I believe India is on the verge of creating Olympic history at Tokyo. Our performance in world’s biggest sports platform has improved over the years but this time, our medal prospects look very promising. The sheer confidence of our athletes who have braved the Covid pandemic and the excellent support system both Centre and States have provided is testimony to the fact India would shine.
Our contingent for Tokyo 2020 includes 127 participants from 18 sports disciplines. If the coaches and other support staff are included, it is 228. The sheer size of the contingent shows how confident we are of our performance.
To be honest, Tokyo Olympics would go down in the history as one of the most challenging because the odds it threw at the sportspersons, sporting bodies as well as governments were unprecedented. But our sporting heroes have stood tall against the obstacles, persevered despite the health crisis while the governments provided them extra-ordinary support for training by creating bio bubbles wherever needed.
India’s approach to preparation for Olympics has changed over the years. As a country, we have become more aggressive in chasing our goals which has happened because the sports eco-system has undergone a complete change and become professional. Identifying talents, nurturing them through appropriate training and support system, use of science and technology and international exposure have provided a system that creates world class sportspersons which is evident in the great performances ours sporting heroes have put forth in international competitions.
This, I believe,, will propel our performance at Tokyo. There are multiple sporting disciplines in which I think India will excel. Shooting, wrestling, weight-lifting, boxing, athletics, badminton, archery and of course, hockey, are the disciplines in which Indian athletes would shine.
Hockey being my life, I would talk about our prospects in Tokyo 2020. India’s Men’s team is placed in Group A and will have some formidable teams to overcome before it reaches the knockout stage. But this Indian team looks one of the strongest I have ever seen in years. In Manpreet Singh and Rani Rampal, we have inspiring captains. These teams have beaten some of world’s top teams in the FIH tournaments in recent times which will give them confidence to put their best foot forward at Tokyo.
Given the team composition and work put in by our players, coaches as Hockey India, I think we have a very realistic change of a medal in hockey. Remember, we have two players in the Men’s team and one in the Women’s team from Odisha. These are all very key players for India and we will be cheering for the teams all the way.
Similarly, in Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhury, India has been world champion in last few years as these two shooters have brought top medals for the country. I see them repeating their feats and getting us medals at Tokyo.
Wrestling too has emerged as one of our strengths and given our performance in last Olympic and in subsequent events, I think our stars like Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya will recreate history. My expectations from weight-llifting are same because in Mirabai Chanu, we have a world class weight-lifter.
Our badminton players have given us every hope to expect medals in the Olympics. I will look forward to PV Sindhu, B Sai Praneeth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in both singles and doubles events.
My best wishes to our archery team which has champions like Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das and I think they have it in them to bring us medals.
Also in track and field events, Neeraj Chopra is a world class javelin player. So is Shivpal Singh. I remember both had training camps at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar last year. Odisha Government made them feel at home and provided every support in their month-long practice sessions.
I will be lying if I say I am not expecting a medal from our champion sprinter Dutee Chand. She is a fighter and has turned every challenge into an opportunity. She shines on the big stage.
I may have missed a few names but be sure, I would be praying and looking forward to performance of every single member of the Indian contingent when the games begin.