The ‘first Indians’ at Olympic Games

The ‘first Indians’ at Olympic Games
Members of the first official Indian contingent for the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp

BENGALURU: Neeraj Chopra stylishly hurled the javelin to a distance of 87.58 metres at the Tokyo Olympic Games to become the first-ever Indian to win a track and field gold medal in the history of the Olympic Games.

The entire country rose like one to witness Neeraj Chopra’s feat and rejoice in his unique success. He made every Indian proud as people came out on the streets to celebrate and shed tears of joy.

It is always a matter of immense pride to achieve something which others could not. In the days of a television set in every household, a mobile phone in every palm and an internet connection to watch videos of an event happening miles away, this performance becomes instantly recognised and revered.

But in the good old days when the World was ‘quite far’ in every sense, there have been many ‘first Indians’ in the history of the Olympic Games.

India first participated at the Olympic Games in 1900 in Paris. Norman Gilbert Pritchard, the British-Indian, won the silver medal in the 200 metres sprint in 22.8 secs. and the 200 metres hurdles in 26.0 secs. in the 1900 and was the first Indian to achieve that feat.

India did not participate in the 1904, 1908 and 1912 Olympics. The games were not held in 1916 due to World War I. India sent an official contingent for the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, comprising four athletes and two wrestlers. 

The 1920 Indian contingent consisted of Purman C. Banerjee (Bengal, 100m sprint and 400m), Phadeppa D. Chougule (Belgaum, 10,000m and Marathon). Sadashiv Datar (Satara, 10,000m and Marathon), K. Kaikadi (Hubli, 5,000m and 10,000m), R. Shinde (Kolhapur, wrestling bantamweight) and K. Nawale (Bombay, wrestling lightweight). 

India’s first woman Olympians were Nora Polley and Mehri Tata who was part of the tennis squad for the 1924 Olympics in Paris.

Syed Mohammad Hadi, Mohammed Saleem, Sydney Jacob, Athar Fyzee and Donald Rutnam formed India’s first-ever men’s tennis team at the Olympics. India’s Dalip Singh ended 14th in the long jump. 

In fact, it was only in 1928 that India sent the first-ever hockey team for the Olympics at Amsterdam. The 1928 Indian hockey team also won the country’s first-ever hockey gold for India.

The team: Jaipal Singh Munda (Captain), Richard Allen, Dhyan Chand, Michael Gateley, William Goodsir-Cullen, Leslie Hammond, Feroze Khan, George Marthins, Rex Norris, Broome Pinniger, Michael Rocque, Fredric  Seaman, Ali Shaukat,  Kher Singh Gill, Saved Yusuf.

In the 1948 Olympic Games in London, India sent the first-ever football team for the Olympics. The team:  

Goalkeepers: K .V. Varadaraj (Mysore), Sanjeeva K. Uchil (Bombay). 

Defence: Talimeren Ao (Captain, Bengal), Sailendra Nath Manna (Bengal), Taj Mohammed (Bengal), S.A. Basheer (Mysore), T.M. Varghese Papen (Bombay). 

Midfield: Anil Nandy (Bengal), Mahabir Prasad (Bengal), S.M. Kaiser (Bengal), B.N. Vajravelu (Mysore). 

Forwards: S. Nandy (Bengal), Robi Das (Bengal), S. Raman (Mysore), Dhanraj (Mysore), Ramachandra Balaram Parab (Bombay), Sahu Mewalal (Bengal), Ahmed Khan (Mysore). 

Coach: Balaidas Chatterjee. (Bengal); 

Manager: M. Dutta Ray (Bengal); 

Asst. Manager: Ramaswami Aiyer (Madras).

It was in 1952 at Helsinki that Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav won the first wrestling medal when he bagged a bronze in the bantamweight (54kg) category.

He became Independent India’s first individual medal winner. 

In the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, the football team created history as India became the first Asian nation to enter the semi-finals.

The team lost 1-4 to Yugoslavia and 0-3 to Bulgaria in the bronze medal play-off. Neville D’Souza of Bombay became the first Indian and the first Asian to score a hat-trick as the Indians defeated hosts Australia 4-2.

Milkha Singh losing the 400 metres bronze medal by one-hundredth of a second in the 1960 Rome Olympics is part of Indian athletics folklore.

Milkha Singh clocked 45.6 while South Africa’s Malcolm Spence timed 45.5 secs.

Milkha was the first athlete to come so close to a medal in the 400 metres, the most difficult event in athletics. 

In the 1984 Los Angeles 400 m hurdles Cristieana Cojocaru of Romania timed 55.41 while India’s P.T. Usha clocked 55.42 secs. as it became a rerun of Milkha’s Singh miss in 1960. In any case, Usha was the first woman finalist in the event. 

Leander Paes, a Wild card entrant in the 1996 Olympics at Atlanta, lost to the eventual winner Andre Agassi 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 in the semis but defeated Fernando Meligeni of Brazil 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to win the bronze, India’s first-ever tennis medal in a sport which the team entered way back in 1924 and much before any other team event. 

In 2000 in Sydney, Karnam Malleswari won a bronze in the 69kg weightlifting event with a total lift of 240.0 (110+130) and became the first woman to bag an Olympic medal not just in her event but in any sport. 

The 2004 Athens games saw double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore bag a silver, the first one in shooting as well. 

It was only in 2008 in Beijing that India won the first individual gold as Abhinav Bindra made history in the 

10m rifle shooting event. Neeraj Chopra joined Bindra to become the only athlete to win an individual gold for India. 

Beijing in 2008 also saw Vijender Singh become the first Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal as he bagged a silver medal in the middleweight category.

In 2008 Sushil Kumar won a bronze in the 66kg bronze wrestling event and went on to take the silver in the same event in 2012 in London to become the first Indian male athlete to claim medals in back to back Olympic Games.

Similarly, in 2012 Mary Kom was the first female boxer to bag a bronze in the flyweight category while in the same year, Saina Nehwal became the first Indian badminton player to win a bronze in the women's singles

In 2016 at Rio Pusarla V. Sindhu was the first to win a silver in the badminton women’s singles and this year in 2020 Tokyo bagged a bronze to be the first woman athlete to claim two Olympic medals.

In 2016 at Rio, freestyle wrestler Sakshi Malik was the first to win a bronze in the 58kgs class.

At Tokyo 2020 Mirabai Chanu became the first to bag a weightlifting silver as she won it in the 49kg category with an effort of 202kg (87+115). 

The Indian women’s hockey team finished last in 2016 in Rio.

But they dazzled to finish fourth and become the first hockey team to enter the semi-finals. They lost a thrilling bronze medal play-off 4-5 to Great Britain yet made history even in defeat.