looking at various sporting facilities and schemes being launched in recent years, It can be said, that We, as a nation, are on the right track towards becoming a sporting nation like the USA.