It was a historical day for India on August 7, when the 23-year-old Neeraj Chopra became the first-ever Indian to win a gold medal in athletics in the Olympics. His accomplishment came in the men's javelin throw event with a throw of 87.58-meter in his second attempt.
Born to Satish Kumar and Saroj Devi on December 24 1997 in Khandra village, Panipat district, Haryana, Chopra grew up in a Haryanavi agricultural family. He has two sisters. He graduated from Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College in Chandigarh and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts from Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, Punjab.
All you need to know about Neeraj Chopra, India’s golden boy at Olympics
By - TIMESOFINDIA.COMAug 9, 2021, 11:06 IST
It was a historical day for India on August 7, when the 23-year-old Neeraj Chopra became the first-ever Indian to win a gold medal in athletics in the Olympics. His accomplishment came in the men's javelin throw event with a throw of 87.58-meter in his second attempt.
Born to Satish Kumar and Saroj Devi on December 24 1997 in Khandra village, Panipat district, Haryana, Chopra grew up in a Haryanavi agricultural family. He has two sisters. He graduated from Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College in Chandigarh and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts from Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, Punjab.
null An obese child, Chopra used to be teased a lot in his childhood, which led to his father enrolling him in a local gymnasium. Later, he was enrolled in a gym in Panipat where javelin thrower Jaiveer Choudhary recognised his talent and became his first coach. After training under Jaiveer for a year, the 13-year-old Chopra was admitted to Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula, where he started training under coach Naseem Ahmed.
In 2014, Chopra won his first international medal, a silver at the Youth Olympics Qualification in Bangkok. Following this came a world record throw in the junior category of 81.04 meters in the 2015 All India Inter-University Athletics Meet. This resulted in Chopra received a callback for the national-level training camp in 2015. He left Panchkula in early 2016 to train at NIS Patiala. He won a gold medal at the 2016 South Asian Games with a throw of 84.23 m, where he equalled the Indian national record.
After he won a gold medal in the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships in Poland, the Indian Army offered Chopra a direct appointment as a Junior Commissioned Officer in the Rajputana Rifles with the rank of Naib Subedar. He was formally inducted as a JCO in December 2016 and subsequently received leave to continue his training.
In the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships, Chopra won a gold medal. Next came the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where he registered a season-best effort of 86.47 meters, becoming one of the few Indian athletes to win a gold medal on their Commonwealth Games debut. In 2018, he set a new world record and won India's first gold medal in javelin throw at the Asian Games. He was awarded the Arjuna Award in September 2018.
Chopra underwent surgery in Mumbai in May 2019 because of an elbow injury. After a period of recuperation, he traveled to South Africa in November 2019 for training under German biomechanics expert Klaus Bartoneitz. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he spent the next year in India training at the NIS Patiala. After weeks of attempting to secure a travel visa, he was cleared to travel to France with his coach. He opened his international season of 2021 with a throw of 83.18 meters that earned him a gold medal at an event in Lisbon, Portugal.
Precisely, by winning the gold medal at the Olympics, Chopra became the first Indian Olympian to win a gold medal in athletics, and the first post-independence Indian Olympic medalist in athletics. He is only the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal after Abhinav Bindra, who won the gold medal in the men's 10 m air rifle in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
When asked about it, Chopra dedicated his win to sprinter Milkha Singh.
Weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu is a Silver medalist in the 49kg division at the Tokyo Olympics this year; let's have a look at her life and career.
Mirabai Chanu, who began lifting firewood as a child, is now one of India's biggest weightlifting stars. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, the girl from the East Imphal district of Manipur scripted history as she won the silver medal in the Women's 49kg Weightlifting event at the Tokyo Olympics.
She began winning international medals and getting recognition at a young age by competing on the international stage. Mirabai Chanu was considered a favourite in the women's 49kg category in Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Mirabai Chanu, a native of Manipur's capital city Imphal, was born on August 8, 1994, in Imphal and is 26 years old. She won her first gold medal in a local weightlifting competition when she was 11 years old. Later, she began her international weightlifting career by competing in the World and Asian Junior Championships, where she won medals in both. She idolised Indian weightlifter Kunja rani Devi.
Mirabai Chanu first demonstrated her potential on the international stage when she earned a silver medal in the 48kg category at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, at the age of 20.
Mirabai won the gold medal at the World Weightlifting Championships in Anaheim, USA, in 2017. She became the first Indian weightlifter to achieve it in over two decades.
