Tokyo Olympics: Neeraj Chopra on Saturday not only won gold for the country, but also helped it surpass the previous best haul of six medals achieved in the 2012 London Games. With his gold today in men's javelin throw, India's medal tally has gone up to 7 — highest so far in any Olympics. India now have one gold, two silver and four bronze medals.
India's best-ever performance at Tokyo Olympics
India has recorded its best-ever performance at the Olympics with 7 medals so far. Neeraj Chopra has clinched gold in men's javelin throw, while both the men's and women's relay teams have won silver. He also got a bronze in men's shot put. India's Rio medal haul was four (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) in the previous games in Rio de Janeiro. India-Japan ties improve to new high India-Japan ties have improved to a new high. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Goa, while PM Abe called PM Modi to congratulate him on India's "spectacular" performance at the 2016 Olympics. Sports Minister Vijay Goel called Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to congratulate him on India's "spectacular" performance at the 2016 Olympics.
India's best performance at the Olympics
Today is India's second-best performance at the Olympics, after the six medals (one gold, three silver and two bronze) in London 2012. However, the six-medal haul was achieved even before the 2006 Melbourne Olympics. In terms of the number of medals, India had won two gold medals in the 1904 St. Louis Olympics. Overall, India have won six medals in Olympics and a total of 101 in the Winter Olympics. The country has never won a gold medal in the Summer Olympics. The name of India's latest gold medallist Neeraj Chopra became the country's youngest individual gold medallist in a track event at the Olympics. He has broken the 18-year-old record of Vijay Sharma, who won a gold at the Atlanta 1996 games in shot put. Stick to sports, not movies!
Medal winners and how they won
India’s Neeraj Chopra and Tintu Luka bagged the gold medals for the country today at the Men’s Javelin Throw final event of the ongoing World Athletics Championships in London, sending the Indian contingent into a state of joy. Amit Panghal, Manish Kaushik and Vipin Kashana also won bronze medals in the men’s 50kg, 60kg and 69kg weightlifting events, respectively. India’s Dutee Chand also claimed a bronze in women’s 100m event. Biju Patnaik was another Indian who got the opportunity to represent India in the Olympics at the age of 75, but he failed to achieve the feat as he could only place fourth in his event. Who are the Indian athletes who won medals at the Rio Olympics?
What has helped India to get so many medals?
A better sports infrastructure According to a PTI report, the trend has largely been due to the growing pool of talent at the grassroots level. Earlier, top athletes had to go all the way to France and USA to improve their performance. "The pool of talented athletes is larger today. The infrastructure is also much better. As far as we know, we were ahead of all countries in sports infrastructure when we last hosted the Commonwealth Games. But since then India has added many facilities in sports like badminton, hockey, squash and boxing," India's chef-de-mission Harinder Sidhu was quoted as saying by the PTI. Significant improvement in performance The improvement in performance is primarily due to the performance-enhancing drugs that are now prevalent in most sports across the world.
What can be improved?
Never like to criticise a sportsman, but looking back at athletics today with such a limited track and field sport as it has got today, it is a shame for the sport that there has been little development. It is a very limited sport, it will be a treat if it gets a medal. It is unfortunate that there are no very good indoor facilities for it in India as that's the only discipline we have where the Indian athletes can compete with the rest of the world. The fact that India has managed to qualify for such a big event, in fact, we have been there earlier, it is a huge achievement. It is great to see Neeraj making the country proud. How difficult is it to improve the standards of sports in India? No one can disagree that the standard of sports in India has improved very significantly.
Conclusion
India's medal tally has increased by a staggering 100% in just four editions of the quadrennial event, not bad for a country that has always had a tendency to play 'spot the gold medal'. And while there is still some way to go to topple China as the numero uno nation in terms of medals, and Britain in overall medal haul, the progress is nothing but amazing.
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