Category: Sports

Olympics 2021: India (4,5,6,7th Aug)

4th August2021 – Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh (Javelin Throw), Lovlina Borgohain (Boxing), Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar (Golf), Indian hockey Hockey Team (Women), Rahi Kumar Dahiya and Anshu Malik ( Wrestling).

5th August 2021: Havildar Irfan Kolothum Thodi, Sandeep Kumar, Rahul Rohilla ( Men’s 20km walk ), Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar (Golf), Indian Men’s Hockey Team, Ravi Kumar(Finals), Deepak Punia(Bronze match), Vinesh Phogat and Anshu Malik(Wrestling).

6th August 2021: Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar (Golf), Gurpreet Singh(50km walk), Bhawna Jat and Priyanka Goswami (Women’s 20km Walk Finals), Anas, A. Jacob, N.N. Tom, N. Pandi ( Men’s 4x400m relay ), indian women’s hockey team, Bajrang Punia and Seema Bisla (Wrestling)

7th August 2021: Neeraj Chopra(Javelin Throw FINAL), Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar (Golf FINALS), Bajrang Punia (Wrestling Bronze Match)

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Athletics

Men’s javelin throw

Neeraj Chopra bagged First position by throwing at a distance of 86.65m in Qualifications of Group A.  

The first javelin thrower to enter an Olympic final and also the first to finish on top of the qualification round. 

Shivpal Singh secured 12th in the Group B Qualifications. But, only Top 8 qualify for the seccon round.

Neeraja Chopra to compete in The finals on 7th August at 4:30pm.

Subedar (Indian Army Rank) Neeraj Chopra created history by winning Gold Medal in Athletics.

Men’s 20km walk

Sandeep Kumar came 23rd in the 20km finals on 5th August. Massimo Stano from Italy bagged 1st position.

Men’s 50km Walk

Gurpreet Singh failed to complete 50km walk. He tagged out after 35km by putting up a good fight.

Women‘s 20km walk finals

Bhawna Jat and Priyanka Goswami will be competing on 6th August in the finals of 20km Walk. Priyanka complete the competition and ranked 17th.

Men’s 4x400m relay

A. Rajiv, M. Anas, A. Jacob, N.N. Tom, N. Pandi will be competing on 6th august at 5pm. India fought till the end and missed the 3rd pace by mere mere seconds failing to qualify for finals.

Boxing

Women’s welterweight

Busenaz Surmeneli gave Lovlina Borgohain a tough fight in the Semi-Finals. B. Surmeneli won by the scores as 5-0.

Lovlina Borgohain fought for the Bronze Medal and won it.

Golf

Women’s individual

Aditi Ashok had an excellent start as she finished Round 1 in second position and Diksha Secured 56th position.

Aditi Ashok fabulously played and came second in the round 2 on 5th August and Diksha secured 53rd position.

On 6th August she continued her lead and went into next round by securing 2nd position and Diksha Dagar secured 51th position.

Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar will be competing in finals on 7th August at 3am.

Aditi Ashok had a great lead throughout the Match. But, she slipped to 4th position at the eleventh hour. Yet, Aditi Ashok has paved a way for Indian Golfers by reaching finals and remaining in top5 through and through.

Hockey

Women’s tournament

A grueling match between Argentina and India at the Semi- Finals today. It ended with Argentina scoring 2-1 to enter the Finals.

On 6th August, India played against Great Britain for the Bronze medal match.. India put up a brave fight but went down to Britain by marginal scores of 4-3.

Men’s Tournament

Indian Men’s Tournament will be fighting for the Bronze Medal against Germany team on 5th August at am. India won Bronze Medal.

Wrestling

Men’s freestyle 57kg

Ravi Kumar Dahiya wrestled amazingly through 1/8th Finals, 1/4th Finals and Semi- Finals and entered finals at Multiple rounds today – 4th Aug.

Ravi Kumar vs Zaur Uguev will be putting on a wrestle for the Gold Medal on 5th August. It was nail-biting and split decision match. Zaur Uguev won Gold medal and Ravi Kumar won Silver Medal.

Men’s freestyle 86kg

Deepak Kumar lost to David Taylor Iii in semi-finals on 4th aug.

D. Kumar vs Myles Amine on 5th August will be wrestling for the Bronze Medal. The match was grueling from the start. By mere seconds, Myles won the Bronze Medal.

Women’s freestyle 53kg

Vinesh Phogat Vs Sofia Mattsson for 1/8th finals on 5th august. Vinesh Phogat won the 1/8th match and went for the 1/4th match. Wherein she wrestled against Vanesa Kaladzinskaya. Vanesa Won the 1/4th match by fall.

Women’s freestyle 57kg

Iryna Kurachkina from Belarus defeated Anshu Malik in 1/8th Finals with scores 8-2.

Anshu malik vs Koblova Valeria in Repechage round 2 on 5th August. Valeria won this round with scores 5-1.

Men’s freestyle 65kg

Bajrang Punia wrestled his through multiple matches against Iran and Kyrgyzstan to enter the semi-finals of multiple matches on 6th August.

He will be wrestling against Haji Aliyev from Azerbaijan in the semi-finals.He barely slipped through the crack and lost to his opponent.

Bajrang Punia won the bronze Medal in his match against Daulet Niyazbekov, Kazakhstan.