Chanu suffered a lower back injury in 2018, making it impossible for her to compete in any of the events throughout the year. She made a remarkable comeback in 2019 in the World Championships in Thailand. Despite finishing fourth, she made the event memorable by surpassing the 200kg mark for the first time in her career.
During the 2021 Asian weightlifting championships in Tashkent in April, Mirabai Chanu set a new world record in the women's 49kg clean and jerk with a lift of 119kgs. Chanu, on the other hand, had to settle for a bronze medal in the Asian meet due to sub-par performance in the snatch.
N. Biren Singh, the Chief Minister of Manipur, honoured Chanu and awarded her with a prize of 2 million rupees. She was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest civilian sports honour, in 2018. Chanu was given the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2018.
Mirabai Chanu won Silver Medal at Tokyo Olympics 2020 and was the only Indian Weightlifter competing from Indian contingent in Weightlifting.
Chanu broke former Indian weightlifter and her idol Kunju rani Devi's 12-year-old record in the 2016 national trials for the Rio Olympics, securing her a place on the national squad for the Rio Olympics.
At the Rio Olympics, she was unable to complete any of her three 'clean and jerk' efforts and only had one successful 'snatch' attempt.
Mirabai received a DNF (did not finish) and was unable to get a medal, but she maintained her strong mentality and made a comeback later in 2017.
Ravi Kumar Dahiya defended his Asian Championship title in the 57kg weight division during the ongoing Asian Wrestling Championships today.
Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Indian Men's Freestyle Wrestler in 57kg Weight Division has assured a medal for India at Tokyo Olympics. He defeated Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev on victory by fall.
Ravi Kumar Dahiya also defended his Asian Championship title in the 57kg weight division during the Asian Wrestling Championships.
Dahiya registered an easy 9-2 win in his quarterfinal bout against Nodirojn Safarov of Uzbekistan before absolutely crushing Ali Aburumaila of Palestine 11-0 on technical superiority in Semi final.
Up against Alireza Sarlak of Iran in the final, the Indian cruised to a 9-4 win to defend his Asian Championship.
Here are 10 things you should know about the two-time Asian Wrestling Champion, Ravi Kumar Dahiya.
Ravi Kumar Dahiya finished second at the 2015 Junior World Wrestling Championship, before picking up yet another silver medal at the 2018 U-23 World Championships.
Ravi Kumar Dahiya has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Ravi Kumar Dahiya also assured India a Medal at Tokyo Olympics by defeating Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev on victory by fall in Semi-Final at Tokyo Olympics and qualified for the Finals.
Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, known as PV Sindhu, is an Indian professional badminton player and the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal.
Born on July 5, 1995, in Hyderabad, Sindhu is also one of the two Indian badminton players to ever win an Olympic medal, the other being Saina Nehwal.
The ace shuttler came to international attention when she broke into the top 20 of the BWF World Ranking in September 2012 at the age of 17, and has featured in the top 10 of the world rankings, for most parts of her career.
Sindhu was born to P V Ramana and Vijaya in Hyderabad. Both her parents were national level, volleyball players.
Sindhu started playing badminton at the age of eight and then joined Gopichand Badminton Academy.
Sindhu’s first major recognition came in the form of the 5th Servo All India ranking championship in the under-10 category. In the under-13 category, she won the doubles titles at the Sub-Junior Nationals and the All India Ranking in Pune.
At the 51st National School Games in India, she won the gold medal in the under-14 category.
Sindhu made her international debut in 2009 at The Sub-Junior Asian Badminton Championships and announced her arrival in the badminton circuit with a bronze medal in her first international competition.
She finished as runner-up in the 2010 Iran Fajr International Badminton Challenge and reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 Junior World Badminton Championships in Mexico. At the age of 17, she won the Asian Junior Championships.
She finished as runner-up in the 2010 Iran Fajr International Badminton Challenge, and reached the quarterfinals of 2010 Junior World Badminton Championships in Mexico.
At the age of 17, she won the Asian Junior Championships. In 2013, she bagged her first Grand Prix win by defeating Singapore’s Gu Juan. At The World Championships in 2013, Sindhu won a bronze medal and repeated the feat the following year too.
In the same year, she was awarded the Arjuna Award, one of the highest honours for any sportsperson in India. She competed in Commonwealth Games in 2014, where she reached the semi-finals after losing to Michelle Li of Canada.
She became the first Indian to win two back-to-back medals in the BWF World Badminton Championships after her bronze medal finish in 2014 BWF World Championships. In October 2015 she reached the final of Denmark Open by defeating three seeded players, Tai Tzu-Ying, Wang Yihan, and Carolina Marin, but lost to defending champion Li Xuerui.
