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Neeraj Chopra’s javelin gold medal seals India’s greatest ever Olympics

Army officer wins nation’s first athletics gold to spark celebrations and a resurgence of pride amid the ravages of Covid

India has been swept up in a wave of euphoria after Neeraj Chopra won the country’s first ever Olympic athletics gold medal with victory in the men’s javelin in Tokyo.

Chopra’s historic triumph on Saturday night means India has racked up its best-ever Olympic medal haul of seven and caps a resurgence of national pride amid the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 427,000 Indians.

When nothing else works, what does India do? It calls out the Army... As it did searching for its first ever track & field Olympic medal... And you know what, Indian Army delivered a gold... 1.38 billion thank you Indian Army, and Subedar @Neeraj_chopra1 pic.twitter.com/rK8439WtBN — Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) August 7, 2021

India was already riding high on a strong performance by the men’s and women’s hockey teams after decades in the doldrums.

But Chopra’s victory in the javelin with a throw of 87.58m was something that none of his 1.38 billion compatriots have ever seen before.

“It feels unbelievable,” he said. “This is our first Olympic medal for a very long time, and in athletics it is the first time we have gold, so it’s a proud moment for me and my country.”

For a long time to come, millions of Indians will remember where they were the day Chopra won. There was hardly a household where families were not clustered to watch the moment when a nation obsessed with gold in every form – jewellery, bars, coins - could finally exult at winning a medal of gold.

“I went out for dinner later and the restaurant owner gave everyone free drinks to celebrate the win. He said he had given up ever hoping to hear the Indian national anthem played at the games,” said shop keeper Neeraj Tiwari.

The excited congratulatory tweet from prime minister Narendra Modi set the tone. After speaking to the new golden boy of Indian sport, Modi tweeted that Chopra “personifies the best of sporting talent and sportsman spirit”.

Just spoke to @Neeraj_chopra1 and congratulated him on winning the Gold! Appreciated his hardwork and tenacity, which have been on full display during #Tokyo2020 . He personifies the best of sporting talent and sportsman spirit. Best wishes for his future endeavours. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 7, 2021

At the army officer’s home village of Khandra in Haryana, ecstatic scenes broke out. The obligatory crackers were burst and farmers and their sons danced in the streets to loud drumming after watching the man who had been so badly bullied as a teenager for his obesity (at 13, he weighed 80kg) that he had to take to the gym, doing the country proud.

‘I kept chanting a prayer constantly. It was the only way I could calm myself,” his mother, Saroj, told reporters after the media invaded the village. His father Satish, a farmer who looked overwhelmed and unable to handle all the constantly ringing phones in the house, said simply: “I am not getting the words to explain this happiness.”

‘Athletics, gold, India. Those three words have never been used together,” said one newspaper. Other writers waxed poetical, talking of how Chopra’s javelin “soared, picked out by the blaze of lights at the Olympic stadium, through the warm and humid night, and plunged itself straight into the pages of history”.

‘We are so used to getting ‘close’, to ‘just missing it’ or ‘missing it by a whisker’ that I thought it wasn’t going to happen in my lifetime. Chopra has redeemed all our earlier misses,” a young man in Khandra told reporters.

India’s only previous athletics medals came in 1900 – two silvers won by Norman Pritchard, son of a British colonial family, in the 200m and the 200m hurdles. And despite a record number of hockey team golds, the nation’s only previous individual gold was won by shooter Abhinav Bindra in 2008 .

Cricket is the all-consuming sport in India, and all of its powerbrokers were watching Chopra’s triumph. The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced a cash reward for the Olympic medal winners. Military leaders chimed in, too.

Chopra, a junior officer in the Indian army with the Rajputana Rifles, made his first mark on international athletics with a world junior title in 2016. Two years later, he became the first Indian athlete to win the javelin at the Asian Games and at the Commonwealth Games.

Preparations were under way on Sunday to welcome Chopra when he comes home. The road into the village will likely have to be widened to take all the media vehicles and VIPs who will descend.

There were also congratulations for wrestler Bajrang Punia, who won a bronze medal in the men’s freestyle wrestling 65kg final on Saturday.

Thank you sir @ianuragthakur https://t.co/iM39Pvv8wU — Bajrang Punia 🇮🇳 (@BajrangPunia) August 7, 2021

It follows a bronze medal for the men’s hockey team after they defeated Germany in the third-place playoff on Thursday. It was India’s first hockey medal since 1980 and was complemented by the women’s team, who went down fighting in the bronze medal match against Great Britain.

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FiveThirtyEight

Aug. 6, 2021 , at 12:15 PM

India’s Olympic Struggles Aren’t New, But It’s Making A Comeback In One Important Sport

By Santul Nerkar

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This article is part of our Tokyo Olympics series.

UPDATE (Aug. 7, 2021, 1:30 p.m.): India won two more medals on Saturday: a gold for Neeraj Chopra in javelin, the country’s first in that event, and a bronze for Bajrang Punia in men’s freestyle 65kg wrestling. That gives India seven medals — the most it has won in a single Olympics, and three medals above what the FiveThirtyEight tracker expected.

Why do some countries flourish at the Olympics and others founder? It’s a question that’s been studied for years. In general, rich countries fare better than poor ones, healthy countries better than sick and countries well connected with roads and bridges better than those lacking basic infrastructure. Harsh geopolitical and material inequalities don’t disappear when it’s time to sprint 100 meters, shoot clay targets or parry a fencing sword — no matter what the quintessentially American belief in sports as a meritocracy may suggest.

And when the Summer Olympics roll around, the achievement gap question is invariably projected onto the performance of India : Why doesn’t it win more medals? Despite its remarkable economic growth over the past three decades and its current stature as the world’s second-most-populous country and fifth-largest economy , India is still by many accounts a poor country . Some observers, like Nobel Laureate economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, point to India’s high rates of child malnutrition as possibly intertwined with its poor Olympic showing. Anirudh Krishna and Eric Haglund argued in a 2008 paper that despite its population of nearly 1.4 billion people, India’s “effective participation rate” — or the true supply of people competing in athletics — is far smaller. 

Up to the 2020 Games, India had captured a total of only 28 medals — the same that American swimmer Michael Phelps amassed all by himself — across 36 Olympics dating to 1900. Its most recent gold medal came in 2008 , 1 and it boasts a medal rate of just over 2 percent. Of any country with at least one medal, India has the worst population-to-medals ratio , and it has won gold medals in only two events. 

India had high hopes going into Tokyo, with the country’s largest-ever Olympic contingent . When all is said and done, the country is likely to have collected just five medals . But that’s actually better than what FiveThirtyEight’s Olympic medal tracker expected based on India’s showing in the past three Games, and it ranks second all-time 2 in the country’s medal haul at one Olympics. After the national team’s overall dismal showing at the 2016 Games in Rio — where it won only two medals — both the Indian government and private companies stepped up their bankrolling of the various federations and athletes that had been chronically under-funded . It may not have paid off in an impressive medal ranking — India is still projected to finish in just 41st place — but gains were meaningful in one sport in particular.

The men’s and women’s field hockey teams won over the hearts of exultant fans back home with their extended runs in the Olympic tournaments. Neither squad got off to an especially smooth start in Tokyo; the men were clobbered 7-1 by Australia in just their second game of the group stage, while the women lost three of their first four group games. But both teams turned the tide, as the men won their final three group matches — including a 5-3 win over host Japan that clinched their spot in the quarterfinals — and the women won their final two, capped by a 4-3 squeaker over South Africa.