Women’s freestyle 50kg

Sarra Hamdi from Tunisia defeated Seema Bisla in the 1/8th finals.

why is china so successful in olympics ?

In terms of athletes from a young age, training hard, and often away from families to go to training centers, this is true, but one needs to understand the context within China, the opportunities that present to these athletes (pay, education, better life), and these athletes’ background (from low socioeconomic families), before passing simple judgment. I will elaborate on this below at the bottom, as I also did in comment on someone else’s answer.

These facts below however are true of why China athletes succeed at the Olympics:

1) The Chinese train harder than anyone else in the world; as other foreign coaches working with China’s Olympic Team have stated in media in past: The Guardian. Following Confucius beliefs, the Chinese believe hard work gets results, and following a progressive long-term athletic development model with repetition of technique and skill they perfect every movement until optimised (thus why they succeed in sports like table tennis, diving, gymnastics, and even weightlifting requires perfection of technique).

2) Centralised Training Program with High Government Support & Funding: The Chinese government has a heavily fund and centralized top-down training model; with the one goal to achieve Olympic Gold. The exact figures of the funding are unknown, and not as transparent as other nations, but still estimated to be the highest funded high performance program in the world. These funds help to pay athletes’ salaries, have full-time staff supporting those athletes, get the best coaches & foreign expertise to improve it further, build big training facilities, and really do anything they want. With a structured pyramid program, with around 5000 sports schools, filtering into province training centers, and then the best up into the Olympic center. Ensuring that the Chinese Olympic program can run smoothly and succeed at its goal.

3) Foreign Expertise: The big jump made at Beijing 2008 and beyond, had a lot to do with foreign expertise. The sourced the world for the best coaches, the best staff. Head coaches alone, there were 28 foreign coaches for the last Olympics; so to say Chinese coaches are “torturing” kids, then ask yourself but what about the foreign coaches? I even know examples where athletes get injured and they fly in experts from around the world for their opinions. This spending of money for an athlete is rarely done elsewhere.

4) Strong talent Identification and Long-term Athletic Development Model: At young ages they look for kids who have the physical capabilities that will allow them to succeed in a sport, and then build on-top of that strong base with a long-term athletic development plan. E.g., start with basic skills and foundation until that is perfected, then build on top of that with another skill, etc.

5) Top-down sports system vs. bottom-up: China is a top-down sports system, a system where the top level controls and manages everything with the goal to achieve Olympic success. Meaning the entire reason athletes enter the system at the bottom (the sports schools), is with the aim to achieve the government’s goal of Olympic success. Some other Asian nations however have similar systems. This contrasts however to Western nations, whereas it’s a bottom-up system, whereas the community and club levels develop athletes, and athletes enter sport for their own goals. One where they just naturally develop going through lower levels, until they have a talent, and then get recognised and selected for national program (and not until then does the government or national sports governing body have much influence on that athlete’s life). Of course arguments and debate on which is optimal. However it’s not hard to see that if you have a control of athlete’s life and sports development from the day they enter sport, and plan & goal for those athletes to succeed at Olympics, then it is much easier to plan for accomplishing that goal (in point 4 above), e.g., what education do they need, what skills do they need, what physical requirements do they need, how much sleep do they need, what medical support do they need, etc.

6) Year round structured training (More prepared): Not to say not all athletes train year round, but the Chinese have a 365 days/year training together as a team generally in most sports. Although some sports like Basketball they have around 6 months (as they spend the other 6 months in their professional teams), but that’s still lot more time together in national team than other nations. What does this mean? Well it means they are going to function better as a team, be more prepared to work with the national coach, better skilled, and better in team environment & teams culture, and with the physical resilience and technical skills to succeed. A lot of other programs in Olympic sports around the world do not follow such a professional program, for example some Olympic teams athletes train independently and then only come together to join the national team in the months or even just weeks before the games.

7) Smart Allocation of Funding: They concentrate on sports that they can win, or succeed at, be it sports that they see an opportunity (less competitive) or sports that they know they win (e.g., table tennis). For example many gymnasts are changed into snow boarding, aerial skiing, and diving. Because of the Chinese athletes’ great gymnastic abilities, they thus would make a good for a similar sports that requires these skills to help and thus can become more competitive then people without those same gymnastic abilities. They also focus on sheer medal numbers; they concentrate on sports with different weight classes (e.g., weight lifting or wrestling) or sports with more medals (e.g., swimming). But then this same approach is done by most centralized sports systems, including Australia.

8) Repetition of Skill or Technical Focused Training: the old rule, repeat until you are perfect or ‘practice makes perfect’. Very much following Confucius thinking here, in China the kids do ONE sport, and repeat the same skill over and over, day in and day out. This is something not done or rare in many nations, for example kids in Australia or America would play many sports in their childhood, they develop better motor skills and coordination but not fine tuning one skill like the Chinese. Is thus the reason China often succeed in technical focused sports like table tennis, diving, gymnastics, because they have trained until they perfected the routine. However all sports do have a technical focus, even track & field, weightlifting, and swimming; related to efficiency and ease of movement.