In November, she won her third successive women's singles title at the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold. The biggest moment of Sindhu’s career came in the year 2016 when she went on to become the youngest and the first female athlete from India to win a silver medal at Rio Olympics.
She was graced with India's 4th highest civilian honour, The Padma Shri Award, later that year. In 2017, Sindhu won The Indian Open Super Series and later added a silver medal at The BWF World Championships.
After reaching the final of the 2018 World Championships, she became the first shuttler in the world to reach the finals of three successive major events.
However, the gold medal remained elusive and she had to settle for a silver each time. Under the tutelage of coach Pullela Gopichand, the ace shuttler reached the 6th rank of the Badminton World Federation.
In 2018 Sindhu made it to the top 4 of the All England open, before losing to world No.3 Akane Yamaguchi in the semifinal Sindhu competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, winning gold in the mixed team event and a silver medal in the women's singles event. Sindhu in the 2018 World Championships won her second consecutive silver medal and her total fourth. On 16 December 2018, Sindhu made history by becoming the first Indian to win the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals tournament in Guangzhou, China.
With earnings of $8.5 million, Sindhu was ranked seventh in Forbes' list of Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2018 based on earnings from prize money and endorsements between June 2017 to June 2018.
Sindhu clinched the silver title in Asian Games 2018 after losing to world number one Tai Tzu-Ying in Jakarta. Sindhu clinched a historic silver medal in Women's Singles Badminton event as she became the first Indian to finish second on the podium in the Asian Games.
Sindhu was brought by the defending champions Hyderabad Hunters in the PBL auctions 2018 and was named as their skipper.
She led the team to semi-finals, where they lost to Mumbai Rockets. Sindhu then reached the quarterfinals of Indonesia Masters, 2019 where she lost to Carolina Marin in two consecutive games.
The biggest disappointment for Sindhu turned out to be her loss in the very first round of the All England Open 2019 to Sung Ji Hyun of Korea in a thriller match.
Lovlina Borgohain is an Indian woman amateur boxer born on 2nd October 1997 who won a bronze medal for India in the Tokyo Olympics.. She hails from Assam’s Golaghat district. She represents India in the 69kg Welterweight category internationally.
Lovlina was born to Tiken Borgohain and Mamoni Borgohain. Her father is a small-scale businessman and her mother is a homemaker.
Lovlina Borgohain’s twin elder sisters were national champions in kickboxing and this encouraged her to take up kickboxing initially. Lovlina continued her career in kickboxing before she decided to switch her career to boxing when she found the opportunity to pursue the sport.
Lovlina’s boxing talent was spotted by the national coach Podum Boro during the trials conducted at her school by the Sports Authority of India. In 2012, Lovlina joined the boxing academy and began her training under Podum Boro.
Lovlina’s father, Tiren, had struggled financially to back her daughter’s boxing ambitions and it paid off when her career began to flourish. Woman boxing legend Mary Kom is her inspiration.
After receiving training from coach Podum Boro, Lovlina participated in the junior and senior nationals' boxing competitions and excelled well. As soon as Lovalina’s boxing career began to progress towards the international stage, she came under the guidance of the chief coach of women’s boxing Shiv Singh.
Lovlina’s international breakthrough came in 2017 when she made her international debut for India and won a Bronze medal in the 75 kg category at the President’s Cup in Astana, Kazakhstan.
In 2018, She won her maiden international Gold medal at the inaugural India Open International Boxing held in New Delhi. This achievement got her selected to represent India at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. In the same year, she won a Silver medal at the Ulaanbaatar Cup in Mongolia, followed by a Bronze medal at the Silesian Championships. Both in the 69 kg Welterweight category.
In 2019, she won a Silver medal at the 2nd India Open International Boxing in Guwahati in Assam.
Bajrang Punia is an Indian Wrestler born on 26th February 1994. He hails from Khudan village in Haryana’s Jhajjar district. He represents India in the 65 kg category. Bajrang Punia won a bronze medal in Tokyo Olympics. Punia is well-known in the Indian wrestling fraternity.
Bajrang Punia was born to Balvan Singh Punia and Om Pyari Punia. Punia is the youngest among his 3 siblings. He belongs to the Jat family in the Jhajjar district of Haryana.
Bajrang Punia comes from a poor family. His father couldn’t afford traditional sports as it costs lots of money, instead, he chose to give try hands-on free sports like wrestling and Kabaddi. At the age of 7, Bajrang Punia decided to take up wrestling after he was encouraged by his father.