Both teams lost their semifinal matches, but they both played for bronze medals. The men prevailed after digging themselves out of a 3-1 second-quarter hole against Germany; young contributors Hardik Singh and Harmanpreet Singh used penalty corners to knot the match up at 3 before veteran defender and drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh tucked away the penalty that proved to be the bronze-medal clincher. In their third-place match against Great Britain, the women fell behind 2-0 but then found themselves in another nail-biter after scoring three straight goals to take a lead heading into the halftime break. India would be shut out in the second half, however, as the British attack equalized early in the third quarter and converted the decisive fourth-quarter score after a barrage of penalty corners, with the final score going 4-3 for Britain — along with the bronze.

related: What’s Rarer Than Gold? Making It Onto A Wheaties Box. Read more. »

With only the understanding of India’s historically miserable Olympic output, you could be forgiven for not knowing its rich hockey past. While the women’s team’s best Olympic performance before this year was a fourth-place finish in 1980, it has also succeeded on the international stage, winning multiple Asia Cups, the 1982 Asian Games and the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The Indian men’s hockey team , though, might be the best dynasty you’ve never heard of . It won six straight gold medals during its “Golden Era” from 1928 to 1960, and it has the most gold medals (eight) and overall medals (12) in Olympic history. Dhyan Chand, who was widely regarded as the greatest hockey player of all time and earned his moniker “ the wizard ” for his deft stickwork, steered India to three of those golds. 

India’s dominance on the world stage wasn’t to last. Starting with the 1976 Montreal Games, Astroturf became hockey’s default playing surface, making the game faster , more focused on physical fitness and more prohibitively expensive for a country with few artificial fields for its players to train on. As India’s men’s hockey coach put it in a 1996 interview with The New York Times, “We thought we could still beat our rivals on the basis of superior natural skills, and we couldn’t. We didn’t adapt fast enough, and our game suffered.” India’s Golden Era would soon be over, as the men’s team won the last of its eight gold medals at the 1980 Moscow Games before receding from the Olympic stage. The slide reached its nadir when the team failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games.

Fast forward to today, and not only has the men’s hockey team scaled the ranks of international hockey, but so too has the nascent women’s team. Entering the 2020 Olympics, the men’s side ranked fifth in the International Hockey Federation (FIH) rankings , while the women clocked in at ninth. One medal is a drop in the bucket to most Olympic mainstays, but India is no Olympic mainstay. 

Paradoxically, there is both a familiarity and altogether unfamiliarity to India’s hockey revival. While the country’s overall Olympic team has been either an afterthought or a laughingstock for much of its history, it was also an untouchable standard-bearer of one of the Games’ most iconic sports. As The New York Times’s Victor Mather recently put it , “It is not just that India was once the best team in the world in field hockey. It’s that India was once better at field hockey than any country was at nearly anything.” Even if for just a moment, India has finally gotten to recreate its hockey glory days — and that prestige is worth savoring.

Rani Rampal, forward and captain of the women’s team who has 134 goals to her name in international play, embodies the hardships that so many Indian athletes overcome. Growing up in Haryana, one of the most impoverished states in India, Rampal couldn’t even afford a hockey stick and suffered from malnourishment. After she fell in love with the game while watching a nearby academy practice, she had to plead with both the academy’s coach and her parents to let her join the team. 

“I wanted an escape from my life; from the electricity shortages, to the mosquitoes buzzing in our ear when we slept, from barely having two square meals to seeing our home getting flooded when it rained,” Rampal said in a recent post on Instagram.

The structural inequities that many Indians and Indian athletes face didn’t disappear when two hockey teams defied expectations in Tokyo, but new expectations have undoubtedly arisen where gloom and yearning for the past once reigned supreme. Only time will tell if the past few weeks were a mirage of misguided hopes or a harbinger of happier days.

Which Abhinav Bindra won in shooting — the country’s only gold that didn’t come in field hockey .

As of noon Friday. Three Indian athletes — Neeraj Chopra in the men’s javelin throw , Aditi Ashok in women’s individual golf and Bajrang Punia in men’s wrestling — are within striking distances of medals.

Santul Nerkar was a copy editor at FiveThirtyEight. @santulN

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Tokyo Olympics 2020: India finishes 48th, best in four decades; 33rd in terms of overall medals won

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Mirabai Chanu opened India's medal tally at the Tokyo Olympics by winning a silver medal in the 49kg weightlifting category. This was a historic win that hoisted India out of the bronze age in Olympic weightlifting after 21 years.

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Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh created history by becoming the first Indian rowers to qualify for the semi-finals in the Olympics. With an impressive performance, this pair clocked India’s best timing so far. The team finished 6th in the semi-finals and even though their journey came to an end with this, their performance surely made us all proud.

Manika Batra is trailing ablaze for India as she became the first Indian Table Tennis player to reach the third round in a single’s event. Her performance was definitely worth being on the lookout for. However, her Olympic campaign came to an end after she lost to the 10 th seed, Austria’s Sofia Polcanva in straight sets in Round 3.

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From being two games down to winning three games straight, Suthirtha Mukherjee too delivered a stellar debut performance and made it to the second round of the women’s single's table tennis event. However, she was defeated in the later round by one of the seeded players of the games.

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Indian shooter, Saurabh Chaudhary made a mark after reaching the finals of the 10m air pistol men’s event as he topped the qualification round with stellar scores. However, he crashed out in the finals and finished seventh.

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19-year-old Manu Bhaker might have failed to qualify for the 10m Air Pistol event but she showed immense character and nerves in the qualification round. Despite facing a complete weapon breakdown and losing a lot of crucial time in the process, Manu didn’t give up and made a score of 575. She finished just 2 points off the Top 8 thus getting knocked out. However, her performance and determination are worth praising. Manu went ahead to perform really well in the 25m Pistol Women's Qualification round and finished fifth with a solid total of 292 points. With this, she remains a strong contender in the race to the finals. 

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PV Sindhu who won a silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics is also off to a great start after she won her opening badminton women’s singles match against Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpova at the Tokyo Olympics. She progressed to the knockouts after a comfortable win against Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi. Post that, PV Sindhu stormed to the quarterfinals after a dominating win against Demark. Keeping the trail ablaze further, Sindhu moves into the semifinals beating Japan's Akane Yamaguchi. Moving ahead, PV Sindhu defeated World no.9 CHina's He Bing Jiao and bagged a bronze medal at the Olympics. With this, she becomes the first Indian woman athlete to win two medals at the Olympic event in a row.

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India kicked off their archery campaign at the Olympics with a magnificent win as the mixed duo of Deepika Kumari and Pravin Jadhav qualified for the quarterfinals. The duo who was shooting for the first time together at an international level showed perfect coordination and defeated the Chinese Taipei. However, they were knocked out in the quarterfinals by Korea.

Sensational Mary Kom  opened her Tokyo 2020 campaign after defeating Hernandez Garcia of Dominican with a round of 32 wins in the 51kg category, making it to the pre-quarterfinals. However, her  pursuit of a second Olympic medal ended in the pre-quarterfinals of the Tokyo Games as she went down to 2016 edition's bronze-medallist Ingrit Valencia in a fiercely fought showdown.

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29-year-old fencer Bhavani Devi made history at the Tokyo Olympics by being the first-ever fencer to represent India at the Olympics and becoming the first-ever to win a bout at the games. Despite a delay in the start to their bout, Bhavani Devi served an amazing performance at the Women’s sabre event. She was later knocked out after losing a match to France's Manin Brunet in the Table of 32 match.