9) Rewards for Athletes & Better Life: The rewards for those who make it are great. Some Olympic athletes earn more a week than their poor family can in a year. That way it’s a great way forward for poor families to jump to a better social class. This provides excellent motivation for them to train hard. China Olympic champions are suggested to get $200,000USD for an Olympic Gold (figure appears to vary in different sources), and add in houses, a high level job within the government upon retirement; even winning the All-China Games grants athletes $100,000USD (depending on the province). Most of these athletes come from families that work in factories, and/or farms, earning just enough to feed the family.

10) National Pride: sports is seen as a sign of power similar to GDP. A collective culture still, looking to better the community they are within. They do it for the family, nation, and less for themselves (opposite to the west). A way to show a strong and powerful nation.

However above all, one big factor: they want it more than anyone else in the world (similar to the Kenyans in distance running), that motivational factor is big thing in elite sport.

CRICKET

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at the wicket with the bat , while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this by preventing the ball from leaving the field, and getting the ball to either wicket) and dismiss each batter .

The earliest reference to cricket is in South East England in the mid-16th century. It spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, with the first international matches in the second half of the 19th century. The game’s governing body is the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has over 100 members, twelve of which are full members who play Test matches. The game’s rules, the Laws of Cricket, are maintained by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in London. The sport is followed primarily in the Indian subcontinent, Australasia, the United Kingdom, southern Africa and the West Indies.[1] Women’s cricket, which is organised and played separately, has also achieved international standard. The most successful side playing international cricket is Australia, which has won seven One Day International trophies, including five World Cups, more than any other country and has been the top-rated Test side more than any other country.

Cricket has had a broad impact on popular culture, both in the Commonwealth of Nations and elsewhere. It has, for example, influenced the lexicon of these nations, especially the English language, with various phrases such as “that’s not cricket” , “had a good innings” and “sticky wicket”. “On a sticky wicket” is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance. It originated as a term for difficult batting conditions in cricket, caused by a damp and soft pitch.

OLYMPICS

An ancient Panhellenic festival held every fourth year and made up of contests of sports, music, and literature with the victor’s prize a crown of wild olive.

The modern Olympics are leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world’s foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating.[3] The Olympic Games are normally held every four years, alternating between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years in the four-year period.

Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games , held in Olympia, Greece from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement , with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority.

The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in several changes to the Olympic Games. Some of these adjustments include the creation of the Winter Olympic Games for snow and ice sports, the Paralympic Games for athletes with disabilities, the Youth Olympic Games for athletes aged 14 to 18, the five Continental games (Pan American, African, Asian, European, and Pacific), and the World Games for sports that are not contested in the Olympic Games. The IOC also endorses the Deaflympics and the Special Olympics. The IOC has needed to adapt to a variety of economic, political, and technological advancements. The abuse of amateur rules by the Eastern Bloc nations prompted the IOC to shift away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to the acceptance of professional athletes participating at the Games.

International Olympic Committee
The Olympic Movement encompasses a large number of national and international sporting organisations and federations, recognised media partners, as well as athletes, officials, judges, and every other person and institution that agrees to abide by the rules of the Olympic Charter.[86] As the umbrella organisation of the Olympic Movement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is responsible for selecting the host city, overseeing the planning of the Olympic Games, updating and approving the Olympic sports programme, and negotiating sponsorship and broadcasting rights.[


“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

Indian men and women Hockey teams reaches semi finals, creates history

Both Indian men and women Hockey teams are having a wonderful Olympics so far as the both teams has reached semifinals . Yesterday Indian men’s team defeated great Britain by 3-1 and will play semifinal match on a Wednesday 7:00 AM (IST). they have reached semifinals after 49 years. On the other hand , Indian women team stunned Olympic favorites today and beat Australia 1-0.

After these two emphatic wins , the medal hopes are very high from our hockey team. Indian men were very confident against great Britain . India scored 3 field goals in the match, first goal was scored by Dilpreet Singh(7 th minute), 2nd goal from (16th minute) and Hardik Singh’s goal was the final goal from India. Great Britain tried there best but India managed to keep them away from comeback. only one goal was scored by great Britain and that was from Sam Ward.(source of the information 😦 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/tokyo-olympics/indiatokyo/india-beat-great-britain-3-1-to-enter-semis-of-olympics-mens-hockey-after-49-years/articleshow/84947034.cms)

But the results which was totally unexpected was from today’s women team match, where our women hockey team defeated world champion Australian team. Indian women team was not totally in good touch from starting . They were defeated badly in there first few matches badly and no one in country would have believed at that time, that this team will be in semi finals. They defeated Ireland and South Africa in group matches from where they found a momentum. that is some unbelievable achievement from women’s team. and the way they played today and handled the pressure shows what an remarkable team it is.

Talking about today’ s match, Gurjit Kaur scored the lone goal of the match in 22nd minute through penalty corner. after that both teams tried to score goal but India did very well and Australia was not able to score a goal .Australia got many penalty corners but India did very well to counter that.

Indian men team was in very good touch from starting, they defeated New Zealand in there first match of Tokyo Olympic by 3-2, but then came the match against Australia, where they were blown away with a heavy 1-7 defeat. but the thing to appreciate was India’s comeback. After that match ,they didn’t lose any match and won matches against Argentina, Spain and Japan. This is not an easy thing to do because these type of loses like that against Australia can easily demotivate and and affect your confidence for upcoming matches.

