Paris 2024: India’s Tricolour Athletes to Watch

On July 26, a contingent of India’s top athletes, led by badminton superstar PV Sindhu and table tennis ace Sharath Kamal, will parade on one of the 100 boats along a 6-kilometre stretch of the Seine for the first time in the history of the Summer Olympics as part of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024. Paris is the fashion capital of the world and the Indian Olympic Association has gone all out to dress its athletes in tricolour uniforms designed by Tarun Tahiliani, one of India’s leading fashion designers.

The athletes of Team India will be seen in their kurta bundiMade from lightweight moss green cotton, which provides breathability and comfort. The sportswomen wear a sari, a symbol of grace and cultural identity. This sari is reimagined in viscose crepe for a natural drape and is paired with a high neck blouse.

Although India’s performance has not been exactly dominant, India’s representation at the Summer Olympics has been steadily increasing in recent years. For Tokyo 2020, the Indian contingent consisted of 124 athletes, the largest ever sent by India.

Since the 1900 Paris Summer Olympics, India has won a total of 35 medals. Medals have been awarded to India for its dominance in hockey, as well as a wide range of individual sports such as shooting, wrestling, weightlifting and badminton. In Tokyo 2020, India achieved its highest medal count of seven (7) and its first-ever Olympic gold medal in athletics thanks to Neeraj Chopra’s magnificent performance in javelin throw.

Paris 2024 could see India’s biggest medal-winning team at the Summer Olympics.

What can we expect from India at Paris 2024?

Athletics – Neeraj Chopra is a potential medal contender for Javelin; he rarely disappoints, winning medals and setting new records with astonishing consistency. He won gold at the 2023 IAAF World Athletics Championships in the men’s javelin with a best throw of 88.17m and will also be looking to defend his gold medal from Tokyo 2020. Chopra will first appear in the qualifying stages on 6 August and will reappear in the javelin final on 9 August at 04:25 (AEST).

Neeraj Chopra will be part of the 30-member athletics team representing India, which also includes three athletes making their Olympic debut in Paris 2024 – hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, shot putter Abha Khatua and steeplechaser Parul Chaudhary. India’s athletes will make their first appearance on Day 1 of the athletics programme, in the 20km race walk, represented by Priyanka Goswami, Akshdeep Singh, Vikas Singh and Paramjeet Bisht.

India’s men’s and women’s 4x400m teams have secured their place at Paris 2024 thanks to their performances at the World Athletics Relays Championship Bahamas 2024. Although their qualifying times take them out of the race for medals, the quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal and Rajesh Ramesh hold the existing Indian men’s national record of 2:59.05 in the event and the standing Asian record. Meanwhile, India’s women’s 4x400m relay team led by Vithya Ramraj, MR Poovamma, Rupal and Prachi Choudhary will be looking to improve on their time of 3:33.55 seconds set at the Asian Relay Championships 2024.

Hockey – India, ranked third in the world in the latest FIH men’s rankings, will be the second-highest-ranked hockey team in their pool after world number 2 and reigning champions Belgium. Australia, Argentina, Ireland and New Zealand are the other four teams joining India in Pool B at Paris 2024. The Indian men’s hockey team, led by Harmanpreet Singh, will be looking to emulate their results from Tokyo 2020 after they finished with a historic bronze medal, the team’s first Olympic medal in hockey after a gap of 41 years. Based on the current rankings and the results from Tokyo 2020, the Indian men’s hockey team are potential medal contenders.

India would need to secure victory in their opening match against New Zealand on July 28 at 01:30 (AEST), and will need to immediately confirm this in what will be a challenging match against Argentina on July 29 at 20:45 (AEST). A win against Ireland should give India the momentum they need going into their toughest Pool B matches against Belgium and Australia respectively. India’s journey to the podium will undoubtedly be hard-fought, penalty corner conversions will be crucial and fans should expect the team to play on August 8.

Badminton – PV Sindhu is the youngest Olympic medallist that India has ever produced. When the Indian badminton star won the first of her two Olympic medals, a silver in the women’s singles at Rio 2016, she was just 21 years, 1 month and 14 days old. At the time of her bronze medal triumph at Tokyo 2020, which made her the first and only Indian woman to win multiple Olympic medals to date, PV Sindhu had just turned 26.