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India’s archery team comprising Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav, and Tarundeep Rai endured a great day after defeating Kazakhstan 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals of the men’s team archery event at the Tokyo Olympics. However, they were knocked out after they lost 6-0 to South Korea.

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Sharath Kamal gave a thorough performance as he claimed a 4-2 win against Portugal in round 2 of the table tennis men’s single event. He lost the first game but made an epic comeback cruising to the next round. However, he  lost 1-4 to Chinese defending champion Ma Long in the third round of the men's singles at the Tokyo Olympics. Sharath's defeat marks the end of the Indian challenge in table tennis in Tokyo.

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The Indian pair of debutants Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary finished top in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Qualification Stage 1 with a total team score of 582 points and qualified for Stage 2. However, they finished 7th in the next round and could not make it further. 

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The Indian Women's Hockey Team also delivered a stellar performance and made it to the semifinals for the very first time after defeating Australia. However, they lost to Great Britain after a valiant fight.

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Archer Atanu Das  progressed to the next round of Men's Individual after sealing his best-ever Olympic performance against London silver medalist Furukawa Takaharu of Japan. He went ahead to beat Korea's Oh Jin-Hyek, the 2012 Olympic Gold Medallist in the next round thus securing a spot in the pre-quarterfinals. After a hard-fought game, he was beaten by Japan's Takaharu Furukawa.

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Fouaad  Mirza finished 25th in the Equestrian Individual's Event and qualifies for the finals. His score is the highest finish for an Indian equestrian rider. He ultimately finished 23rd in the entire eventing.

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India Medal Tally, Tokyo 2020: With 7 Medals, This Is India's Best Olympic Performance | Olympics Summary

Tokyo2020: with 1 gold, 2 silvers and 4 bronze medals, india won 7 medals, their highest ever check out india's medals tally in this year's olympic games below..

Tokyo: Neeraj Chopra's gold medal in Javelin Throw helped India jump 18 places in the Tokyo Olympics medal tally. India has secured 47th position from the 65th position on Saturday. Chopra's medal became India's seventh medal in Tokyo Olympics 2020. 

India had won just 2 medals at the Rio Olympics 2016. Thus, this is a great achievement from where India stood last time in the Olympics. In 2016, India's rank was 67 in the medals tally. India's previous best performance came in the 2012 London Olympics when India had won six medals, but India had failed to win gold even then. 

India's previous gold medal came way back in the 2008 Beijing Olympics when Abhinav Bindra had won the gold. 

Click HERE to see Full Medals Tally At Tokyo Olympics 2020

Let's take a look at India's Olympic 2020 Medal Summary:

Mirabai Chanu:  India's journey began when Mirabai Chanu, a weightlifter, gave India its first medal at the Tokyo Olympics. She took silver in the women's 49 kg category. It was India's second medal in weight-lifting after the 2000 Sydney Olympics. 

PV Sindhu: She secured a bronze medal in the women's singles event, becoming the second Indian and the country's first woman to win two Olympic medals. This was India's second medal. 

Lovina Borgohain : She secured a bronze medal in boxing. Lovlina is only the third Indian boxer after Vijender Singh (2008) and Mary Kom (2012) to win an Olympic medal. 

Ravi Dahiya : Ravi Dahiya who hails from a small village in Sonepat, Haryana won a silver medal for India at the Tokyo Olympics in Men's 57 kg wrestling. This became India's fourth medal. He was unhappy after losing the final. 

Men's Hockey : After a disappointing semi-final loss, India's men's hockey team won a medal after 41 years. It was a historic moment for the Indian team. India won a bronze. 

Bajrang Punia : He won a bronze medal in the 65kg category in wrestling. This was India's 6th medal in this year's Olympics. 

N eeraj Chopra : Finally,  India's national record holder in Javelin Throw,  Neeraj Chopra secured a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

India’s 🇮🇳 Olympics Medals 1896🥈🥈 1928🥇 1932🥇 1936🥇 1948🥇 1952🥇🥉 1956🥇 1960🥈 1964🥇 1968🥉 1972🥉 1980🥇 1996🥉 2000🥉 2004🥈 2008🥇🥉🥉 2012🥈🥈🥉🥉🥉🥉 2016🥈🥉 2021🥇🥈🥈🥉🥉🥉🥉 This is highest #olympics tally we ever got in any single edition — Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) August 7, 2021

With 1 Gold, 2 Silvers and 4 Bronze medals, India won 7 medals, their highest ever! Overall, it was a good Olympics for India. There were some disappointments as well, especially Mary Kom and Deepak Punia. Nonetheless, this was India's best performance at the Olympic Games 2020. 

With Neeraj Chopra's medal, India bids adieu to the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020. 

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Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: Neeraj Chopra wins historic Olympic gold in athletics

• Published 7 August 2021

India has broken out into celebrations after Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win a historic Olympic gold medal in athletics (javelin throw) at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games champion, 23, registered a best throw of 87.58m on Saturday.

The Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch won silver with 86.67m, while compatriot Vitezslav Vesely took bronze (85.44m).

"It feels unbelievable," said Chopra. "It's a proud moment for me and my country."

He is only the second Indian to win an individual gold after Abhinav Bindra in the 10m air rifle event at Beijing 2008.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Chopra on Twitter, saying that history had been created.

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Chopra's gold was India's seventh medal - one gold, two silver and four bronze - in Tokyo, their best ever Olympic haul having passed the six they won at London 2012.

• Neeraj Chopra wins India's first athletics gold in men's javelin

It has been a good week for the country at the Olympics - on Saturday, wrestler Bajrang Punia added to the medal haul by defeating Kazakhstan's Daulet Niyazbekov, 8-0 in their bronze medal bout.

On Wednesday, Indian wrestler Ravi Dahiya won an Olympic silver medal after he lost to Zavur Uguev of the Russian Olympic Committee in the men's freestyle 57kg final.

The 23-year-old wrestler beat Sanayev Nurislam of Kazakhstan in a dramatic semi-final that saw him overcome a 9-2 lead with two minutes to spare, achieving victory by fall.

In wrestling, if a wrestler touches the opponent's shoulder to the mat, then the victory is considered as a win by fall.

On Thursday, India ended a 41-year men's hockey medal drought when it beat Germany in a thrilling match to win bronze.

Weightlifting champion Mirabai Chanu won India's first medal in Tokyo, a silver, in the women's 49kg category, putting to rest the disappointment of the Rio Olympics in 2016 where she was knocked out after a freak injury.

India's ace shuttler PV Sindhu won bronze after beating China's He Bing Jiao, becoming the first Indian woman to win two individual Olympic medals. She won her first Olympic medal - a silver - at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The women's hockey team created history by beating Australia 1-0. The team went through to the Olympic semi-finals for the first time in history after the Rani Rampal-led side took the lead in the 22nd minute and defended it fiercely.

But the team were defeated by Argentina. On Friday, they missed out on a bronze medal when they lost to Great Britain in a nip-and tuck-battle. Nonetheless, they made history - previously, India's best result was a fourth-place finish at the 1980 Olympics.

Boxer Lovlina Borgohain had assured India of another medal - a bronze after she beat Chen Nien-chin of Chinese Taipei to enter the semi-finals. In boxing, there is no third-place match. Both semi-finalists are awarded bronze medals.

Borgohain won that bronze when she lost to Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey, 5-0. Her bronze makes her the third Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal.

The big misses for India's Olympic hopes

Vinesh Phogat's chance at Olympic gold ended on Thursday with a shocking 9-2 defeat to Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus in the women's 53 kg quarter-final.