Indian hockey has seen different phases from winning 8 gold medals till 1980 to not able to qualify in Beijing Olympics in 2008.In Rio Olympics 2016, India managed to enter quarter final but was defeated in next round. For a country like India who gave many great hockey players like Major Dhyan Chand , it is very difficult to believe that we were not not able to win an Olympic medal since 1980. But this Indian hockey team has that capability to win a medal for country and they have shown that again and again. If Indian hockey team(either men or women) manages to win a medal in hockey that will be a very huge boost to Hockey in India. it will revive again, India ‘s golden days in hockey will be back.

Sindhu wins historic bronze; Beats He Bing Jiao to at Tokyo Olympics

PV Sindhu created history on Sunday as she defeated He Bing Jiao of China to become the first Indian woman to win two individual Olympic medals. Sindhu defeated He Bing Jiao 21-13 and 21-15 in the bronze medal match. Sindhu was clinical throughout the contest and didn’t give her opponent any chance in the match. Sindhu had suffered a heart-breaking loss to world no.1 Tai Tzu Ying in the semi-final on Saturday. Sindhu lost the semi-final 18-21, 12-21.

Saturday was a day of heartbreaks as India’s biggest medal hope PV Sindhu crashed out of the Gold medal race with a loss against her Chinese Taipei opposition. Kamalpreet Kaur in Discuss was the big story from Saturday. Participating in her maiden Olympics, she qualified for the Discuss final in the second position. Archer Atanu Das was knocked out and so were Amit Panghal and Pooja Rani in boxing. Another good news was the fact that the Rani Rampal-led women’s hockey team beat South Africa in a must-win match.

PV Sindhu poses with her women’s singles badminton bronze medal at a ceremony during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza in Tokyo on August 1, 2021.

pv sindhu India’s pride,one of our most outstanding Olympian: pm Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hailed ace badminton player PV Sindhu as India’s pride after she won bronze in the Tokyo Olympics. He tweeted, “We are all elated by the stellar performance by PV Sindhu. Congratulations to her on winning the Bronze at @Tokyo2020. She is India’s pride and one of our most outstanding Olympians.”

Reaction over social media

Within an hour of Sindhu’s historical victory, her name trends over the various social media plateform. #pvsindu lies at the top of twitter trend in india.

Olympics
2020
Tokyo
India
Pvsindhu

PV Sindhu loose to Tai in semi-final

Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, commonly known as PV Sindhu (born 5 July 1995) is an Indian professional badminton player. She is the first Indian to become the Badminton World Champion and the first Indian woman to earn an Olympic silver medal in 2016. She rose to a career-high world ranking of no. 2 in April 2017.India’s hopes for a badminton Gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics came to an end on Saturday evening as the ace PV Sindhu was knocked out in the semi-final of the Women’s singles event by the World number 1 Tai Tzu Zing. The intensely fought contest lasted 40 minutes as Tai won 21-18, 21-12.

However she outlasted world No. 5 Japanese shuttler Akane Yamaguchi 16-21, 21-16, 21-19 in the All England Open Badminton Championships quarter-finals to enter the top four of the women’s singles event. Sindhu however remains in contention for the Bronze medal, for which she will take the court on Sunday at 5pm IST. She will face China’s He Bingjiao for the Bronze.

It was Tai who started off with a quick 2-0 lead before Sindhu rattled of four points, leaving the opponent on the floor with a fantastic cross court smash. The two players, well acquainted with each other’s game, kept chipping away, finding the angles and using the depth of the court well to pick points off. Sindhu led 11-8 at mid-game in the first game.

After the break, Tai upped the ante and as did Sindhu. However, Tai, who was showing off her full repertoire of shots, quickly cut down the lead, bringing things to level pegging even as the Indian kept up, for most of the first game. Quite simply, none were giving away an inch but Tai, who played catch-up for most of the first game won it at 21-18 in 21 minutes.

Ben stokes takes indefinite break from cricket

England all rounder ben stokes has taken an indefinite break from all forms of international cricket, with immediate effect to focus on on his mental state. As a result he wont be available for the test series against India that is starting from next week. but what caused ben stokes to take indefinite rest?

Ben stokes has spent the majority of the last year in bio bubble with England test and limited overs team. and he is a that kind of player, who you could not afford to miss out from playing 11. He has that kind of effect in game. Than after the national duty ,stokes came for IPL where again he had to live in bio secure bubbles as per guidelines.

Bio secure bubbles are very safe bubbles . it was made to organize sporting events during COVID -19 pandemic with strict quarantine and safety measures throughout that period . it is very easy to say that the players who are in bio bubble do not have to do anything they just have to live like a normal life. but it is not so easy in reality. it is a like a cage , an invisible cage where you can go on a limited space only with strict protocols and guidelines to be followed. these bio bubbles are safe for organizing cricket and other sporting events but they are very irritating and difficult for players.

Recently We also heard that about many incidents in this year’s IPL, that many foreign players did not came to play IPL due to bio bubble fatigue because these players were playing in these bio bubbles for a long period of time and they were not ready to live in these restrictions for 2 months more. And in many bio bubbles , families are not allowed.

