Rounding Up Tokyo 2020: A look at India’s most successful Olympic campaign
The Tokyo 2020 journey for India has not been an easy one. What started off with Mirabai Chanu’s Silver, seemed to fizzle out as the days progressed, as expected medals from the Shooting and Archery contingents fell through. However, Neeraj Chopra’s Gold on the very last day created history and in the process, seemed to heal all wounds. All was forgotten, and Tokyo 2020 eventually was branded a success. And therefore, in the spirit of letting go and celebrating the wins, let us take a look at Tokyo 2020 for India — the success version.
The dispatch begins, unsurprisingly, with 23-year old Neeraj Chopra’s gleaming Gold. On Saturday, Chopra won a historic Gold, India’s first medal in a track and field event in over 100 years or — depending on how you quantify a ‘nation’ — India’s first overall. (Norman Pritchard, a British-Indian won silver in Athletics at the 1900 Paris Olympics). Ravi Kumar Dahiya emerged as somewhat of a surprise in India’s star-studded wrestling contingent, as he comes home with a hard-earned Silver, defeating the Luis Suarez of Wrestling, Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev in the semis. A Silver was expected from Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, and a Silver she delivered, setting the stage for India’s campaign with her victory in the Women’s 49 kg Weightlifting event.
An Olympic of emotions, Tokyo ended up being the ground where India ended its hockey drought. After a long wait of 41 years, the Indian team won an Olympic Medal — Bronze in Men’s Field Hockey, in an extremely closely contested third-place match against Germany. More importantly, they lent a much-needed boost to the Indian efforts at a crucial stage in the games, when the Indian campaign had come to a staggering halt. P.V. Sindhu became the first Indian woman to medal at successive Olympics as the Badminton star also won Bronze.
If Dipa Karmakar and her Produnova Vault was the heartbreak story of Rio 2016, Aditi Ashok’s phenomenal performance in Golf was that story for 2020. Ranked 200, Ashok stunned players and commentators alike as she outperformed her competition to stand at second place at the end of four rounds. Playing for Silver for a large part of the tournament, she eventually slipped to fourth place in the last round. The Women’s Hockey Team, which at one point looked to be living the script of Chak De! India also finished fourth in the tournament. Defeating Australia, who up till that point had remained undefeated in this Olympics in the quarter-finals, they pulled off what was undoubtedly the biggest upset of the hockey season. Their fourth-place finish, however, still remains the best performance by the women’s team in the Olympics. In a lot of ways, the Tokyo Olympics have been historic for India in athletes beyond Chopra. Some of our athletes may not have ended up on the podium, but have become a part of Indian sporting history nonetheless.
As the days pass, various sporting authorities will go back to their drawing board and figure out the things that went wrong. And there was a lot that did go wrong. The Shooters had a disappointing week, and so did the Archers. The Wrestling contingent, despite winning the most number of medals did not match its own potential. But perhaps for a day or two more, we can let the enormity of what the Tokyo Contingent has achieved take over, and bask in all of its golden glory.
