India, a country with second largest population, has struggled to win medals at Olympics. India dominated the hockey field in which it has won eight gold medals so far. But after 1980 Moscow Olympics, the hockey team failed to snatch a single medal.
India first participated at the Olympic Games in 1900, with a lone athlete Norman Pritchard. The nation first sent a team to the Summer Olympic Games in 1920, and has participated in every Summer Games since then.
India has so far won 9 gold medals, 6 silver and 11 bronze medals, a total of 26 medals in 30 Olympics Games.
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In the 1900 Paris Olympics, Norman Pritchard won silver medals in the 200m and the 200m hurdles.
Between 1928 and 1980, Indian hockey team won 8 gold medals (1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964, 1980). These were the only medal for India during that period.
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In the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, besides the gold from Indian men's hockey team, Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav won a bronze in men's wrestling freestyle bantamweight category.
India won silver in men's hockey in 1960.
In 1968 and 1972, men's hockey team managed to clinch bronze medals.
In 1996, Leander Paes won a bronze in tennis. > Read: The phenomenon that's Leander Paes
In 2000 and 2004 > Karnam Malleswari (weightlifting – 69 kg category) and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (shooting – double trap) won bronze and silver medals respectively.
In 2008, Abhinav Bindra became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal. Vijender Singh (boxing) and Sushil Kumar won a bronze each at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The 2012 London Olympics was a good event for India, winning 6 individual medals.
The list of medal winners in 2012 are
Gagan Narang Bronze Shooting Men’s 10m Air Rifle
Vijay Kumar Silver Shooting Men’s 25 Rapid Fire Pistol
Saina Nehwal Bronze Badminton Women’s Singles
Mary Kom Bronze Boxing Women’s Flyweight
Yogeshwar Dutt Bronze Wrestling Men’s 60 kg Freestyle
Sushil Kumar Silver Wrestling Men’s 66 kg Freestyle
Till now, Sushil Kumar is the only Indian to have won two individual Olympics medals for India after Norman Pritchard.
For Rio Olympics 2016, India is sending a strong contingent of about 119 athletes. This will be the largest contingent so far for India.
Expected medal winners are
Saina Nehwal, Abhinav Bindra, Indian men's hockey team, Yogeshwar Dutt, women's archery team, tennis mixed doubles, Gagan Narang, Tennis men's doubles.