“Ben has shown tremendous courage to open up about his feelings and wellbeing. “Our primary focus has always been and will continue to be the mental health and welfare of all of our people. The demands on our athletes to prepare and play elite sport are relentless in a typical environment, but the ongoing pandemic has acutely compounded this.

“Spending significant amounts of time away from family, with minimal freedoms, is extremely challenging. The cumulative effect of operating almost continuously in these environments over the last 16 months has had a major impact on everyone’s wellbeing.”

“Ben will be given as long as he needs, and we look forward to seeing him playing cricket for England in the future,” said Ashley Giles, the Managing Director of England Men’s cricket. (source : https://m.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/118394/ben-stokes-england-cricket-to-take-an-indefinite-break-from-all-cricket-cricbuzzcom)

As a result , ben stokes will miss the upcoming series against India , that will be a huge loss for England test team. There is an uncertainity that whether he will be availabe for ICC T20 WC or not because the time period of his break is not stated. that is going to be held in UAE. but first of all keeping all cricket side, he should take a reasonable amount of break so that he recovers with the mental fatigue as soon as possible.

Indian Female Athletes And Their Contribution To Sports

Women athletes had constantly struggled to create space for themselves in Indian sports. People had doubts about women’s performance and did not think they had what it took to compete in sports. They were considered weak and too emotional to survive the rough play. Though, women had been part of sports for a long time, lack of motivation and trust in them took time to make a mark and reinforce the lost confidence. Women are born to cook and have family was the belief of the society, but they defied all odds and changed history of sports with striking sporting skills. Now, female athletes have made India proud in various international games and their passion has inspired every girl out there to believe in her dreams and work hard to achieve them.

Here are a few Indian female athletes who have made India proud on international platforms.

  1. Mary Kom (Boxing)

Boxing is a career that was believed to be meant for men and not women. Female boxing was not considered a viable sport to be played and was discouraged by people. However, Mary proved them wrong and kept working to be the boxer she aspired to become. She had her own struggles but strived to the best that she is now. She overcame all the obstacles that pulled her from reaching the level that is unattainable to come near to even for the greatest boxers. Winning a medal in each of the six World Championships, she has set an astounding record despite being a wife and a mother of three children. Also, Mary is the first Indian female boxer to win gold in Asian Games. She could not qualify further in Olympics but her achievements are inspirational.

2. Saina Nehwal (Badminton)

Saina is the first Indian female badminton player to win Olympics medal. She is a true inspiration to young girls who aspire to be badminton player. She won prestigious awards like Arjuna Award, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. She was the first female to be raked no. 1 in the world.

3. Geeta Phogat (Wrestling)

Geeta Phogat in wrestling stunned everyone with remarkable performance. She wrestled her way through gold medal in Commonwealth Games. She is not the only Phogat known to incredibly represent the country but her sisters as well are equally bringing pride to Indians. Geeta and her sisters sacrificed a lot to be who they are now. Moreover, she was the first Female Indian Boxer to qualify Summer Olympics.

4. P V Sindhu (Badminton)

PV Sindhu at a very young age achieved magnificent things that made her India’s favorite badminton player. She was the first Indian woman to win a silver medal in Olympics at only 21 years of age. With her precision and skills she has now entered semi-finals in Tokyo Olympics and will be seen in action today.

5. Sakshi Malik (Wrestling)

Rio Olympics, 2016 turned to be the time when a talent like Sakshi Malik had become inspiration by winning first Olympic medal in wrestling. She started wrestling at a young age and her hard work payed off by achieving third place with supreme talent.

6. Deepika Kumari (Archery)

An inspiring woman who is praised for her excellence in archery and rewarded with numerous titles. Her achievements in archery are exceptional. She was ranked world’s no. 1 female archer. She could not make it through Quarter-finals but we can expect to see a lot of extraordinary performance in future games.

7. Rani Rampal (Hockey)

At the age of 15, she wonderfully represented India at the World Cup. She was awarded Khel Ratna and Padma Shri in the year 2020. Her contribution to Indian hockey paved her way to becoming captain of the team. Rani is successfully leading hockey team this year in Tokyo Olympics.

People were tough on them but they fought for themselves and for all those girls who were prevented to dream. They carved a way for women to strive against stereotypes. We are proud of you!

TOKYO OLYMPICS (2020) AND INDIA’S TOP MEDAL CONTENDERS

The 2020 summer Olympics officially the Games of XXXII Olympiad unbranded as Tokyo 2020. Tokyo 2020 is an international multi sport event being held from 23 July to 28 August 2021 in Tokyo Japan with some preliminary events that begin on 21 July.

POSTPONED TO 2021:

During the 125th IOC session  in Buenos Aires held at Argentina, on September 7, 2013 TOKYO was selected as a host city to conduct 2020 Olympics. The actual date to conduct the Olympics was from 24th July to 9th August 2020. But due to Covid -19 pandemic the event was postponed to 2021 and now happening in Tokyo. This is the first time the Olympics games had been rescheduled. The name of the event remains the same Tokyo 2020 because of marketing and branding purpose. The event is been held with all safety measures behind the closed doors, without any public spectators. The Summer Paralympics will be held between 24 August and 5 September 2021.