The 26-year-old will return from the Tokyo Olympics without a medal after she missed out on the repechage round - a rule that allows athletes who failed to reach qualifications by a small margin to continue to the next round.

In wrestling it allows wrestlers to get a shot at a third-place match, the idea being that a worthy competitor not lose out just because they got a tough early draw.

India's 15-member shooting contingent was the favourite to bring back a big haul of medals but that did not go according to the plan. Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary, favourites for a podium finish in the mixed 10m Air Pistol event, crashed out in the second qualification stage in Tokyo.

Bhaker, pegged as a certain medal prospect even before the Games started, failed to reach the finals in any of her three events. She had a pistol malfunction in the 10m women's air pistol event, leading to more pressure as she lost time.

In the men's 10m air pistol event Saurabh Chaudhary, world No.2 and Youth Olympic champion, qualified for the final but failed to finish in the top three positions.

India's medal tally at recent Olympics:

• 2016 Rio Olympics: 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
• 2012 London Olympics: 2 Silver, 4 Bronze
• 2008 Beijing Olympics: 1 Gold, 2 Bronze

India has won a total of 28 medals since 1900 - 11 from hockey, five from wrestling, four from shooting, two each in badminton, boxing and athletics, and one each in tennis and weightlifting.

Despite losing out on a second Olympic medal, Mary Kom is a winner for many Indians.

She made a heart-breaking exit from the Olympics after losing to Ingrit Victoria Valencia of Colombia in her flyweight section (51kg) bout.

She initially thought she had won and was shocked to later learn from social media that she had indeed lost the match. Losing on a 3-2 split decision verdict despite winning two of the three rounds left the boxer confused.

She won a bronze at the 2012 London Olympics.

Deepika Kumari, the world No.1 in the women's recurve category, crashed out of the quarterfinals in Tokyo, losing to Korean An San in straight sets.

This was her third Olympic outing for India, having lost in the quarters in Rio in 2016, and in London in 2012.

Her husband, Atanu Das, also crashed out of the Olympics after losing to home favourite Takaharu Furukawa, an individual silver medallist at the 2012 Olympics, in a pre-quarterfinal clash.

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"I was told to cover my legs at training," wrestler Vinesh Phogat tells BBC Sport

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India's performance in Olympics - Essay Writing

01 September 2023

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The olympics.

The modern Olympic Games are leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered as the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are normally held every four years, alternating between the Summer and Winter Games every two years in the four-year period.

India's performance in Olympics

India's performance in Olympics sounds very disgraceful, for we Indians and for our country. India has the world’s second-largest population (almost 1/6th of the global population) and it is ninth largest economy. It is the biggest democracy in existence. But, why does India, despite a population of over one billion people, lack behind in the race of Olympic Glory? Every self-respecting Indian knows that India’s strike rate at the Olympics has been less than encouraging.

Just 28 medals!

A century since first participating in Olympics, India, a nation with a population of 1.3 billion has merely 28 medals to its name. The United States of America (USA), on the other hand, leads the medal tally with 2,522 medals under its belt. This clearly is not the case of population of a country which can be said is directly proportional to the number of medals.

Prosperity in all other areas, except Olympics

India has managed to put a man in space, led many scientific discoveries, forced the world to acknowledge India’s stride in the field of defense and science & technology. Indian cricket team is considered to be one of the World’s best team, then why are we not able to bring the same dedication and integrity to sports in general and the Olympic Games in particular? In fact, being the second most populous and most democratic country in the world hinders our attempts to harvest a rich haul of medals at the Olympics.

Now let's see where India actually lacks!

WHERE INDIA LACKS?

Excess importance to cricket.

We, as a country, are obsessed with a singular sport and that is cricket. It is only during major events like Olympics when other sports are given a part of the limelight and fan cheering. For the rest of the year, we stay ignorant of who’s who of other sports. They are promoted less, there are fewer sponsors for the other sports, there are even less fans hooting and cheering them to do better and then we go about complaining and trolling athletes when we do not get enough medals.

Infrastructure

We do lack proper infrastructure for training and practice sessions of athletes that could make them more competent and well equipped to deal with world class competitors. It would have been far better if our athletes could get access to better infrastructure and get to play all across the country to stay practiced. Heads of the sports organizations are simply people favored by the ruling party. They have no idea of the sport or its necessities and are yet chosen to lead the people who are serious about the sport. Even Abhinav Bindra, the gold medalist from India, went to Germany for his training.

Lack of encouragement

Right from the very beginning, youth in India are discouraged from pursuing a career in sports. Our parents are obsessed with the likes of medical and engineering. And for girls, the scenario is even worse with list of drawbacks and hindrances they have to face before they could persuade their parents to allow them to play. Most of them are forced to quit sports in order to do something that would give them better job security. Our success as an academically-oriented people proves that we are excellent at pursuing something that pays well, so does India’s obsession with cricket.

Lack of funds and proper nutrition

Athletes do not receive proper funding to meet their needs. Sportsman don’t have constant source of income and no help is given by government in their early stages of trainings. Some researches prove that the athletes of the leading nations are genetically and physically fitter than our people. They get proper nutrition that is required for a sportsperson with all the necessary elements while our athletes rely on their own little efforts to stay strong and fit.

Poor administration

There is no proper governing of Administrative issues is the prime concern with Indian sports. Non-Involvement of ex-sportsman in administrative staff is also a major reason why India lacks in this sector. Our economy has been prospering and allotment of funds to different fields of development has been improvising with each year’s budget. However, there is still relatively very less allotment of funds for sports given the sheer number of youths who are willing to take up sports seriously. Enough of IITs and IIMs, when will we get a dedicated sports university?

Politics and Corruption

We as a nation are corrupt to the core and corruption in sports ensures that affluent candidates score over talented candidates and that’s what refuses to recognize dedicated and talented sportsmen from smaller cities. There is huge influence of politics in sports too, due to which our true sportsmen are missing. Politicians plan well not to promote good talented people, but their own kins. Also, sports management and conduction has merely became another way of filling pocket in quick time.

IMPROVEMENTS TO BE DONE

Khelo india youth games.

Khelo India Youth Games, held annually in January or February, are the national level multidisciplinary grassroot games in India held for two categories, namely under-17 years school students and under-21 college students. Every year best 1000 kids will be given an annual scholarship of 5 lakh for 8 years to prepare them for the international sporting events. This is a great initiative by the Govt of India.

Collective efforts

India being a developing country cannot invest a major part of it's economy for sports. India has a huge number of industrialist and business men who can easily take up responsibilities to encourage these talented athletes and collectively make the necessary arrangements. Instead of giving them crores of rupees as rewards after winning, we should focus on giving them basic amenities for developing them as a good sports person.

Too much criticism

There is a lot of criticism about the performance of Indian athletes over the years. This decreases their morale. The point is, if you can’t support them, don’t, but please don't criticize them. You don’t know their stories, their food facility, coaching, support, Money, still they made it to Olympics to compete with the ones who were trained, supported and recognized well by their respective country or govt or organization.

We might have a lot of Dhonis but it’s difficult to find more Mary Koms and Sania Nehwals owing to the gender discrimination that has paved its way into sports. Sports and women are the two opposite ends of a pole. The society does not encourage girls to be an active part of sports, moreover they are considered to be delicate creatures and their potential in sports is questioned. This should be stopped. There should be special policies to encourage the participation of women in sports.

