London 2012 was a dream for India. Our nation won six medals there. India found itself between Uganda and Mongolia in the final medal tally. Rio Olympics 2016 will take place from August 5 to 21. It is already gearing up for what could be one of the most controversy ridden games ever. Brazil’s political chaos has put a question mark on the game. 50% of Brazilians are against the Olympics.
India is ready to send its largest ever contingent to Rio — 121 athletes in all. The medal hopes are in shooting, wrestling, boxing, archery and, well, men’s hockey. Vikas Yadav, Shiva Thapa and Manoj Kumar have knocked out the odds and have made it to Rio with high hopes. Deepika Kumari promises to aim for gold. Saina Nehwal in badminton and Sania Mirza in tennis could well convert their international stardom to some medals for a restless nation. The Indian sporting enthusiast whose passion is second to none and whose patience is wearing thin — will hope it is indeed a brave new world that is awaiting the 121 we are flying into Brazil.
India are the most successful side in Olympic field hockey (men) with 8 medals. However, the last of the gold medal came way back in 1980 and in the last three decades, Indian hockey hit a barren patch, even failing to qualify for the Beijing Games in 2008 and hitting an all-time nadir. However, in the last two years, there has been a revival of Indian hockey. The Asian Games gold medal and two medals in FIH event, (which included silver at Champions Trophy) have lifted the sport.
India has a settled team with world class players such as captain goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, defender Sardara Singh, and quality dragflickers like Raghunath and Sunil. India enter the Rio Olympics as dark horses. India will have to bring out their A game to break the hockey medal drought.
Saina Nehwal, already an Olympic Bronze medallist at London will be aiming to become the second Indian athlete after Sushil Prasad to win two individual Olympic medal, Saina has been seeded fifth at the Olympic, but as recent results in the World Series tournament suggests, it is too early to call somebody a clear favourite in the women’s singles draw.
Saina’s main rivals will be the top seed Spaniard Carolina Marlin, the second and third seed Chinese Wang Yihan and Lei Xuerei and the very dangerous Thai Ratchanok Intachon. PV Sindhu is seeded 9th and came be a dangerous opponent on her day.
In Boxing, India has three boxers to compete in Olympic boxing. Shiva Thapa will compete in the bantamweight category, Manoj Kumar in light welterweight, and Vikas Krishna Yadav in middleweight. Indian contingent has high hopes from Thapa, ranked third in the bantamweight category. Thapa was a gold medallist at 2014 Asian Games. Vikas Krishna Yadav and Manoj Kumar too are capable medal contenders.
Deepika Kumari has achieved a lot of success but somehow has been disappointing at the Olympics. She will compete in the Women’s team event with Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi. In the recent stages of the Archery World Cup, there were a few occasions when Indian archers qualified for the medal’s match, but faltered when it mattered. Indian archers will face tough competition from South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Mexico and must hold their nerves in critical medals matches.
Yogeshwar Dutt, competing in the 65kg men’s event is without doubt the biggest Indian medal hope in Rio. He won the bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Men’s 60kg Freestyle wrestling and this time hopes to go better, aiming for gold. In the women’s draw, Vinesh Phogat qualified for the 2016 Olympics by winning gold medal in the 2nd Worldwide Qualifier tournament held in Istanbul, Turkey in May, 2016, and is a medal contender in the 48kg event.
India has won at least one medal in shooting since the 2004 Olympics. India’s medal hopes rest on Abhinav Bindra (10m air rifle), Jitu Rai (10m air pistol, 50m pistol), Gagan Narang (10m air rifle, 50m rifle prone, and 50m rifle 3 positions), and Manavjeet Sandhu (Trap). Shooting is one sport where India can bring more than one medal.