India at Rio 2016

INDIA AT RIO 2016

With 117 athletes competing in 15 different sports, the Indian team was all set to strike at Rio Olympics 2016.

This time there were the highest Indian representatives among all the Olympics. Everybody was sure that India could give its best performance in Olympics. Most medal contenders were from shooting, wrestling, badminton, & boxing. But the show wasn’t up to mark. Instead of improving, it got degraded.

With just P.V.Sindhu winning a silver in badminton, and Sakshi Malik winning a bronze in wrestling, India stood 67^th in the medal table this time, as compared to 55^th in 2012 and 50^th in 2008. Our performance improved in many sports, but still most athletes failed to win medals.

Many of them like Abhinav Bindra, Dipa Karmakar and Mirza-Bopanna team secured the 4^th position, but unfortunately they failed to give their best performance at the nervous situations.

Sport wise performance analysis

(Not all sports, only major sports)

Sport	Status(men)	Status(women)
Shooting	Degraded	No change
Wrestling	Degraged	Improved
Badminton	Improved	Improved
Boxing	No change	-
Hockey	Improved	Improved
Archery	Improved	Improved
Gymnastics	-	Improved

·     Shooting –

The shooting campaign of India had 12 shooters; still it became a big flaw.

Shooting was the only sport that has brought India an individual gold medal ever. But this time none of the Indian shooters could leave a mark.

·     Wrestling –

Although the men couldn’t perform as per expectations, Sakshi Malik became India’s first woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal.

·     Badminton –

Badminton went the best sport for India this year. P.V.Sindhu created history by becoming the first woman of India to win an Olympic silver. Srikanth Kidambi too performed well.

·     Hockey –

The Indian men’s team saw improved as compared to previous years. Also the women’s team qualified for the Olympics after 36 years.

·     Boxing-

There were 3 boxers representing India but none of them was able to clear even quarterfinals.

·     Archery-

There was a visible improvement in the archery side by all 3 women archers and the sole man archer.

·

     Artistic Gymnastics-

Dipa Karmakar, the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, shocked everyone becoming the 3^rd woman in the world to be able to successfully perform the Produnova Vault. She claimed the 4^th position in the final of women’s vault event at Rio.

Medalists

·     P.V.Sindhu:

Pusarla Venkat Sindhu created history by

becoming the first woman of India to a silver medal at the Olympics. She won all the elimination rounds by straight sets (2-0). She defeated the world no. 2 Wang Yihan of China (21-19, 21-19) to move in the semis & Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara (21-19, 21-10) to progress to the finals; but lost to Carolina Marin of Spain by 19-21, 21-12 & 21-15.

·     Sakshi Malik:

Sakshi Malik too, set a record and became the first Indian woman wrester to win an Olympic medal. Although she lost to Russia’s Koblova Zholobova in quarterfinals,

she lucky enough to get a chance in repechage rounds which didn’t go in vain.

She defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Tynybekova Aisuluu in the bronze medal match to win the first medal for India in the Rio Olympics.   

Comparison with previous olympics

The following table shows a comparision between Olympics 2008,12&16.

	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Position
Beijing 2008	1	0	2	3	50th
London 2012	0	2	4	6	55th
Rio 2016	0	1	1	2	67th

CONCLUSION

By seeing this table, it is clear that this was the worst performance of India in the last 3 Olympics. The reason is that most athletes didn’t perform as per their capacity and couldn’t even give their personal best. Even experienced people, like Abhinav Bindra, Yogeshwar Dutt & Saina Nehwal; too failed to give their best when they were needed to.

But, looking at the positive side, India got many emerging stars like P.V.Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar and Atanu Das; all who made their debut in Rio.

Although this time we failed, but there is always an another chance. The failure has opened the eyes of our athletes and has given them an idea of Olympic experience. Many more events are upcoming. Hope that India’s performance improves...