Transparency in the system

Selection process of players and board members needs more transparency. Sports-governing body heads should be an ex-sportsman. This will create job opportunities for sportsmen as well. Players should be only judged upon their performance and not any other factors

. CONCLUSION

Let's play.

The National Institution for Transforming India or NITI Aayog announced an action plan named Let’s Play for Revitalising Sports in India with the aim to target 50 Olympic medals in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

Improving performance

In recent years, a phenomenal growth has been observed in Indian sports with the staging of mega-events such as the Commonwealth Games 2010, Hockey World Cup and Cricket World Cup, and the winning of medals in the international competitions. India won a total of six medals in the 2012 London Olympics, including two silver and four bronze. The success of Sushil Kumar, Abhinav Bindra, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal and Sania Mirza has already established the country on the global sports map. It makes us proud to see women leading the board with some major victories.

A new India

Indians now definitely believe in the power of sports. Indian sport is going through a makeover. Cricket is no longer the only source of glory of the Indian masses. They can now engage with other sports too. India’s recent showing at various championships across the world has started a new era of sports in India.  The coaches who were ace players once have also contributed in the revival of some games in India. Gopichand and Padukone have done wonders in reviving badminton. Mahesh Bhupati’s camps all over India is a great encouragement for youngsters to come out and play.

Good efforts by the Government

To take Indian Sports to new heights, the task of governing and promoting them in India have fallen on a number of Indian sports associations. Sports organisations like the Indian Olympic Association and Sports Authority of India are working towards raising the standard of Indian sports through various talent promotion programs. A host of sports academies and institutes are actively involved in the grooming of Indian sportsmen. Moreover, there are various corporate houses coming to the rescue of sponsors-starved games. India has set up an annual award for companies which promote sports in the nation of more than a billion.

Our country doesn’t lack in talent at all, all our youth needs today is encouragement and motivation. If the Government concentrate on the struggling athletes and help them with providing proper training to nurture their talents and also with financial supports, infrastructure and facilities then INDIA will certainly add more medals to its tally in the future. Moreover, it is high time for us to change our views and turn our attention to other sports rather than cricket and start applauding other games too! Sports in India has definitely come a long way and seems to be heading in the right direction. We need to look beyond international tournaments and promote sports in the country like the Indian Premier League, Premier Badminton League, Football leagues, kabaddi leagues, etc. Such contests should be taken for the Olympic games too.

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Essay on Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Tokyo Olympic 2021 Essay

Essay on olympic games tokyo 2020.

Let's see the essay on Olympic games Tokyo 2020.

Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Essay

In the series of Olympic Games , Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games was held from 23 July 2021 to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan with some preliminary events that began on 21 July 2021. Emperor Naruhito formally opened the games on 23 July 2021 at the opening ceremony held in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. Tokyo Olympic games were originally scheduled to take place from 24 July 2020 to 9 August 2020, but due to pandemic Covid-19 , the event was postponed and rescheduled. Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 was largely held with no public spectators permitted due to pandemic COVID-19.

Sports, Events and Disciplines: Essay on Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Encompassing a total of 50 disciplines, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 featured 339 events in 33 different sports. 11,656 athletes from 205 countries participated in Tokyo Olympic 2021. Sport Climbing, Surfing, Karate, and Skateboarding were included the first time and made their Olympic debut. 15 new events within existing sports were also added in Olympic Games Tokyo 2021. These include 3x3 basketball, freestyle BMX, and the return of madison cycling, as well as 9 new mixed events in sports viz table tennis, shooting, archery, judo, triathlon, 4x400 m relay running, and 4x100 m medley swimming.

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Top Medal Winners: Summer Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

India in tokyo olympic 2020.

With the finest performance of all-time India secured 48th rank with 1 gold, 2 silver, and 4 bronze medals in Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. 

Indian athlete Neeraj Chopra won Gold medal in javelin throw and made India proud in these dark times of deadly pandemic. Following the golden throw by 23-year-old boy from Panipat, Haryana, millions of Indians became emotional on hearing the national anthem at the Olympics for the first time since Beijing 2008.

Also Read: Essay on Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav

Total four bronze medals were won by Indian athletes during Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Indian Hockey Team grabbed bronze medal for India at Tokyo Olympic 2021. Another bronze medal for India was won by Badminton player, PV Sindhu in Women's singles Badminton. Lovlina Borgohain also won bronze medal for India in Women's Welterweight Boxing. Wrestler Bajrang Punia won bronze medal for India in 65 kg category during Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. With a wonderful performance in Tokyo Olympic 2020, these athletes made India proud.

Hope you liked this essay on Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and this is helpful in your essay writing preparation.

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Search this blog, essay on tokyo olympics 2021.

Olympics is the leading international sports event featuring summer and winter games where thousands of athletes participate from all over the world, The 2020 summer Olympic is the next edition of the 2016 summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro Brazil,

The host country of summer Olympics 2020 in Tokyo Japan, the widespread pandemic situation all over the world made the summer Olympic 2020 be rescheduled for 2021 that's why it is called as summer Olympics 2020 

All the athletes from all over the world practice and wait to showcase their talents through this greatest event of all sports events, the Olympic games represent five rings as the logo of the Olympics the five rings represent five continents of the world Africa, Asia, Australia, America, and Europe.

The motto of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is united by emotion, the flag-bearer from India at the opening ceremony of Olympics 2020 was Mary Kom and Manpreet Singh 

Miraittowa is the official mascot of the 2020 summer Olympics representing the cultural heritage of Japan, In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics 205 nations along with 11 090 athletes participated, the opening and closing dates of Tokyo Olympics 2020 are 23rd July and 8th August respectively 

Olympic always plays an important role to unite the global community with magnificent sports events Tokyo Olympics also established the same among all nations.

In Tokyo Olympics also the athletes have shown their capabilities the most successful country is the united states having total of 113 meters out of which 39 are gold,  The other two countries which begged the maximum medals are china and japan had a total number of 88 and 58 medals respectively.

India made a remarkable position in Tokyo Olympics compared to the previous ones India backed a total of 7 medals having one Gold two Silver and four Bronze.

Also Read:  Essay on Tokyo Olympics 2020 Medal Winners from India

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Short essay on Tokyo Olympics 2021

The Olympic games are known as the world's foremost athletic competition, over 200 nations participate in this event that happens once in four years, the Olympic games first began in Ancient Greece at Olympia 

The first modern Olympics happened in 1896 in Athens Greece, the Olympic Games program consists of 26 sports 30 disciplines and nearly 300 events, Tokyo Olympics is scheduled to begin on July 23 after a year-long delay due to the Covid 19 Pandemic.

This is the first time that the Olympic games have been postponed and rescheduled rather than cancelled, the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics 2021 will take place on July 23 at the newly built national stadium in the Japanese capital while the closing ceremony will be held on August 8, 2021, at the same venue 

Leaders from around 15 countries are expected to attend the July 23rd opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics 10 reports in Japan have suggested that those attending the ceremony in person could be as low as 1 000 due to the pandemic 

The international Olympic committee IOC approved five new sports for the Olympic games Tokyo 2020 these are surfing sport climbing skateboarding baseball and karate, a total of around 11 000 athletes from 206 countries are expected to participate in 33 sports in Tokyo Olympics 2020, Company name and logo generator

The mass code of Tokyo Olympics 2020 is named Miraitowa 14 the opening ceremony for Tokyo Olympic 2020 will start at 8 pm Japan local time, 

The sporting events during Olympics 2021 can start as early as 9:00 am japan time t he gold silver and bronze medals awarded to competitors at the Olympics represents the highest levels of athletic achievement at the games, the design of the medals represents Japanese culture, 

The Olympic logo also known as the Olympic rings consists of five intervened rings and represents the unity of the five inhabited continents America, Africa, Asia Australia and Europe. 