Punia’s father Balvin Singh himself is a wrestler and he put Bajrang in mud wrestling school. Bajrang would skip school to go to wrestling practice. In 2015, Bajrang Punia’s family shifted to Sonepat for him to attend a regional centre of the Sports Authority of India.
Bajrang Punia is working as Gazetted Officer OSD Sports in Indian Railways.
Bajrang Punia made an impact in his wrestling career as soon as he got on the international stage. Bajrang has been representing India internationally since 2013, starting with Asian Wrestling Championships. Bajrang Punia was seen as the next big thing in Indian Wrestling after Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt.
Punia is a part of the Pro Wrestling League. Bangalore Yoddha brought him for 29.5 lakhs in 2015 and in 2019 he was picked by Punjab Royals for 30 lakhs.
Bajrang Punia won his 1st International medal by clinching Bronze at the 2013 Asian Wrestling Championships held in Delhi. Bajrang was defeated by North Korea’s Hwang Ryong-hak in the semi-final which forced him to settle for Bronze. Later in that year, Punia won another Bronze Medal at the 2013 World Wrestling Championships by defeating Enkhsaikhany Nyam-Ochir in the Bronze medal match.
At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Bajrang Punia won his 1st International Silver medal after he lost to Canada’s David Tremblay. In that same year, Punia settled for a Silver medal at the Asian Games after he was defeated by Masoud Esmaeilpoorjouybari of Iran in the final. Punia won the 3rd Silver medal at the 2014 Asian Wrestling Championships by losing to Iran’s Masoud Esmaeilpour.
Bajrang Punia didn’t make any impact at the 2015 World Wrestling Championships as he finished 5th. Punia’s 1st international Gold came in 2016 when he competed at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships held in Singapore. He defended his Gold medal in 2017.
In 2017, Bajrang Punia won a Gold and a Silver at the Asian Wrestling Championships and U23 World Wrestling Championships, respectively. Punia won a Silver medal in the 65 kg Category. Following year, Bajrang Punia won 2 Gold medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2018 Asian Games. Punia’s Silver medal at the 2018 World Wrestling Championships was special as it ranked him World No.1 in the 65 Kg category.
In 2019, at the World Wrestling Championships, Bajrang won a Bronze medal and thereby paving the way to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Punia is one of the medal hopes in Wrestling at the Olympics.
Manpreet Singh said that the team is like a family and will now turn their focus towards their future tournaments after ending India's 41-year medal drought at the Olympics in the sport.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Manpreet Singh led India to a first medal in hockey at the Olympics since 1980
- Manpreet and the hockey team were among the athletes who received a festive welcome at the New Delhi airport
- PR Sreejesh congratulated the women's hockey team for their performance at the Tokyo Olympics
India men's hockey captain Manpreet Singh said that the team is like a family to him and congratulated the rest of the Indian athletes who won medals at the Tokyo Olympics. Manpreet led the team to a bronze, which is India's first medal in hockey at the Olympics since 1980.
"I would like to thank SAI, IOA because they helped us during our difficult times. They told us only to focus on the tournament and assured us of everything we needed for the Games. I would like to also thank every medal winner, especially Neeraj Chopra," said Manpreet.
"We are like a family and we know all our likes and dislikes. The upcoming tournaments are very important so we will turn out focus on that now. Maybe Sree (goalkeeper PR Sreejesh) will come back a little late because he needs to spend time with his children," Manpreet joked.
Sreejesh, on the other hand, said that it is women's goalkeeper Savita Punia who should be called the 'Great Wall of India' and congratulated the women's team for their bronze medal win.
Team players:
captain Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Hardik Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Shamsher Singh, Simranjeet Singh, and also the reserve goalkeeper Krishan Pathak.
The Indian women's hockey team might have just missed a historic bronze medal, but they won everyone's hearts. The staunchest of critics were made to sit up and applaud. This was just the third time in the history of the Games that the Indian women's hockey team was making an appearance. They made it through to the semi-finals, for the first time ever, but then had to face two close defeats (vs Argentina and Great Britain) as they fell heartbreakingly short of what would have been a historic medal for Indian women's hockey.
But, despite the fact that a medal was lost, the Tokyo Games campaign could well be a watershed moment for Indian women's hockey overall.
Team players:
Caption rani rampal, Sharmila devi, Shushila chaun, Nanveet kaur, Savita Punia,Nikki Pradhan,Vandana Katariya,Deep Grace Ekka, Neha Goyal,Salima Tete,Udita Duhan,Lalresiami,Nisha warsi,Monika malik.
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