PV Sindhu will be present at Paris 2024, where she will be returning for her third Olympics and will be one of the seven shuttlers representing India. After bagging silver and bronze in her previous Olympic appearances, PV Sindhu will be determined to add the elusive gold medal to her collection.

Weightlifting – India won its first weightlifting medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics thanks to Karnam Malleswari’s performance, securing a bronze medal. Twenty years later, Mirabai Chanu won silver at Tokyo 2020, taking home India’s second Olympic weightlifting medal, becoming the second Indian woman after PV Sindhu to win an Olympic silver medal. From lifting firewood as a child to rising to international podiums, Mirabai Chanu’s story is a remarkable one. As India’s only weightlifting competitor at Paris 2024, she will carry the weight of a nation on August 8 at 03:30 (AEST), hopefully securing India’s third and first ever Olympic weightlifting gold medal.

Wrestling – Indian wrestlers have won a medal at every Beijing Olympics since 2008, and wrestling is India’s second most successful sport at the Summer Olympics after hockey. India’s best medal hopes come from Antim Panghal (women’s 53kg) and Aman Sehrawat (men’s 57kg), both seeded fourth and sixth in their respective weight classes for the Paris 2024 wrestling competition, which begins on August 5. The remaining four Indian wrestlers – Vinesh Phogat (women’s 50kg), Anshu Malik (women’s 57kg), Nisha Dahiya (women’s 68kg) and Reetika Hooda (women’s 76kg) will not be seeded for Paris 2024. They will be randomly drawn into groups the day before the women’s freestyle wrestling event begins in Paris.

Boxing – India has won three bronze medals at the Summer Olympics so far. Lovelina Borgohain (women’s 75kg) won India’s third bronze at Tokyo 2020 and will be attempting to become the third Indian and second woman from the country to win back-to-back Olympic medals.

All eyes, however, will be on two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen. Driven by a strong desire to challenge stereotypes and societal norms, Zareen began boxing at the age of 13 and is India’s best chance of a first-ever boxing gold in the Women’s 50kg.

Borgohain and Zareen will be joined in Paris by Preeti Pawar (women’s 54kg), Jaismine Lamboria (women’s 57kg), World Championships bronze medallist Nishant Dev (men’s 71kg) and Commonwealth Games champion Amit Panghal (men’s 51kg).

To shoot – A 21-member Indian shooting team will compete at the Paris Olympics in 2024. This will be India’s largest-ever shooting team at the Olympics, surpassing the 15 that competed in Tokyo 2020. 22-year-old shooting sensations from Punjab, Sift Kaur Samra (Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions) and Sarabjot Singh (Men’s 10m Air Pistol), will lead India’s campaign to end its medal drought.

India will also be represented in the disciplines of archery, sailing, equestrian, table tennis, rowing, tennis, golf, judo and swimming.

To follow India at the Olympics, an India-focused channel is being offered by Viacom 18. For the Indian diaspora in Australia, this can be streamed exclusively on Stan Sport.

Indian Olympics – Fun Facts:

• While India had only one delegate in Paris in 1900, Tokyo 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the country sending its first official delegation to the Olympic Games: the 1920 Antwerp Games.
• Since the 1900 Olympics, India has won 35 medals.
• India has won a total of 10 gold medals at the Olympics – the men’s hockey team alone accounts for eight of them. Abhinav Bindra for Shooting in Beijing 2008 and Neeraj Chopra complete the rest.
• The Indian hockey team won the first ever gold medal for India at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Since then, India has won a record eight gold medals in hockey, six of which were consecutive (1928-1956).
• Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav was the first Indian individual Olympic medalist. He won bronze at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki in wrestling.
• India has won seven Olympic medals in wrestling and since Beijing 2008, India has won at least one wrestling medal at each of the last four Olympic Games – Sushil Kumar in men’s freestyle 66 kg (2008, 2012), Yogeshwar Dutt in men’s freestyle 60 kg (2012), Sakshi Malik in women’s freestyle 58 kg (2016), Ravi Kumar Dahiya in men’s freestyle 57 kg (2020), and Bajrang Punia in men’s freestyle 65 kg (2020).
• Neeraj Chopra was India’s first ever Olympic gold medallist in track and field, winning the javelin throw with a throw of 87.58 metres.
• PV Sindhu is the youngest Olympic medallist India has ever produced. She was 21 years, 1 month and 14 days old when she won the silver medal in the women’s badminton event in Rio 2016.

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