There are the winter and summer Olympics that are held alternating as well, a body is known as the international Olympic committee oversees all matters regarding the Olympic games.

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90 days to Paris Olympics 2024: Tracking India's top 10 medal hopes

• Anirudh Menon

The countdown for the 2024 Paris Olympics is on, and as the days tick by, ESPN India will take a closer look at the top 10 Indian prospects/hopes for a medal at the Games and how they are currently faring as they prepare for the event.

Earlier, we had run a countdown from the 100 day mark , now -- as we publish our Nikhat Zareen Path to Paris special -- we have a look at how they're faring 90 days out from the start of the Olympics:

Vinesh Phogat

Vinesh Phogat's Olympic berth may yet not be confirmed but she's already done her bit: winning a Paris Olympic quota by defeating Laura Ganikyzy in the 50kg semifinal of the Asian Olympic Qualifiers last Saturday. This was her first international competition after a difficult 2023 where she'd taken on the administration on the streets of the national capital and had to undergo knee surgery.

She is now the first Indian woman wrestler ever to qualify for a third Olympics. The quota doesn't confirm a place on the Olympic team because the Wrestling Federation of India retains the right to hold trials ahead of the Games, but this is already a big win for Vinesh, one that goes holds significance beyond just the sporting .

Sift Kaur Samra

Sift Kaur Samra also may not have sealed her place on the Olympic team but she's done herself a huge favour this past week, winning back-to-back selection trials in Delhi.

The world record holder and Asian Games winning 50m 3P shooter shot 456.1 to beat higher-ranked Ashi Chouksey in the trial 2 final this past Friday. There are two more trials that will be held this month. Shooters will earn points from the selection trials and the best three scores after four trials are completed -- and now, Sift already has the highest possible in two.

Aditi Ashok

Aditi Ashok is almost guaranteed a place in Paris (she is ranked 25 on the Olympic Golf Rankings and is easily the highest ranked Indian). In her most recently concluded tournament on the LPGA tour, she finished 65th in the Chevron Championship in Texas. She is currently tied 45 with a day's play left at the JM Eagle LA Championship in California.

Nikhat Zareen

Nikhat Zareen remains in the BFI camp where she's just undergone a training camp in Turkey, sparring against the likes of reigning Olympics silver medalist Buse Naz Cakiroglu. There will be a couple more tours and likely participation at the Elorda Cup (Kazhakstan's biggest elite international tournament).

Here she speaks to ESPN about her preparations for the Games... Path to Paris: Why Nikhat Zareen wants that Olympic medal - and has a good shot at it

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy - Chirag Shetty

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are currently leading India's defence of their Thomas Cup title. They won their first match of the tournament -- albeit having been pushed all the way by Thailand's Punpanich-Sothon. This first match is just proof that after taking a small break on the BWF tour through much of the past month, they will be tested at this most prestigious international team competition.

Path to Paris: After historic 2023, 'hungry' Sat-Chi embrace pressure, master the mind games

Neeraj Chopra

Neeraj Chopra's preparations for his first event of 2024 are heating up as the Doha Diamond League (on May 10) closes in. He'll need to watch out for teenage sensation Max Dehning: Neeraj Chopra heads into landmark season with teen sensation Dehning as his newest rival

PV Sindhu withdrew from the Uber Cup (which is currently underway) and she continues on her path of rest and recovery: there have been plenty of positives in the last couple of months of action. She should be back for the next big BWF event, the Thailand Masters which start on May 14.

Lovlina Borgohain

Lovlina Borgohain's preparations mirror Nikhat's as she remains with the BFI camp. The federation has charted out their preparations clearly and now have just completed the Turkey-leg of their training camp.

Mirabai Chanu

Mirabai Chanu continues on her path of recovery from a year and half which has seen her laid low by various injuries. Her performance at the World Cup, where she finished 11th, was good enough to seal qualification for the Olympics, but a long road lies ahead.

Men's hockey team

The Men's hockey team are in-camp as they prepare for the Olympics, and before that big matches that would aid their preparation - Pro League matches against Argentina, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain starting in late May.

Path to Paris: Indian hockey picks control over chaos in bid for Olympic glory

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Archery World Cup: India upset Olympic champion Korea to bag historic gold after 14 years

The indian men's recurve team scored a historic victory at the archery world cup, defeating reigning champions south korea. this victory marks their first triumph over south korea in a world cup final, boosting their prospects for the upcoming paris olympics..

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• Indian men's recurve team beat South Korea to win Archery World Cup gold
• This is the team's first win over South Korea in a World Cup final
• The victory enhances India's prospects for the Paris Olympics

The Indian men's recurve team of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav shocked reigning Olympic champions South Korea in a historic win to land an Archery World Cup gold medal after 14 years, here on Sunday. This is the Indian men's recurve team's maiden triumph over the archery powerhouse in a World Cup final, and it will boost its chances of securing a berth in the upcoming Paris Olympics. The trio of Dhiraj, Tarundeep and Pravin showed ice-cool composure to get the better of the mighty Koreans without dropping a set. The 40-year-old Army man Tarundeep was also a part of the gold medal-winning team in Shanghai World Cup Stage 4 in August 2010. Then the recurve team comprising Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep and Jayanta defeated Japan.

In a battle between the top two seeds of the competition, India won 5-1 (57-57, 57-55, 55-53), taking their gold medal count to five in the season-opening Stage 1 World Cup. The success also rubbed on the mixed team of Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj who trounced Alejandra Valencia and Matias Grande of Mexico 6-0 (35-31, 38-35, 39-37) to win bronze. Overall, India has five gold, one silver and a bronze so far, while former world No. 1 Deepika Kumari is in the hunt for another medal, playing her women's recurve individual semifinal later in the day. In the men's team final, India was up against its nemesis South Korea, who featured two members of the Tokyo Olympics gold medal-winning team in Kim Woojin and Kim Je Deok. Lee Woo Seok was the third member.

But the Indian troika put up a brave front and drilled in three 10s that included two X (closer to the center) and three 9s to match their rivals (57-all) in the opening set. It put the pressure back on the Koreans who slipped twice into the 8-ring, while the Indian shot four perfect 10s including three Xs from six arrows to take the second set 57-55 and take 3-1 lead.

In the next set, the Koreans faltered and managed just 53 as the Indians held their nerves to close out the game with a 55 en route to clinch the first men's team World Cup gold since 2010. Before this victory, the women's team had previously beaten the Koreans twice in the 2013 World Cup -- Medellin Stage 3 in July and Wroclaw Stage 4 in August.

"The nerves always kick in when Korea is in the final. But now, no one can doubt our ability to defeat them," declared former Commonwealth Games gold medalist Rahul Banerjee, a member of the Shanghai 2010 triumph.

"They have been showing perfect rhythm right from the qualifying round and it's definitely one of the biggest wins in archery. They will now have to hold on to this momentum till Paris," he added.

So far, India has a solitary Olympic berth which was earned by Dhiraj in the men's individual section. The final Olympic qualifying event is the Stage 3 World Cup in Antalya, Turkey, from June 18 to 23 following which the team rankings will offer two additional quotas for the first time.