The 2020 Games are the fourth Olympic Games to be held in Japan, following the Tokyo 1964 (Summer), Sapporo 1972 (Winter), and Nagano 1998 (Winter) games.[c] Tokyo is the first city in Asia to hold the Summer Games twice. The 2020 Games are the second of three consecutive Olympics to be held in East Asia, following the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and preceding the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.

NEW GAMES:

This 2020 olympics introduces new games. Those games were once held but subsequently removed.  New games are 3×3 basketball, freestyle BMX (bicycle Motocross), Madison cycling (relay race). New IOC policies also allow the host organizing committee that is Japanese Olympic Committee to add new sports. The games are baseball and softball. The olympic debuts are karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding.

Bermuda and the Philippines won their first ever olympic gold medals. San-Marino and Turkmenistan won their first ever olympic medals.

INDIA’S TOP MEDAL CONTENDERS:

India is sending its largest ever contingent to the Tokyo Olympics. The nation has the great hope of bettering its medals hauls this time over previous Games. With 122 athletes competing in 13 events across 85 events, the country hopes to win medals for shooting, wrestling, boxing, archery and badminton.

In 2016 Rio Olympics, India returned with two medals. A silver for ace shuttler PV Sindhu in the Women’s Singles Badminton and a bronze for wrestler Sakshi Malik in the Women’s 58kg Freestyle Wrestling Event.

  • 2016 Rio Olympics: 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
  • 2012 London Olympics: 2 Silver, 4 Bronze
  • 2008 Beijing Olympics: 1 Gold, 2 Bronze

India has won a total of 28 medals since 1900 – 11 from hockey, five from wrestling, four from shooting, two each in badminton, boxing and athletics, and one each in tennis and weightlifting.

SHOOTING: India’s 15 member, shooting contingent is the favourite to bring back a big haul of medals.

Nineteen year old Manu Bhaker is one of the top contenders on the 10m Women’s Air Pistol event. She has won two gold medals in ISSF World cup in 2018 and she was the youngest Indian to win gold medals in ISSF World Cup to Commanwealth medal and Youth Olympics.

Shooter Saurabh Chaudhary, world number two and Youth Olympics champion, became the youngest Indian shooter to win a gold at the Asian Games in 2018 when he was just 16. Rahi Sarnobat in the pistol events, rifle marksman and two-time Olympian Sanjeev Rajput (2008 and 2012), and the current world-number-one Divyansh Singh Panwar and Elavenil Valarivan in the men’s and women’s air rifle, respectively.

BADMINTON: In 2016 Rio Olympics, India returned with two medals. A silver for ace shuttler PV Sindhu in the Women’s Singles Badminton.”I was just a participant back then, but now everyone says Sindhu has to get a medal,” she told the BBC recently. Last year, the ace shuttler won the inaugural BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year award. In 2019, she was crowned the World Badminton Champion but her form has had inconsistencies since then. However, she remains India’s top medal prospect.

BOXING: Mary Kom also known as Magnificent Mary, the Iron Lady. She won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics. She is expected to win Gold medal when she participates in Flyweight section. In May, she picked up a silver when she lost the final to Kazakhstan’s Nazym Kyzaibay during the Asian Boxing Championships in Dubai.At 38, Kom may well be taking part in her last Olympics, and India will be rooting for her to increase her tally before she takes off her gloves.

WRESTLING: India had a decent run at the Rio Olympics in 2016, with Sakshi Malik earning a bronze medal. In Tokyo, Vinesh Phogat leads the women’s wrestling team. Having suffered a freak injury during the Rio Olympics, Phogat returned to India in a wheelchair and underwent surgery. The 26-year-old is now roaring to go in the 53kg category with some great wins in the last couple of months, as well as reclaiming the number one ranking. With three world championships to his name, wrestler Bajrang Punia is the top contender from India in the 65kg men’s category at his first Olympics.

WEIGHTLIFTING: The Tokyo Olympics will be Mirabai Chanu’s second time on the big stage. In 2016, she qualified for Rio but failed to record any legal lift in three attempts in the Clean and Jerk category, and was out of the running in the Women’s 48kg category.In 2017, she won gold in the World Weightlifting Championships and went on to win gold in the Commonwealth Games a year later and bronze at the 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships.

She is the first athlete from India to win Silver medal in 2020 Summer Olympics.

ARCHERY: Only last month, archer Deepika Kumari won three golds at the Archery World Cup in Paris. Deepika Kumari is the number one ranked recurve woman in the world
She is now the world number one in the women’s recurve category and a strong candidate for a medal in Tokyo. Kumari has won nine gold, 12 silver and seven bronze medals at various World Cups and will be looking to add the Olympic medal to her tally now.

The nation is looking forward for more medals from the athletes competing in Tokyo Olympics and also feeling proud of Mirabai Chanu who is the one to win the first medal, silver medal for India in 2020 Olympics until now.

India At Olympic 2021 (Updated)

30th July 2021 – P.V. Sindhu (Badminton), Indian hockey team, Deepika Kumari (Archery), A.M. Sable(Athletics), Madari Palliyalli (Athletics), Simranjeet Kaur (Boxing), Lovlina Borgohain(Boxing), Fouaad Mirza (Equestrian), Anirban Lahiri and Udayan Mane (Golf), Indian Sailing Team,

31 July 2021 – Atanu Das(Archery), Kamalpreet Kaur(Athletics), P.V. Sindhu(Badminton), Pooja Rani(Boxing),Fouaad Mirza (Equestrain), Anirban Lahiri (Golf).

