Since making its debut in the 1900 Olympics in Paris, India had won only 17 medals before the start of the 2008 Olympics. In Beijing, Abhinav Bindra created history by becoming the first Indian to win an individual gold medal in the quadrennial extravaganza.
Bindra’s gold in the 10m air rifle event is India’s 18th Olympic medal, which includes Norman Pritchard’s two silver medals in the 200m dash and 200m hurdles in Paris.
After 1900, India again participated in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp with a two-member athletics team but did not win any medal. It won its first gold medal, in hockey, in the subsequent Olympics in Amsterdam in 1928 under the captaincy of Jaipal Singh. India then successfully defended its title in the next five Olympics.
Indian hockey added two more gold medals to its kitty by winning in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1980 Moscow Games.
India also won a silver and two bronze medals in hockey.
The nation managed to win a bronze medal each in wrestling (Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav, 1952 Helsinki) and shooting (Dr. Karni Singh, 1964 Tokyo) in various editions.
However, after 1980, India’s national anthem was never played at the Olympics until tennis star Leander Paes climbed the podium after winning the bronze in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Karnam Malleswari became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal when she won a weightlifting bronze in the 2000 Sydney Games.
Later, in the Athens Olympics in 2004, shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (in pic) won a silver medal.