The two highest-ranked nations, who did not make the cut from the Qualifiers, will receive team berths for Paris from the World Archery rankings. India (231 points) is now third in the world rankings behind China (241) and No. 1 South Korea (340) and is well-placed to make the Paris Olympics cut.

Excerpt: Xi’s Imperial Ambitions Are Rooted in China’s History

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Xi’s Imperial Ambitions Are Rooted in China’s History

Myths of peacefulness belie a record as expansionist as any other power..

When Richard Nixon defied expectations and went to China in 1972, Henry Kissinger, his national security advisor, packed the president’s briefcase. Among Nixon’s reading materials was The Chinese Looking Glass , a book by British journalist Dennis Bloodworth about understanding China on its own terms. In his opening pages, Bloodworth sets the stage by going back to the beginning: “The gaudy catalogue of China’s disasters and dynastic glories, whose monumental scale has given the Chinese much of their character … brings us to our true beginning.”

Countering China’s Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance , Michael Sobolik, 240 pp., $21.95, Naval Institute Press, April 2024.

Kissinger, one of America’s most consequential foreign-policy leaders in recent memory, clearly internalized the centrality of China’s “true beginning.” In his 2011 tome On China , Kissinger marveled at China’s “singularity” and staying power. Indeed, even the hardest of hearts cannot help but be moved by the continuity of a civilization that predates the birth of Christ by hundreds, even thousands, of years.

Awe, however, is no substitute for knowledge. In the opening pages of On China , Kissinger writes of China’s “splendid isolation” that cultivated “a satisfied empire with limited territorial ambition.” The historical record, however, contradicts him. From the Qin dynasty’s founding in 221 B.C. to the Qing’s collapse in 1912 A.D., China’s sovereign territory expanded by a factor of four. What began as a small nation bound in the fertile crescent of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers morphed into an imperial wrecking ball. In the words of Bloodworth, the very author Kissinger recommended to Nixon in 1972, “It would be absurd to pretend that the Chinese had never been greedy for ground—they started life in the valley of the Yellow River and ended by possessing a gigantic empire.”

Ancient terra cotta warriors from the Qin Dynasty stand in a pit at the Emperor Qin’s Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum in Shaanxi province, China, on July 7, 2006. China Photos/Getty Images

To be sure, China was not the aggressor in every war it fought. In antiquity, nomadic tribes regularly raided China’s proto-dynasties. During the infamous Opium Wars of the 19th century, Western imperialist powers victimized and preyed upon China at gunpoint. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regularly refers to China’s “Century of Humiliation,” when European empires brutalized China and killed or wounded tens of thousands of Chinese men, women, and children. Indeed, the party has memorialized these grievances in a permanent exhibit of the National Museum of China, just steps away from Tiananmen Square.

For all of Beijing’s legitimate and long-standing security concerns, however, the sheer scope of China’s expansion is undeniable. Western leaders often deny or ignore it, usually at the behest and prodding of Chinese leaders. When Nixon finally gained an audience with Mao Zedong, he reassured the chairman, “We know China doesn’t threaten the territory of the United States.” Mao quickly corrected him: “Neither do we threaten Japan or South Korea.” To which Nixon added, “Nor any country.” Within the decade, Beijing invaded Vietnam.

At the time, Nixon’s gambit was to split the Soviet bloc and drive a wedge between the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Nixon and Kissinger saw the Sino-Soviet split and took stock of the PRC’s trajectory: a growing population that, once harnessed, was poised to dominate the global economy. It was textbook realpolitik: cold, dispassionate tactics divorced from moralism. If Washington could turn the Soviet Union’s junior partner, the West could significantly hamper Moscow’s ability to project power into Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

During the final years of Nixon’s life, his presidential speechwriter William Safire asked him about that fateful trip to Beijing in 1972. Had opening up to the PRC made Americans safer and China freer? According to Safire, “That old realist, who had played the China card to exploit the split in the Communist world, replied with some sadness that he was not as hopeful as he had once been: ‘We may have created a Frankenstein.’” Over time, many in the United States have come to realize this predicament. Unfortunately, articulating that problem well has proved difficult.

Then-U.S. President Richard Nixon with Chinese Vice Premier Li Xiannian, looking out over the Great Wall, circa 1972. Bettmann Archives/Getty Images

During her brief stint as director of policy planning at the State Department in 2019, Kiron Skinner previewed the shop’s keystone intellectual project: a strategy to counter China, in the spirit of George Kennan’s “containment” strategy. At a public event in April 2019, Skinner tipped her hand and revealed her philosophy of U.S.-China competition: “This is a fight with a really different civilization and a different ideology, and the United States hasn’t had that before.” She went on to add, incorrectly: “It’s the first time that we will have a great-power competitor that is not Caucasian.” Skinner received widespread criticism for these remarks and was soon after dismissed for unrelated issues.

Skinner’s mistake was twofold. First, she simply got the history wrong and ignored imperial Japan in World War II. Of deeper consequence was her failure to explain what strategic culture actually is, why it matters, and how China’s past shapes the CCP’s behavior today. In fairness, these errors aren’t unique to Skinner. Understanding Chinese history can be difficult for most Westerners. In some ways, it’s difficult to think of two more different nations. The United States is less than three hundred years old. China was unified more th

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump during a welcoming ceremony with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, on Nov. 9, 2017. Thomas Peter-Pool/Getty Images

an two hundred years before Christ was born. Immigrants founded America. Denizens established China. The United States was born out of revolution against a colonial power. China came into being from a regional conflict of gigantic proportions. Favorable geography allowed America to grow economically and territorially on its own terms and at its own pace. China came into being surrounded by rival kingdoms and tribes on every side.

Americans turn to one source more than any other to make sense of these differences: The Art of War , by Sun Tzu. One of his more recognizable dictums, “All warfare is based on deception,” has captured the imagination of many Western thinkers. Instead of investigating the history that informed Sun Tzu’s counsel, however, many policymakers take the easier path of Orientalizing China. “China thinks in centuries, and America thinks in decades” is a well-worn trope. Another well-meaning but vapid cliché is, “America plays chess, but China plays Go.”

Does China Have to Play by the Rules?

New reporting implicates Beijing and anti-doping officials in covering up Chinese Olympic swimmers’ positive tests in 2021.

These statements are often left untethered from history and offered as self-evident axioms. What’s left are useless clichés that offer no actual understanding of why Chinese strategists advised cunning and deception, or how China’s unique historical experiences informed military tactics. In the absence of curiosity, an impression easily forms of China as “the other,” a mysterious, inscrutable competitor. A shallow understanding of Beijing’s past leads to incomplete conclusions about its present behavior.

More often than not, policymakers find it easier to avoid China’s history entirely. In late 2020, the policy planning office finished the 72-page report. It was a commendable attempt to reprise Kennan’s strategic clarity, but China’s dynastic strategic culture received a single page of attention.

Reducing strategic culture to vague racial differences helps no one except Chinese President Xi Jinping and his party henchmen. The CCP works to enmesh itself with the Chinese people and regularly uses them as a rhetorical human shield. To criticize the CCP, according to the well-worn rhetorical trope of Beijing’s diplomats, is to “hurt the feelings of 1.4 billion people.” As a matter of course, Beijing uses this specious logic to construe anti-CCP policies as evidence of racism. Years before former U.S. President Donald Trump fell headlong into this trap with his careless rhetoric about the “Chinese virus” and “kung-flu,” a young generation of China hawks had vowed to evade this pitfall.