1 Aug 2021: P.V. Sindhu , Fouaad Mirza, Anirban Lahiri, U. Mane, Indian Hockey Team.

2 Aug 2021: Kamalpreet Kaur, Dutee Chand, Fouaad Mirza, Indian women’s hockey team.

3 Aug 2021: Annu Rani(Javelin Throw), Tajinderpal Singh Toor(Shotput), Indian Hockey Team,

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Archery

Women’s individual

Deepika Kumari defeated Ksenia Perova from Russia in 1/8 Eliminations with scores 6-5.

But, An San from Korea gave her a tough match in Quarter Finals. Deepika Kumari lost to wth scores 6-0.

Men’s individual

In 1/8 Eliminations, Takaharu Furukawa from Japan won against Atanu Das in a close call match with scores 6-4.

Athletics:

Men’s 3000m steeplechase

In round 1, Heat 2, A.M. Sable secured 7th Position failing to qualify for the next round.

Men’s 400m hurdles

In round 2, Heat 5, Madari Palliyalli, secured 7th position failing to qualify for next round.

Women’s discus throw

Valarie Allman from USA and Kamalpreet Kaur from India have qualified for finals by securing 1st and 2nd Position respectively.

Discuss Finals:

  1. Valerie Allman from America
  2. Kristin Pudenz from Germany
  3. Yaime Perez from Cuba

Kamalpreet Kaur held the 6th position in the finals.

Women’s 200m

Dutee Chand acquired 7th position in heat 4.

Women’s Javelin throw

Annu Rani secured 14th position with score as 54.04m in qualifications.

Men’s shotput

Tajinderpal Singh Toor, a petty officer in the Indian Navy, secured 13th position with distance as 19.99mm.

Badminton

Women’s Singles

What a amazing match it was between Akane Yamaguchi and P.V. Sindhu. In the first set, the points were 21-13 with Sindhu being in lead. In the second, we can see the clash between shot acer (Sindhu) and defense master (Yamaguchi) aggressively using their skills to make points. Sindhu gets the game to deuce i.e. scores are 20-20 wherein a player has to score 2 more points than their opponents score. Using her signature moves, Sindhu won by scoring 2 continuous smashes.

Women’s Singles Semi-Finals


Tai Tzu-ying from Chinese Taipei Vs P.V. Sindhu. TTY won by 21-18 and 21-12.

1 Aug, P.V. Sindhu can fight for Bronze medal in Bronze medals match vs He Bingjiao

P.V. Sindhu begged the Bronze Medal.

Boxing

Women’s LIghtweight

Sudaporn Seesondee from Thailand defeated Simranjit Kaur From india in Round 16.

Men’s flyweight

Yuberjen Martínez from Colombia won against Amit Panghal in round 16

Women’s middleweight Quarter-finals

Pooja Rani vs Li Qian. Li Qian won by 5-0 scores in Quaterfinal 4

Equestrian

Individual eventing

Fouaad Mirza placed at 9th Position in Dressage session 2

He continues his streak by acquiring 9th place in Dressage session 3

He bagged 22nd Position in Cross-Country

He placed 23rd in the Jumping Finals. – 2 august

Golf

Udayan Mane secured 66th positon in Men’s Individual.

Anirban Lahiri acquired 28th Position in round 3 of Finals and U. Mane 55th Position.

Hockey

Men’s Tournamnet

Indian Men’s Hockey team defeated Japan with scores 3-2.

Belgium defeated India in the semi-finals to enter finals with scores as 5-2. – 3 aug

Women’s Tournament

Indian Women’s Team defeated Ireland with scores 1-0

India defeated South Africa with scores 4-3 on 31 July.

Indian Women’s Team defeated Australia in a nail-biting against match against with scores 1-0 to enter the Semi-Finals. – 2 Aug

Sailing

49er

Indian team secured 17th Position in Race 9.

Race 12, India bagged 17th Position.

Wrestling

Women’s freestyle 62kg

In an extremely nail-biting match of “Sonam Malik vs Bolortuya Khurelkhuu “, Bolortuya Khurelkhuu from Mongolia won with points 2-2. Although, the scores were eual and acquired in the last second, she won due to powerful move of scoring in 1/8 Finals.

Naomi Osaka.

Naomi Osaka is the name that every sports enthusiast heard. She is professional tennis player and also ranked no. 1 as per Women’s Tennis Association . Her achievements are so great that it inspires everyone.

She was born on October 16 1997 in Japan. Osaka has lived and trained in United States since age 3. Her father inspired from Richard Williams trained his daughters , though he himself was never a tennis player. In 2006 they moved to Florida so that Naomi and her sister could get better trainings. Though Naomi spent most of her life in US , she represents Japan. Her parents said, “We made the decision that Naomi would represent Japan at an early age. She was born in Osaka and was brought up in the house of Japanese and Histian culture.Quite simply Naomi and her sister Mari have always felt Japanese so that was only our rationale. It was never a financially motivated decision nor we were swayed either way by any national federation”. Later United States Tennis Association offered Naomi training center in Boca Raton when she was 16 years old, but she declined.

