In Tokyo, India discovered

Source: ToI

What is the news?

Neeraj Chopra, became the first India to win an athletic gold medal for independent India. India made a profound statement in Tokyo asserting that ‘We too can do it.’

India’s record in Olympics

• As a colony, India first took part in the Paris Olympics in 1900 and won two medals.
• It took 108 years to better that tally to 3 in Beijing and another 4 years to go up to 6 in London. But then the medal count fell to 2 in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
• Till the last Rio games, India could fetch only 27 medals in 24 Olympic ventures.
• When other similarly placed countries made rapid strides towards the medal stand.

Mission ahead

• Four gold medals would have placed India among the top 20 in the medal tally and another four among the top ten.
• This is imminently feasible in the future given our show in Tokyo, as detailed and explained above.
• The thrust given by GoI on identifying and promoting sporting excellence since 2015 bore results in Tokyo.
• This mission can be achieved by nurturing the culture of sports across the country and through necessary professional and scientific help to our future stars.

Conclusion

Tokyo games, our best moment in 121 years of Olympic history, demonstrated that India can do it. It is now Target Paris in 2024.