Indian athletes who can win multiple medals at the Tokyo Olympics

Tokyo Olympics 2020 will see a record number of Indian athletes participate in a record number of events. To add to that, the Indian athletes are projected to win a record number of medals as well in this year's quadrennial event. However, there will be a few athletes who will be looking to multiply their glory by bringing home more than one medal.

Manu Bhaker can become India's first ever multiple medalist at the Olympics

Although there have been instances of Indian athletes qualifying in more than one particular event in the past at the Olympics, those athletes have not managed to win multiple medals at a particular Games edition.

However, this time, there is a crop of Indian athletes who are equally strong in all the events they are participating in the Tokyo Olympics. Let's have a closer look at them.

Indian athletes who can win multiple medals at the Tokyo Olympics

For an athlete to win multiple medals at any Olympics is a huge achievement. Athletes like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and Carl Lewis attained legendary status by achieving this feat in multiple Olympics over their respective illustrious careers.

Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals at the 2008 Olympics

As far as Indian athletes are concerned, no Indian athlete has ever achieved this feat in the past. The likes of Dhyan Chand, Balbir Singh Sr., and Sushil Kumar have won multiple medals for India at the Olympics but they have achieved this feat in different editions of the Olympics. In fact, these athletes were only eligible for one medal at a particular Olympics in their respective events.

However, at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, quite a few Indian athletes are likely to win multiple medals in their events. The likes of Deepika Kumari, Saurabh Chaudhary, Manu Bhaker and Atanu Das have that potential to be crowned Olympic medalists on more than one occasion at the Tokyo Olympics. Take a look at our potential multiple medal winners in detail.

Olympic medal chances for India in shooting

The Indian shooting squad at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 boasts of some superemely talanted young shooters. The fact of the matter is that these young shooters have outshone their senior compatriots both at the national and international level.

Out of the 15 shooters that have qualified for India, 8 will be in contention to win more than one medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The inclusion of mixed team events in shooting at the Tokyo Olympics can prove to be an important factor if any Indian shooter achieves this feat.

Manu Bhaker will be representing India in 3 events and thus will be a huge prospect to win multiple medals for India at the Tokyo games. She, along with Saurabh Chaudhary, has won a medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at all the World Cup stages since 2019.

Her performance in the 10m air pistol individual event too has been very impressive. She won a gold medal at the 2019 World Cup Final in Putian, China with an impressive finals score of 244.7.

Manu has put up some brilliant performances in the 25m pistol event as well. She has registered some amazing qualification scores for this particular event in the current cycle. However, her shortcoming has been her performance in the finals in this event.

India's biggest hope of winning multiple medals at the Tokyo Olympics would be Saurabh Chaudhary. He has been in immaculate form since the 2018 Asiad, where he won a gold medal. Since then, the 19-year-old boy from Meerut has won multiple medals at various editions of the ISSF World Cup.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Saurabh will be one of the hot favorites to win a medal in both the individual and mixed event. In addition to Saurabh and Manu, the 10m air pistol shooters Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Singh Deswal will also feature in individual and mixed team events at the Tokyo Olympics.

The current World No. 1 in the individual event, Abhishek Verma, too, has dominated the 10m air pistol event along with Saurabh in the current cycle. He too will be eyeing the chance to win multiple medals in Tokyo. The supremely talented Yashaswini will also present her challenge to win multiple medals at the Tokyo Olympics. In the individual event, she has won a couple of gold medals at the ISSF World Cup since 2019 and in the mixed team too she has done well with Abhishek.

In the men's 10m air rifle event, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Deepak Kumar will be representing India at the Tokyo Olympics. The 18-year-old Divyansh has been particularly brilliant since 2019 and has won numerous accolades since then. He will also present his challenge in the 10m air rifle mixed team event with Elavenil Valarivan, who herself is slated to represent India in the women's 10m air rifle event at the Tokyo Olympics.

Both Divyansh and Elavenil are tipped to win a medal for India in the 10m air rifle mixed team event. Divyansh is one of the hot favorites to win a medal in the men's 10m air rifle event as well. He too has the potential to become a multiple medalist at the Tokyo Olympics for India.

Elavenil, on the other hand, has seen a recent dip in form at her individual event. But one cannot write her off as the 21-year-old shooter has done well in the past. Apart from Elavenil and Divyansh, Air Force sergeant Deepak Kumar and Anjum Moudgil will also have a shot at becoming multiple medalists at the Tokyo Olympics.

However, Anjum, after getting scrapped from the 10m air rifle women's event, has lost her confidence. Her recent performances in the women's 50m rifle 3 position event don't seem to be encouraging and she'll need a rather drastic turn around to win a medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

A similar dip has been witnessed in Deepak's case. He's been very inconsistent in his individual events lately and expecting a medal out of him might be too tough a task.

Shooting events at the Olympics are all about momentum. In the recent past, we have seen the likes of Jin Jong-Oh of Korea, Niccolò Campriani of Italy and Hoàng Xuân Vinh of Vietnam win multiple medals owing to the strong momentum they generated after winning a medal in their first event.

One can expect Indian shooters to do well too if they get a stupendous start to their campaign at the Tokyo Olympics. Overall, one can expect all pistol shooters and Divyansh to return home with more than one medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

Olympic medal chances for India in archery

In the past, Indian archers have not performed up to their potential at the Olympics. However, there is a renewed sense of expectation around the Indian archers in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics. Deepika Kumari has regained her World No. 1 ranking among women. She will head into the Tokyo Olympics as one of the favorites to win an individual medal.

However, with the introduction of the mixed team event, she can be expected to win more than one medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Her mixed-team partner is yet to be decided, however, and one can expect that to be Atanu Das, given his recent form.

Apart from Deepika, male archers including Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai too will be eyeing for multiple medals at the Tokyo Olympics. The chances of Deepika's mixed team partner winning multiple medals will be slightly more as that particular archer will be participating in 3 events at the Tokyo games.

However, the Indian archers have an uphill task of beating both history and their opponents to be crowned multiple medalists at the Tokyo Olympics.

Olympic medal chances for India in athletics and swimming

Although sprinter Dutee Chand and swimmer Sajan Prakash are slated to participate in more than one event at the Tokyo Olympics, it'll be absolutely miraculous if any one among them comes home with any medal.

Dutee Chand has been improving very rapidly in the women's 100m sprint. She is slated to participate in the 200m event as well. She will be looking to improve on her personal bests at the Tokyo games.

Sajan too has done well to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics and is slated to participate in more than one event. However, he too will be looking to clock an impressive timing more than anything.

Overall, shooters like Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Manu Bhaker and Divyansh Singh Panwar hold the key if an Indian athlete is to become a multiple medalist at the Tokyo Olympics.