Five sports where India has won the most medals in Olympics

Published at :August 9, 2024 at 11:36 PM

Modified at :August 9, 2024 at 11:36 PM

There have been plenty of sporting disciplines where our athletes have made the nation proud.

The Olympic Games is undoubtedly the most prestigious sporting event on the planet. The essence of the Olympics is understood in the excitement that builds when it comes around every four years. It also adds great prestige to the city that is hosting these games and there have been some iconic moments over the years for us to bear witness to and reminisce with many more to come in Tokyo later this year.

The Olympics have added glitter to India’s own sporting history as plenty of Indian Olympians have gone on and won the hearts and the respect of their fellow countrymen and peers with their grit and determination to come out on top. India has won a total of 41 Olympic medals since the 1900 Games in Paris which marked India’s first appearance in the quadrennial event.

Today, Khel Now takes a look at the sports in which our athletes won the most number of medals and made us and the nation proud on the global stage.

5. Badminton (3)

India has been a bright spark in the world of badminton as the nation has produced plenty of gifted players. The likes of Saina Nehwal to Kidambi Srikanth have won multiple tournaments and been right up there with the best.

The Olympics added more gloss to the quality that the nation possesses as Badminton has contributed three medals to the total tally of 3 won by Indians since the turn of the previous century.

All the medals were won by women, the first being a bronze medal won by Saina Nehwal in the 2012 London Olympics. The ace shuttler advanced to the semifinals before losing to top seed Wang Yihan in straight games but won the Bronze medal match against Wang Xin.

The second one was even better, with PV SIndhu almost clinching gold before heartbreakingly losing to Spain’s Carolina Marin after a marathon game that lasted 83 minutes during the 2016 Rio Olympics. Nonetheless, she came up with a silver medal for all her efforts.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Sindhu won the bronze medal to become the first female athlete from India to win two medals at the Olympics. She became the second Indian since indepedence after Sushil Kumar to win two medals for the nation.

4. Athletics (4)

Athletics has contributed to a total of four medals to the Indian medal tally at the Olympics. In fact, the first two medals that India ever won at the Olympics was in athletics.

Way back at the 1900 Paris Olympics when Norman Pritchard participated on behalf of British India (still under British colonial rule). Pritchard won two silver medals in the 200m and the 200m hurdles events thus making him the first Asian-born athlete to ever win an Olympic medal.

Neeraj Chopra secured the top spot in the javelin throw event, making history as India’s first gold medalist in track and field at the Olympics. His achievement also marked him as only the second Indian athlete to claim an individual gold medal at the Games.

Chopra again made the podium at Paris Olympics 2024 as he won the silver medal. He became India’s first track and field since indepedence to have won multiple Olympic medals.

3. Shooting (7)

Shooting has also been a very fruitful contributor to India’s medal tally in the Olympics. In total, India has won seven medals across various shooting disciplines in the Olympics.

It started with former sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore winning a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics in the Double Trap event. The crowning in our Olympics history this century came through shooting when Abhinav Bindra clinched a historic gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle event in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The win also made him the first and only Indian Olympian to date to win a gold medal this century.

The 2012 Olympics saw India double their tally in shooting when Gagan Narang (10m Air Rifle) and Vijay Kumar (25m Rapid Pistol) won bronze and silver respectively.

After 12 years, Manu Bhaker won a historic bronze medal to break India’s drought of shooting medals. Additionally, she also became the first Indian woman to win a medal in shooting at the Olympics. Bhaker won the medal in the women’s 10m Air pistol.

Bhaker again took the podium in mixed team 10m air pistol event. She and Sarabjot Singh took the bronze medal in the event.

The seventh Olympic medal in shooting came through Swapnil Kusale. He won the bronze in 50m rifle three positions event at Paris Olympics 2024.

Apart from hockey and athletics, shooting is the third discipline which has contributed to a gold medal for India at the Olympics.

2. Wrestling (8)

Wrestling has contributed to a total of 8 medals to India’s total tally of 40. The first medal India won in wrestling was back in the 1952 Olympic games at Helsinki when Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav clinched the bronze medal in the men’s freestyle Bantamweight event.

Two among the eight medals was won by Sushil Kumar who won the bronze in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the silver in the 66 kg men’s freestyle discipline four years later at London. He was the first Olympian in the country since indepedence to win two Olympic medals and also the only wrestler from India to win two Olympic medals.

Other Olympians who won medals in the Olympics for wrestling include Yogeshwar Dutt who won bronze in the 2012 London Olympics, Sakshi Malik who also won bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics and Ravi Dahiya who won silver at Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Bajrang Punia’s bronze in the same edition at Tokyo and Aman Sehrawat who won the bronze medal in men’s freestyle 57 kg at Paris Olympics 2024.

1. Hockey (13)

Hockey is the most productive sporting discipline in terms of medals in the Olympics. The country has produced some of the greatest exponents of the sport, most notably Maj. Dhyan Chand and Leslie Claudius.

India’s tally of 13 Olympic medals (8 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze) from hockey is the highest among any country on the globe. That, in itself, says a lot about the legends who led us to history in the sport. India participated in men’s hockey for the first time in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and won five consecutive Olympic gold medals stretching till the 1952 Helsinki Olympics (the Olympics was cancelled in 1940 and 1944 due to World War II). Our tally of eight gold medals is also the highest among hockey-participating nations when it comes to the Olympics.

The Indian men’s hockey team also won gold medals in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, and finally, the 1980 Olympic Games held in Moscow. Other medals won include one silver medal in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, and bronze medals in 1968 (Mexico City) and 1972 (Munich).

India won bronze defeating Germany after 41 years at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Indian men’s hockey defeated Spain at Paris Olympics 2024 to win the bronze medal.

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