These athletes will try to bring glory to their country in various events through the extravaganza.
As the opening of the Tokyo Olympics nears every single day, several Indians will be at the edge of anticipation. The Indian contingent has several promising athletes who are all capable of raising the Indian flag on the podium.
Let us take a look at all the Indian athletes who have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics so far in their respective sports. One of the big events that is yet to confirm the final spots is Badminton with medal hopefuls PV Sindhu and others are aiming to make the list by the time the slots are announced.
Archery
Archery is one of those events where World Championship success hasn’t translated into the Olympic stage. The Indian archers will look to set the record straight this time around with as many as 4 archers set to feature in Tokyo Olympics from India.
- Tarundeep Rai, Men’s Recurve, Individual
- Atanu Das, Men’s Recurve, Individual
- Pravin Jadhav, Men’s Recurve, Individual
- Deepika Kumari, Women’s Recurve, Individual
The men’s trio will also compete as a team at Tokyo 2020 as they had secured a team quota during the 2019 Archery World Championships in the Netherlands. If the women’s team secures a quota in the upcoming Qualification Event in Paris, Ankita Bhakat and Komolika Bari will join Deepika Kumari in Tokyo to take the total strength to six.
Athletics
Athletics has never been India’s strong suit at the Olympics but emerging javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh have raised hopes this time around.
KT Irfan will be a big medal hopeful this time around, after being the first athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. He had finished 10th in the 2012 Olympics, setting a new National Record enroute, and will be looking to improve on his previous timings.
Rising javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh are also two athletes to keep an eye on along with 4 x 400m mixed relay team comprising of Asian Games-gold medal winner Muhammad Anas.
- KT Irfan, Men’s 20km race walking, individual
- Sandeep Kumar, Men’s 20km race walking, individual
- Rahul Rohilla, Men’s 20km race walking, individual
- Avinash Sable, Men’s 3000m steeplechase, individual
- Murali Sreeshankar, Men’s long jump, individual
- Neeraj Chopra, Men’s javelin throw, individual
- Shivpal Singh, Men’s javelin throw, individual
- Kamalpreet Kaur, Women’s discus throw, individual
- Bhawna Jat, Women’s 20km race walking, individual
- Priyanka Goswami, Women’s 20km race walking, individual
- Muhammed Anas, VK Vismaya, Jisna Mathew, and Noah Nirmal, 4×400 Mixed Relay
Boxing
The Indian boxers booked nine quotas for the Tokyo Olympics at the Asia Oceania boxing Olympic qualifiers held in Amman, Jordan. The Indian contingent will feature 5 men and 4 women, including the 2012 London Bronze medal winning inspiration Mary Kom. Boxing, similar to shooting and wrestling stands top of the list of sports that are medal hopefuls.
- Vikas Krishan (Men’s, 69kg)
- Lovlina Borgohain (Women’s, 69kg)
- Ashish Kumar (Men’s, 75kg)
- Pooja Rani (Women’s, 75kg)
- Satish Kumar (Men’s, 91kg)
- Mary Kom (Women’s, 51kg)
- Amit Panghal (Men’s, 52kg)
- Manish Kaushik (Men’s, 63kg)
- Simranjit Kaur (Women’s, 60kg)
Fencing
- Bhavani Devi- She became the first-ever Indian to qualify for Olympics in the sport. The 27-year-old who wields a sabre qualified through the Adjusted Official Ranking (AOR) method. She is ranked 42nd in the world and is the second highest-ranked Asian.
Hockey
- Men’s National Team- The Men’s team, currently ranked 4th in the world, qualified after a thumping two-legged victory over Russia in the Olympic qualifiers.
- Women’s National Team- The Women’s team qualified by beating USA 6-5 on aggregate in the Olympic qualifiers.
Sailing
- Nethra Kumanan – She became the first Indian woman sailor to qualify for the Olympics after she secured a top-place finish in the laser-radial event at the Mussanah Open Championship in Oman. The Indian athlete also becomes the first-ever sailor to qualify via a qualifier while all previous entrants had taken quota places that weren’t filled up.
- KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar – These two sailors qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in the 49er category by finishing atop the field at the Mussanah Open Sailing Championships.
- Vishnu Saravanan – The 22-year-old sailor qualified for Tokyo 2020 after he finished third (after 15 races) in the Laser Standard category at the Mussanah Open Sailing Championship (MOSC). MOSC is an Asian & African Olympic qualifier tournament.
Shooting
Shooting is India’s biggest medal hope. The nation has achieved atleast a medal in the sport in three of the last four Olympics. This time around, there are 15 shooters who are participating and all of them are coming off from stellar showings in the recently concluded ISSF World Cup held in New Delhi.
The big miss from the list would be Chinki Yadav, who won the gold in the ISSF World Cup for the 25m Pistol category. She was replaced by Elavenil Valarivan who will compete in the 10 m Air Rifle Category, while Anjum Moudgil will compete in the 50m 3 positions category. Manu Bhakker will replace Chinki Yadav in the 25 m pistol event, having already booked a place for competing in the 10m pistol event.
- Anjum Moudgil, 50m Women’s Air Rifle 3 positions, Individual and Mixed Team
- Apurvi Chandela, 10m Women’s Air Rifle, Individual
- Elavenil Valarivan, 10m Women’s Air Rifle, Individual and Mixed Team
- Divyansh Singh Panwar, 10m Men’s Air Rifle, Individual and Mixed Team
- Deepak Kumar, 10m Men’s Air Rifle, Individual and Mixed Team
- Tejaswini Sawant, 50m Women’s Rifle 3 Position, Individual
- Sanjeev Rajput, 50m Men’s Rifle 3 Position, Individual
- Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar, 50m Men’s Rifle 3 Position, Individual
- Manu Bhaker, 10m Women’s Air Pistol, Individual and 25m Pistol Women, Individual and Mixed Team
- Yashaswini Singh Deswal, 10m Women’s Air Pistol, Individual and Mixed Team
- Saurabh Chaudhary, 10m Men’s Air Pistol, Individual and Mixed Team
- Abhishek Verma, 10m Men’s Air Pistol, Individual and Mixed Team
- Rahi Sarnobat, 25m Women’s Pistol, Individual
- Angad Veer Singh Bajwa, Men’s Skeet, Individual
- Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Men’s Skeet, Individual
