India’s First Ever Individual GOLD Medal,Beijing Olympic Games

India wins its first ever - individual gold medal at an Olympic games

Abhinav Bindra’s gold medal today in the 10 meter air rifle was India’s first individual gold medal - ever.

For a country of its population, around 1.13, India doesn’t have a particularly good track record at the Olympic games. They have competed in almost every Olympic Games since 1900 but have only managed to win a total of 17 medals, 18 including today’s gold.

India has been dominate in men’s hockey winning many gold medals over the years. This Olympics, however, India failed to even qualify for that event - the first time in 80 years.

India is a developing country; China however is also a developing country and it manages to finish at the top of the medal table. Some say the problem is that India loves cricket too much, but even in cricket, Australia dominates the sport, has a population of around 20 million people and still manages to finish in the top five or six countries at the Olympics.

India competed for the first time in the Olympic Games in 1900 in Paris. It had just one competitor Norman Pritchard. Since India was not yet independent, some records show that Pritchard won medals for Great Britain. Fortunately for India, the IOC counts the medals for India.

You could say 1952 was a golden year for India at the Olympics, winning 2 gold medals - a gold (in hockey) and a bronze in wrestling.

Let’s hope India can win at least one more medal at the Beijing Olympics!

Here is a list of India’s medals:

2008 - gold - shooting
2004 - silver - shooting, men’s double trap
2000 - bronze - weightlifting
1996 - bronze - men’s singles tennis
1992 - no medals
1988 - no medals
1984 - no medals
1980 - gold - men’s hockey
1976 - no medals
1972 - bronze - men’s hockey
1968 - bronze
1964 - gold - men’s hockey
1960 - silver
1956 - gold - men’s hockey
1952 - gold - men’s hockey, bronze - wrestling
1948 - gold - men’s hockey
1936 - gold - men’s hockey
1932 - gold
1928 - gold - men’s hockey
1924 - no medals
1920 - no medals
1900 - two silver medals, men’s 200m and men’s 200m hurdles