Stat of the day
India to send its biggest-ever contingent in Boxing, Shooting, and Wrestling to Tokyo Olympics
India is expected to send the highest number of players in the sport of Boxing, Shooting, and Wrestling to the Tokyo Olympics.
The 2016 Olympics was a forgettable one for India. Despite sending its biggest ever contingent in Olympic history, consisting of 117 athletes, to Rio de Janeiro, the country managed to win just two medals – one silver and one bronze.
The athletes and fans from the country alike would want to put the horrors from 2016 Rio behind and script something better when the Tokyo Olympics begin in less than two months' time.
The one aspect that one expects will certainly help India create a turnaround is the countries contingent in Boxing, Shooting and Wrestling. With the qualification period for all these three sports over, India is expected to send the highest number of players in these sports in their Olympic history.
Boxing
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will see a total of 9 Indian pugilists – Amit Panghal, Vikas Yadav, Manish Kaushik, Ashish Kumar, Satish Kumar, Mary Kom, Simranjit Kaur, Lovlina Borgohain, and Pooja Rani, in contention for a podium finish.
This will be the biggest ever Indian boxing contingent in the history of Olympics. Previously, India's biggest boxing contingent was during the 2012 London Games, when the country had a total of 8 boxers competing.
Shooting
Shooting has been termed as India's best bet to boost their medal tally at Tokyo Olympics. The country's shooting squad for the 2020 Games which was named a couple of months back, included a whopping 15 shooters – Angad Bajwa, Saurabh Chaudhary, Mairaj Khan, Deepak Kumar, Divyansh Panwar, Sanjeev Rajput, Aishwary Tomar, Abhishek Verma, Manu Bhaker, Yashashwini Deswal, Apurvi Chandela, Rahi Sarnobat, Anjum Moudgil, Tejaswini Sawant and Elavenil Valarivan.
The previous record for India's biggest shooting contingent at Olympics came in during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games when the country had sent a total of 12 shooters.
Wrestling
Wrestling has been one of India's more successful sports at the Olympics, winning a total of 5 medals, including one silver and four bronze at the quadrennial event. The country has a great chance of increasing this medal count even further as they send their biggest ever Olympic contingent in the sport of eight wrestlers – Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Bajrang Punia, Deepak Punia, Sumit Malik, Seema Bisla, Vinesh Phogat, Anshu Malik, and Sonam Malik, to Tokyo.
India's biggest-ever Olympic contingent in wrestling so far was the 2016 Rio Games, when a total of 7 wrestlers represented the country.
