India's greatest moments at the Olympics in images: From the hockey legends of the past to Neeraj Chopra
India's best athletes are gearing up to take centre stage at the Paris Olympics in a bid to improve on the country's record showing at Tokyo 2020
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India officially joined the Olympic Movement ahead of the 1920 Summer Olympics, and participated as an independent nation for the first time in 1948. Over the years, the country has won a total of 35 medals - 10 gold, nine silver and 16 bronze. A majority of these have come in this century, with Indians winning more medals in the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympics than in all of the previous Games put together. It has to be noted, though, that eight out of the 10 gold medals were won by the Indian men's hockey team between 1928 and 1980. (Getty Images)
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India's first-ever medal was the gold by the men's hockey team at the 1928 Antwerp Olympics. A young Dhyan Chand, who won the first of three gold medals at Antwerp 1928, can be seen in this image, kneeling down first from right. It was the team's maiden appearance at the Olympics and it started a streak of gold medals that would last until the 1956 Olympics, when India lost in the gold medal match to Pakistan. India topped a group that consisted of Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland and Austria. The Netherlands faced them in the final, having topped the other group that consisted of Germany, France and Spain and India won the match 3-0. Hockey was the only sport where India got medals at the Olympics for several years until the 1952 Olympics when wrestler KD Jadhav won bronze and thus became the first individual medallist to represent independent India. After India missed out on gold in 1960 to Pakistan, they won it back in 1964 but then finished with bronze medals in 1968 and 1972. India then won gold in 1980 and then didn't win any Olympic medals at all until 2021. (Getty Images)
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While this may not be an event where an Indian won a medal, it is one of the great ‘what if’ moments of Indian sport. Milkha Singh was a favourite to finish on the podium in men's 400m going into the 1960 Olympics, having won gold at the 1958 Asian Games. He led the race for the first half but then eased off. It ended up becoming a photo-finish between Singh and South Africa's Malcolm Spence for bronze. Milkha finished with a time of 45.6 seconds while Spence registered 45.5 and the Indian thus missed out on a podium. (Getty Images)
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The hockey medals dried up after 1980, and India returned empty-handed at LA 1984, Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992. That run was ended by tennis great Leander Paes when he won bronze at Atlanta 1996. Paes lost in the semi-finals to eventual gold medal winner Andre Agassi and faced Brazil's Fernando Meligeni in the bronze medal match. He won 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.(Getty Images)
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