Naomi is four times Gram Slam singles Champion and is the reigning Champion at US open and Australian Open. She also became the first woman to win successive Grand Slam singles titles since Serena Williams in 2015.

Manpreet Singh – Flag bearer

Manpreet Singh was selected as the flag bearer of India for Tokyo Olympics 2020 Parade. He is captain of India Men’s National Hockey team since May 2017

Manpreet Singh was born on 26 June 1992 in Mithapur, Jalandar city of Punjab, India. In 2011 he played first time for India at the age of 11years. He also represented India at 2012 Summer Olympics and was named Asia’s Junior Player of the year 2014.

He and his team represented India in various sports events and gave new heights to India Hockey Team. They won 1 gold and 1 silver medal in 2014 Incheon Asian Games and 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. In 2017 Asia Cup they won 1 gold. They also secured 2 medals at Championship Trophy. The list of achievement goes on and on

Manpreet is also a keen listener of music and uses music as a means to relax before his games. He carries his PlayStation with him whenever he travels for matches. He is fan of Salman Khan and enjoys watching movies of sports genre, such as MS Dhone: The untold story, Chak de! India, and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. His big dream is to “win big for India” and biggest goal is to inspire youngsters to play a sport, any sport.

India’s performance in Tokyo Olympics so far

We are in day 5 of Olympics and toady I will discuss about the performances of Indian athletes so far. India had sent 127 athletes in Tokyo Olympics 2021. but performance so far is as usual its not been up to the mark and according to expectations of fans.

India got a perfect start on day 1 of the Tokyo Olympics as weightlifter Mirabhai chanu won Silver medal and created history of become just 2nd women weightlifter to win a medal in Olympics for India after Karnam Malleswari. there were many events but some of them were as:- After winning qualification round easily, Saurabh Chaudhary finished seventh in the 10m air pistol final. In archery, the pair of Deepika Kumari and Pravin Jadhav qualified for the finals but lost the next round from south korean archers. Our Mens hockey team won the first match of Olympics and defeated New Zealand by 3-2.

On day 2, India could not improve their medal tally. However, it was a good day for the Indian rowing team of Arjun Lal and Arvind Singh that were qualified for the semifinals. Shuttler PV Sindhu won her opener in a perfect start to better Rio campaign. Paddler Manika Batra moved to the third round.later, Mary Kom opened her Tokyo 2020 campaign with a round of 32 win in the 51kg category but all o us were shocked by India’s disappointment in shooting as Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini Deswal and Deepak Kumar, Divyansh Panwar failed to qualify for 10m air pistol in their respective categories. senior tennis player Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina were knocked out of the women’s doubles after losing 6-0, 6-7(0), 8-10 to the Kichenok twins of Ukraine. and India’s lone gymnast Pranati Nayak also failed to qualify.

Day 3 also didn’t bought any smile on Indian fans as Indian shooters dissapointed again and the hockey team were hammered by australia 1-7 but badminton star player P V Sindhu, boxing great M C Mary Kom and table tennis star Manika Batra won their respective matches. The 38-year-old Mary Kom, who is already an 2012 Olympic bronze-medallist, prevailed 4-1 against a rival who is 15 years her junior to start her pursuit of a second medal but apart from these 2-3 small success other athletes dissappointed.

on day 4,Team India had a heartbreaking day in Badminton and Shooting on Tuesday. Initially the day was good for India as Indian shooters Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary topped their mixed team air pistol qualification Stage 1 but were unable to go ahead after that. The day then continued to worsen for Indian shooting as Divyansh/Elavenil and Anjum/Deepak also failed to make it to rifle final. but it was not enough as Divyansh/Elavenil and Anjum/Deepak also failed to make it to rifle final. Indian men hockey team made a terrific comeback and defeated Spain 3-0 after getting hammered by Australia. Meanwhile, boxer Lovlina Borgohain made indian fans smile was qualified to quarterfinals and is a step away from winning a medal. She will face Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinal on Friday (July 30). (Stats source: https://indianexpress.com/article/olympics/tokyo-olympics-2020-day-4-live-updates-7423748/)

Apart from weightlifter Mirabhai chanu, India had really disappointed so far but we will continue to support our athletes and will expect a medal very soon. as many events our still remaining.

Lightning Bolt.

When we talk about Olympics , how can we not talk about Usain St. Leo Bolt.Popularly known as Usain Bolt, he gained worldwide fame as sprinter.This talented man also hold 8 medals in Olympics

Bolt was born on 21st August 1986 in Sherwood Content, a small town in Jamaica. As a kid he was always interested in sports. He played football and cricket most. He stated ,”When I was young, I didn’t really think about anything other than sports”. Bolt mainly focused on other sports but his cricket coach notice his speed on cricket field and urged him to try track event. Following the advice of his coach he won his first annual high school medal in 2001; he took silver medal in 200 metres with a time of 22.04 seconds.

Bolt is a world record holder in 100 metres, 200metres and 4×100 metres relay. Bolt is a also a first athlete to win four World Championship titles in 200 m and is one of the most successful in 100 m with three titles. His achievements are so great that earned nickname “Lightning Bolt” . Bolt retired after 2017 World Championships, when he finished third in last Solo 100 m race, opted out of the 200 m and pulled up in 4×100 in relay final.