From a medal in hockey after 41 years to the first medal in Track and Field, Team India had their best-ever Olympics winning a total of seven medals.
To pull off an event like Olympics in the post-COVID era was a monumental task that International Olympic Committee had taken on their hands. And, with strict protocols in place and rules being followed by athletes, media, support staff, contingents, broadcasting, over 10000-plus people in the Olympic village, the Tokyo Olympics was a grand success.
More so as an Indian as it was the most successful Olympics as far as the medal tally was concerned, winning seven medals - one gold, two silver and four bronze medals, overtaking their medal tally of London 2012 Olympics.
While there were a few disappointments, their were more encouraging and uplifting stories. The likes of Kamalpreet Kaur, who made her Olympics debut and finished at sixth position in women's discus throw event, CA Bhavani Devi, who created history by winning a match in fencing, Aditi Ashok, who finished at fourth position in singles Golf event and the Indian women's hockey team, who failed to qualify for the next stage in Rio Olympics, reached semi-finals after beating Australia in the quarters.
Even though they didn't win a medal, they showed a lot of promise and definitely won a lot of hearts and did much more for their respective sports. Apart from these, there were seven medallists as well:
1. Neeraj Chopra - Gold medal in Javelin throw
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Neeraj Chopra, a Subedar in the Indian Army became India's first athlete to win a medal in Track and Field after he ended up at the pole position in the men's javelin throw event with a throw of 87.58 metres. Neeraj started the event with a throw of 87.02 metres, which was already better than his throw of 86.65 metres in the qualifying round.
Neeraj believes in 'first impression is the last impression' thought as his first attempt was enough for him to qualify at the top spot and in the final, his first attempt was already better, he bettered it with a throw that gave him a gold medal.
Neeraj's was only the second individual gold medal for India after Abhinav Bindra's in 2008.
THE THROW THAT WON #IND A #GOLD MEDAL #Tokyo2020 | #StrongerTogether | #UnitedByEmotion @Neeraj_chopra1 pic.twitter.com/F6xr6yFe8J
— #Tokyo2020 for India (@Tokyo2020hi) August 7, 2021
2. Mirabai Chanu - Silver medal in weightlifting
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Mirabai Chanu kicked off India's medal count with a silver medal on the first day itself. Chanu finished in second place in the 49kg category of women's weightlifting.
Chanu lifted a total of 202kg (87kg in snatch and 115kg in clean and jerk) and finished 8kg short of the gold medal winner, who lifted 210kgs to finish at the top spot, overcoming her shocking outing in the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she failed to account for a single legitimate lift.
3. Ravi Kumar Dahiya - Silver medal in wrestling
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Indian wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya making his debut in the Olympics had started his journey in the 57kg of men's wrestling with two back-to-back wins to qualify for the semi-finals, where he faced Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev.
Dahiya started the bout on high with a 2-1 lead but Sanayev came back and overpowered Dahiya's every move and was just on the verge of victory with a 9-2 lead. With 90 seconds to go, Sanayev was almost assured of a place in the gold medal bout but then came a comeback for the ages. He achieved a couple of two-pointers but he needed to do more to win the bout and he pinned his opponent in the final few seconds to win the bout by fall.
However, it wasn't to be for Dahiya in the final as Russia's Zavur Uguev was too good for him on the day winning the gold medal bout on points by 7-4.
4. Men's Hockey team - Bronze medal
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India men's hockey team recovered admirably from the 1-7 humbling against Australia to win three games in a row and qualify for the quarter-finals of the event. India, by the virtue of winning four out of their five games in Pool A advanced to the next stage.
India started their campaign with a win against New Zealand, but a mauling against Australia in the next game threatened to bring down their campaign down. But it wasn't to be as they came back hard and every other side in their way in Pool A was blown away in their storm, whether it was Argentina, Spain, or the hosts Japan.
India were in quarters and the 1.3 billion citizens started dreaming of an Olympic medal in hockey. Was it too early? Maybe not. But they needed to beat Great Britain to advance to the semi-finals. And they did. The Indian team beat Britain in quarters 3-1 to qualify for the semis. However, they were beaten in the semis by the eventual champions Belgium 2-5.
However, it wasn't the end of the campaign as they still needed to beat Germany in the bronze medal match to win a medal. A neck-and-neck game and ebbed and flowed throughout was eventually won by the Manpreet Singh-led side 5-4 and after 41 years, India had an Olympic medal in hockey.
5. PV Sindhu - Bronze medal in Badminton
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PV Sindhu was destroying opponents left, right and centre for fun as she beat her three opponents in the first three rounds in two straight sets and hadn't dropped a game till she reached the semi-finals, a rather easy path to the knockouts.
However, she ran into a brutal opponent in Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu-Ying, who beat Sindhu 21-18, 21-12 in straight sets, but the medal hopes still remained and she had to beat China's He Bingjiao to win the same.
She beat He Bingjiao in straight sets to win a bronze medal, her second in the Olympics following her silver in the Rio Olympics, becoming only the first female Indian athlete to win two medals and second Indian athlete after Sushil Kumar.
6. Bajrang Punia - Bronze medal in wrestling
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One of India's biggest medal hopes Bajrang Punia didn't disappoint as he won a bronze beating Kazakhstan's Daulet Niyabekov in the bronze medal match. Bajrang won his first two rounds comfortably qualifying for the semi-final.
However, it wasn't to be for Bajrang in the semis as he lost to Azerbaijan's Haji Aliyev on points 5-12. The bout was close in the first round especially but the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was just too good on the day for Punia.
7. Lovlina Borgohain - Bronze medal in Boxing
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Lovlina Borgohain, the 23-year old boxer from Assam became only the third boxer after Vijender Singh and MC Mary Kom to win a medal in the Olympics. Lovlina lost to Turkey's Busenaz Surmeneli in the semi-final but bronze was assured after she qualified for the same.
Lovlina had assured a medal after she beat Chinese Taipei's Nien-Chin Chen in the women's welterweight category.
