India at the 2020 Summer Olympics

India competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Originally scheduled to take place in July–August 2020, the games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Games marked the nation's 25th appearance at the Summer Olympics after having made its official debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics.

India sent its largest-ever contingent consisting of 119 athletes competing across 18 sports in the Games. India entered an athlete for the fencing event for the first time in the Games history. The Games also marked the first time the nation qualified multiple athletes for sailing and achieved a direct qualification for swimming event. Mary Kom and Manpreet Singh were the flag-bearers for the opening ceremony and Bajrang Punia carried the flag during the closing ceremony.

This was also the most successful Games for India with seven medals including one gold, two silver and four bronze. The lone gold medal won by Neeraj Chopra was India's first ever in athletics and the second ever individual gold medal. India also won its first ever silver medal in weight lifting. The men's national field hockey team won the bronze medal to record their first Olympic medal since 1980. The team also recorded its third boxing medal ever and fifth and sixth Olympic medals in wrestling.

Background

The Indian Olympic Association was recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1927. The nation made its Summer Olympics debut in the 1900 Olympics at Paris with a lone athlete participating in the Games. By the time the IOA was established, India had already competed in two more Summer Olympic Games in 1920, and 1924. Indian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games since 1920 and this edition of the Games marked the nation's 25th appearance at the Summer Olympics. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Indian contingent for the games consisted of 228 people and was its largest ever for the Summer Games. It included 119 athletes, who competed across 18 sports and other support staff. Biren Prasad Baishya served as the chef de mission. The official kit for the Games was unveiled in New Delhi on 3 June 2021. The first batch of 88 personnel including 54 athletes reached the Games village in Tokyo on 18 July 2021.

Mary Kom and Manpreet Singh were the flag-bearers for the opening ceremony held on 23 July 2021 at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. Bajrang Punia was the flag-bearer for the closing ceremony held on 8 August 2021 at the same venue.

Competitors

There were 119 athletes who took part in 65 medal events across 18 sports.

Medal summary

India achieved its most successful performance in a single Games with seven medals including one gold, two silver and four bronze. Neeraj Chopra won gold in the men's javelin throw, thereby winning India's first ever gold medal in athletics. This was also India's second ever individual gold medal after Abhinav Bindra won gold in shooting in 2008. This was also India's first athletics medal since its first appearance as an independent nation in 1948, and its third overall after Norman Pritchard's silver medals in 1900.

With her silver medal in the women's 49 kg event, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu won India's first ever silver medal in weight lifting, and its first medal in the sport since 2000. P. V. Sindhu won a bronze in women's badminton singles event. Having won the silver medal in the same event in 2016, she became the first Indian female athlete and second Indian to win medals in consecutive Summer Games in individual events. The men's national field hockey team won the bronze medal to record their first Olympic medal since 1980. Lovlina Borgohain won a bronze in the women's welterweight category in boxing, thereby becoming only the third Indian to win a boxing medal at the Games after Vijender Singh in 2008 and Mary Kom in 2012. Ravi Kumar Dahiya and Bajrang Punia won silver and bronze respectively in the men's freestyle wrestling for India's fifth and sixth Olympic medals in the sport.

Medalists

Medals by sport

Medals by gender

Archery

As per World Archery, each National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter a maximum of six competitors with three per gender. NOCs that qualified teams were also allowed to have each member compete in the individual event with the remaining spots filled by individual qualification tournaments.

The Indian men's team qualified for the team event by winning the silver medal at the 2019 World Archery Championships held at 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands in June 2019. Deepika Kumari was the only Indian women archer to qualify for the Games. She beat compatriot Ankita Bhakat to claim the final Olympic quota spot in the recurve qualification event held at the 2019 Asian Archery Championships in Bangkok, Thailand in November 2019. The Indian archery squad was officially announced on 8 March 2021, consisting of the men's team of Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai and the lone woman archer Kumari, with the last two participating in their third Olympic Games.

The ranking rounds were held at the Yumenoshima Park in Tokyo on 23 July 2021. In the men's individual ranking rounds, Jadhav was the highest placed Indian with 656 points in 31st place followed by Das in 35th and Rai in 37th. Their combined score resulted in ninth seed for the team event. Kumari was seeded ninth for the women's individual event with Jadhav and Kumari combining to be seeded at ninth for the mixed team event.

In the mixed team event held on 24 July, India defeated Chinese Taipei in the round of 16 before losing to eventual gold medalists South Korea in the quarterfinals. In the men's team event held on 26 July, the Indian team achieved a similar result, losing to eventual gold medalists South Korea in the quarterfinals after having overcome Kazakhstan in the round of 16. In the men's individual events, Jadhav and Rai did not progress beyond the round of 32 while Das lost in the round of 16 to Takaharu Furukawa of Japan after winning his initial two bouts. In the women's individual event, Kumari won her first two rounds by point scores before she beat Ksenia Perova by a single arrow shoot off in the next round. In the quarterfinals, she lost to eventual gold medalist An San of South Korea.

Legend:Q = Qualified for the next phase; W = Win; L = Loss

Athletics

As per the governing body World Athletics (WA), a NOC was allowed to enter up to three qualified athletes in each individual event and one qualified relay team if the Olympic Qualifying Standards (OQS) for the respective events had been met during the qualifying period. The remaining places were allocated based on the World Athletics Rankings which were derived from the average of the best five results for an athlete over the designated qualifying period, weighted by the importance of the meet.

Indian qualified nine athletes for individual track events, seven for field events and two relay teams. Irfan Kolothum Thodi was the first Indian athlete who qualified for the Games after he achieved the qualification time for the men's 20 km walk event at the Asian Race-Walking Championships at Nomi, Japan in March 2019. Indian duo of Sandeep Kumar and Rahul Rohilla qualified for the same event after they achieved the qualification standard of 1:21.00 at the National Race-Walking Championships in 2021. Bhawna Jat was the first Indian woman athlete to secure qualification for the Games after she clocked a time of 1:29:54 at the 2020 National championships to finish within the OQS of 1:31:00 for the women's 20 km walk event. Priyanka Goswami clocked 1:28:45 when she won the National championships in 2021 to qualify for the same event. Dutee Chand qualified for the women's 100 m and 200 m events on the basis of her world ranking of 47 and 59 respectively. Avinash Sable achieved the qualification standard of 8:22.00 for the men's 3000 m steeple chase when he clocked 8:21.37 in the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. M. P. Jabir and Gurpreet Singh qualified for the men's 400 m hurdles and men's 50 km walk events respectively through their respective world rankings.

In the field events, Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh attained the qualification standard of 85 meters (m) for the men's javelin throw event with throws of 87.86 m and 85.47 m respectively at the ACNW League Meeting held at Potchefstroom, South Africa in January 2021. Murali Sreeshankar made the cut for the men's long jump after he surpassed the qualification standard of 8.22 m with an 8.26 m jump in the Federation Cup event in March 2021. In the same competition, Kamalpreet Kaur breached the Olympic qualification standard of 63 m with a throw of 65.06 m in the women's discus throw. Seema Punia achieved the qualification standard for the same event with a throw of 63.72 on the deadline day on 29 June 2021. Tajinderpal Singh Toor qualified for the men's shot put after achieving the Olympic standard with an Asian record throw of 21.49 m in the Indian Grand Prix event in June 2021. Annu Rani qualified for the women's javelin throw event by virtue of her world ranking. India also entered relay teams in the men's and Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Mixed 4 × 400 metres relay|mixed 4 X 400 m relay events.