3 sports in which India is making its debut at the Olympics

With a population of over a billion, India is participating at its 24th Olympic Games at Rio. The country was first represented by only a single athlete in the form of Norman Pritchard at the 1900 Olympic Games where he won two silver medals in athletics for India.

However, India had never participated in as diverse events at the Olympics earlier as they are at Rio 2016. With the country’s largest ever contingent at the Games, we take a look at the sports in which India will be making their debut at the Olympics -

Golf

The sport has returned to the Olympic Games at Rio after a gap of 112 years. The 1900 Olympics featured the outdoor sport for the first time, with the second time being in 1904. However, there came a disagreement which caused the sport not being a part of the Games after the 1904 Olympics.

After an International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Copenhagen in October 2009, the apex body decided to reinstate the sport for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Rio 2016 will be the first time when the country will be represented by an athlete in the sport at the mega event. The country will have two participants in the men’s category whereas there will be only a solitary participant in the women’s category.

Anirban Lahiri and Shiv Chawrasia will be the Indians who will take part in the men’s golf competition from 11th August whereas Aditi Ashok will represent India for the first time in the women’s golf competition which will be conducted from 17th August, 2016 in Rio.

Women’s Gymnastics

Women’s gymnastics has been at the Olympic Games for 88 years but this is the first time that an Indian woman is participating at the Olympics.

In April 2016, Dipa Karmakar became the first female Indian gymnast ever to secure an Olympic berth. She is also the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics in 52 years since India was last represented at this sport in the 1964 Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan.

Karmakar has not disappointed as she also became the first Indian to qualify for the finals in the vault which can potentially win her a medal at the Rio Olympics.

Skeet shooting

Shooting has grown on to become one of the key sports for India at the Olympic Games. Since Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s silver medal in the men’s double trap event at the 2004 Athens Games, the number of shooters going to the Games have steadily increased.

Abhinav Bindra bettered Rathore’s achievements who took the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But until the Rio Olympics, there was still a category where India had never been represented before at the Games.

Mairaj Ahmad Khan made sure that the situation changed as he became the first Indian skeet shooter to qualify for the Olympic Games as he won qualification at an ISSF Shotgun World Cup held in Lonato in September last year.

The 40-year old shotgun shooter will be taking part in his first Olympics when he takes to the shooting range on 12th August, 2016 in Rio in the men’s skeet event.

Honourable mentions

The Indian women’s Hockey team are back at the Olympics for the first time since 1980, when they were invited to take part in the tournament. After a series of strong performances at the Hockey World League, the Indian eves made it back to the Games, this time thanks to their collective effort on the field.

Another discipline in which India are making a comeback is the Greco-Roman wrestling category, where Hardeep Singh and Ravinder Khatri will be participating.

The JSW Sports Excellence Program wrestler Hardeep, switched to Greco-Roman from Freestyle only in 2009, but is already an experienced hand and a dark horse for a medal.

Judoka Avtar Singh will be India’s first representative in Judo at Rio 2016 since 2004, when Akram Shah’s participation. Singh, who is supported by JSW’s Sports Excellence Program, will be aiming to clinch a medal for the nation in Brazil.