Top-10 sporting moments since Independence
Top-10 sporting moments since Independence: On Monday, we celebrate the 75th year since India gained its independence. During this time period, India’s sporting achievements on the world stage have included a number of noteworthy victories.
The following list ranks India’s top ten sporting moments in order of their occurrence.
Olympic medal
When K.D. Jadhav earned a bronze medal in freestyle wrestling at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952, he made Indian sporting history. This was the first Olympic medal won by India since it gained its independence.
Before this, Norman Pritchard had already brought home two silver medals from the athletics competition at the 1900 Paris Games for colonial India. Jadhav was India’s only individual Olympic medalist until the tennis star Leander Paes won a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games, and he went away in 1984. Jadhav was India’s only individual Olympic medallist.
Victory at the Hockey World Cup
Despite India’s dominance in Olympic hockey, they had been unsuccessful in their attempts to win the World Cup in its first two iterations.
The Indian national team finished in third place at the first World Cup in 1971 and then came in second place overall to the Netherlands in 1973. In 1975, Ajit Pal Singh and his team defeated their bitter adversaries Pakistan in Kuala Lumpur by a score of 2-1 after a tense and exhausting match. After this momentous victory, India has never even been able to advance to the semifinals of the World Cup.
The world is astounded by Kapil’s Devils.
India, led by Kapil Dev, surprised the world by winning the Cricket World Cup in 1983. In a low-scoring final at Lord’s, the Indians defeated the West Indies by a score of 43 runs to claim their second consecutive title. The victory ignited a cricket revolution across the nation, and since then, the sport has seen significant change.
The historic bronze medal goes to Malleswari.
Karnam Malleswari, a weightlifter, became the first woman from India to win an Olympic medal when she took bronze in the 69-kilogram division in Sydney in the year 2000. After P. T. Usha came so close to winning the 400-meter hurdles event at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Malleswari cracked the barrier in Australia.
Anand is at the pinnacle of his game.
In 1988, when he was only 18 years old, Viswanathan Anand became the first Indian to achieve the title of grandmaster. In the year 2000, the Chennai-born magician won the title of world champion by prevailing over the Spanish player Alexei Shirov in the championship match held in Tehran. Anand has been the one to set the pace for chess in India, and he has been a significant contributor to India’s rise to prominence as a powerhouse in the game.
The Olympic triumph won by Bindra
Abhinav Bindra put an end to India’s lengthy wait for an Olympic gold medal in an individual sport when he won the 10-meter air rifle event in Beijing in 2008.
He brought home the country’s first Olympic gold medal ever won. The shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s performance at the previous competition in Athens earned him a silver medal in the double trap event. This was the best result achieved by an Indian athlete up until that point.
The pair of Olympic medals won by Sushil
After winning a bronze medal in Beijing in 2008 and then a silver medal in London in 2012 in the 66 kilogram weight class, Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar made history by being the first Indian athlete to win two individual Olympic medals. The achievements of Sushil served as motivation for a whole new generation of wrestlers.
Sindhu emulates Sushil
P V Sindhu, a star in the sport of badminton, followed in Sushil’s footsteps by becoming only the second Indian athlete to have multiple individual Olympic medals when she won a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics last year. In addition to this, the Hyderabadi holds the distinction of becoming the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal at the 2016 Rio Games.
First-ever gold medal for Chopra in the sport of athletics
When Neeraj Chopra won the country’s first Olympic medal in athletics in Tokyo last year, it was a gold medal, and he also won it. This was a big achievement for the country. In his second effort, the expert javelin thrower achieved 87.58 meters, which allowed him to win the coveted medal.
Victory in the Thomas Cup
In May of this year, Indian shuttlers won the Thomas Cup for the very first time by claiming victory against Indonesia 3-0 in the championship match held in Bangkok. The Indians advanced to the finals after defeating Denmark and Malaysia in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, by a score of 3-2.
A lot of people contributed to India’s victory, including Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, H. S. Prannoy from Kerala, and the doubles team of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. This was an important victory for India.