It is indeed very frustrating to know that India with such a huge population has won only seven individual medals at the Olympics. India has been participating in the Olympics since 1928 and it would agonize every Indian that the nation never went to the Games as a force to reckon. India’s only saving grace in the Games has been their national game Hockey, in which they have won 11 medals, including eight gold. But their dominance also faded away since 1980 and India has failed to capture a single medal in the sport that they dominated for decades and in 2008 Beijing Olympics they even failed to qualify. That was the first time they were missing from the mega event since 1928.
Over the years India had been to the mega event 21 times and have won only 18 medals, bulk of which was won by the hockey team (11 medals). With the London Olympics nearing, Indian Sports News rolls back the years to re-live those glorious moments when individual athletes took the onus upon them to make the country proud while hoping for a better outing at the upcoming London Olympics.
The number could have gone up had some Indian stalwarts who made it to the finals of their respective events ended on the podium. India in the past did see some of the athletes making it to the finals but failed at the final hurdle.
Here are some of the athletes who came very close but failed to return home glorious.
Henry Rebello (triple jump): Henry Rebello was 19 when he competed in the 1948 London. He looked a serious medal prospect for the Independent India and defeated many veterans in the run up to the finals. On D day he was looking all set to emerge glorious and his hop was fine, but then lack of warm-up saw him pulling his hamstring and he had to skip the event. He had to be taken off in a stretcher thus putting an end to the hopes of the entire nation.
Milkha Singh (400 mtr sprint): Nicknamed as the ‘Flying Sikh’, he went into the 1960 Rome Olympics with a world record of 45.8 seconds in the preliminaries held in France. Seen as a huge prospect, Milkha however missed out a medal by a whisker.
Gurbhachan Singh Randhawa (110 mtr hurdle): One of the most accomplished athletes of India, Randhawa participated in the in 110 mtrs hurdles event at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He prospered till the run up to the finals and in the semis he also did set up a personal best of 14 seconds, but in the finals he could not match his other counterparts and finished fifth in the star studded event.
Sriram Singh (800 mtr race): The athlete from the Rajputana Rifle was one of the top athletes of the World and seen as a major force to reckon in the Olympics. The middle distance runner broke his own Asian record in the build up and in the Games and finished second in the semis. He took to the finals high on optimism and it also looked like India would see an end to the medal drought when he was leading at the bell, but then as things rolled further, runners who were hot on his trail whizzed past and he finished the race on seventh position.
P.T Usha (400 mtr hurdles): Nicknamed the Payolli Express came agonizingly close to winning a medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games but then lost out on a bronze by 1/100th of a second.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhary
Indian Sports News