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin wrote about this resolve in his 2021 bestseller, Chaos Under Heaven, which documented the collective decision of Washington, D.C.-based China hands to blunt Beijing’s attempts “to divide Americans by party or ethnicity, to divert attention from its actions.” I was a regular member of those meetings and still believe America’s leaders must differentiate the party from the Chinese people—not only out of respect for those who daily live under the CCP’s jackboot, but also for the safety of Chinese Americans, who faced a rise of race-based crime in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, in doing so, America must avoid a separate trap: equating the party with China.

Residents walk past a poster showing Chairman Mao Zedong, during the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,” in downtown Beijing circa 1967. Jean Vincent/AFP via Getty Images

China’s history did not begin in 1949 when Mao and the CCP established the PRC. Nor did it start with China’s “Century of Humiliation,” when European imperialist powers forcibly opened China in the mid-19th century. Chinese civilization predates America and the West by orders of millennia. That context gives meaning to the party’s contemporary behavior. The themes of greatness, fall, and restoration hidden in Xi’s remarks in 2013 constitute the essence of Chinese history.

They are the four-act play of China’s story, or “strategic culture”—without which it is impossible to understand the CCP’s strategy today. Strategic culture explains how a country’s unique experiences shape distinct national identities that translate into foreign policy. These three elements—story, identity, and policy—reinforce and shape one another. To be sure, the CCP has its own story, identity, and policies, but the party is one tributary in a long river. American leaders cannot prevail against the CCP without understanding the story and identity that belong to China.

From the start, China has been a civilizational juggernaut striving for political hegemony. China has often attempted to conceal this ambition with conciliatory diplomacy, but its neighbors know from experience the struggle to live—and survive—in the dragon’s shadow. CCP diplomats often bully China’s neighbors by claiming sovereignty over part or all of their territory “from time immemorial”—an inadvertent admission that the party is the latest crusader in a long line of imperialists. This struggle that was once relegated to the nations of East Asia is now a challenge for every country in the world.

Beijing is approaching the world not to embrace it, but to rule it. The Western world has no excuse for missing this reality, and American politicians have badly misjudged Beijing for decades. Washington’s China policy will continue to be a “two steps forward, one step back” affair until it reckons with the Middle Kingdom’s penchant for imperialism.

This reality calls into question the unspoken objective of American policymakers: seeking a democratic China. For all their differences, both hawks and doves in the United States have framed the “China problem” as an ideological challenge. Proponents of engagement believed that economic contacts would necessarily lead to political reform, a belief rooted in liberal internationalism. Advocates of confrontation couch the CCP regime as the problem, which implies an ideological solution.

The one unchanging constant in America’s China policy since Nixon’s meeting with Mao in 1972 is the steady commitment to regime change, either by commerce or competition. The underlying belief in the universal power of democracy has proved intoxicating. “If we can just make them like us,” the thinking goes, “we can turn an enemy into a friend.”

Perhaps this self-delusion is inevitable. America’s national identity is steeped in beliefs about liberty, equality, and opportunity. But the CCP’s heritage raises an uncomfortable question for the United States: Even if modern China were to become a democracy, would it cease to be the Middle Kingdom?

If the CCP collapsed and China followed Taiwan’s path of economic and political liberalization, would it suddenly lose its appetite for hegemony? Maybe. Then again, perhaps simplifying Beijing’s behavior to its current Communist Party overlords ignores thousands of years of China’s own history, as well as the strategic culture that informs those decisions.

Michael Sobolik is a senior fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC.

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Road to Paris 2024: Neeraj Chopra and Co. gear up to defend the Indian athletics dream

Here’s how Indian track and field athletes are placed heading into the Paris Olympics later this year! Know qualification status and other key stats.

Neeraj Chopra ’s historic gold medal win in men’s javelin throw at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics put Indian athletics under the spotlight and the country’s track and field athletes have grown strength to strength since.

With stellar showings at major international meets like the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Athletics Championships, the Diamond League and World Championships over the past couple of years, Indian athletics has put the world on notice.

However, the true litmus test of what has seemed like exponential growth so far will happen at the Paris 2024 Olympics later this year and a good showing at the upcoming Summer Games can establish India as a force in world athletics.

With the qualification window for Paris 2024 at its final stretch, let’s take a look at what to expect from Indian track and field stars in the lead-up to the big test at the banks of the river Seine.

So far, 13 Indian athletes have already breached the qualification standards for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

India’s race walk conundrum, a good one

Interestingly, seven of the 13 have been in the men’s 20km race walk event courtesy Akshdeep Singh, Vikas Singh, Paramjeet Bisht, Suraj Panwar, Servin Sebastian, Arshpreet Singh and Ram Baboo.

However, with a country allowed to field a maximum of three athletes in each event, the Athletics Federation of India faces an interesting predicament in selecting which three will board the flight to Paris come July.

While a trial might be the cards to come up with the shortlist, good performances on the international stage might just help tip the scale.

Suraj Panwar, Ram Baboo, Vikash Singh, Servin S, Arshpreet Singh will be seen competing at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya, Turkiye. The World Athletics Race Walking Tour events till June will also present several opportunities for the contenders to stake claim on the three spots.

That being said, here’s a look at the key stats for all seven in the lead-up to Paris 2024.

Barring Vikas and Paramjeet, the remaining five achieved their personal best timings this year, including Akshdeep’s Singh’s 1:19:38 mark at the Indian Open in Chandigarh, which is the standing national record in the men’s 20km race walk.

Ram Baboo, the men’s 35km race walk national record holder and an Asian Games bronze medallist, also presents an interesting prospect.

India also fielded a full quota of three in men’s race walk at Tokyo 2020 with KT Irfan, Sandeep Kumar and Rahul Rohilla.

In women’s 20km race walk, Priyanka Goswami, meanwhile, looks set to compete in her second Olympics after Tokyo 2020.

Goswami, who holds the Indian national record of 1:28:45 in the event, clocked her season’s best time of 1:29:48 to finish seventh at the Chinese Race Walking Grand Prix in Taicang, the People’s Republic of China, this March.

While it was the third-best mark in her career, it was the best timing for the Indian race walker abroad and achieving it at a World Athletics Race Walking Tour gold label meet will do wonders for her confidence.

With five other World Athletics Race Walking Tour meets, one each in the USA, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Slovakia scheduled between April and May, the Indian athlete may be tempted to take the opportunities to hone her preparations ahead of Paris 2024 on foreign soil.

India’s Bhawna Jat (world No. 54) and Munita Prajapati (53) also have a fighting chance to qualify for Paris 2024 based on rankings. Even if they fail to meet the entry standards before the qualification window for race walk ends on June 30, a bump in rankings can see them break into the 48-woman shortlist.

Headline act: Neeraj Chopra and India’s javelin stars

Needless to say, all eyes will be on Neeraj Chopra defending his crown at Paris 2024.

Since his landmark top podium finish in men’s javelin throw at Tokyo 2020, Neeraj has won the Diamond League trophy in 2022, became the world champion in 2023 and successfully defended his Asian Games crown at Hangzhou.

Chopra confirmed his Olympic title defence by breaching the Paris 2024 entry standard in the qualifying round of the Budapest World Championships last year before creating history in the final, becoming the first senior Indian athletics world champion in history.

Heading into Paris 2024, Neeraj is set to start his Olympic year campaign at the Doha Diamond League on May 10 and his entry in the Paavo Nurmi Games, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold level event in Finland on June 18, has also been confirmed.

With the men’s javelin throw competition at Paris 2024 scheduled in early August, the Paris leg of the Diamond League, on July 7, will give Neeraj the perfect opportunity to test himself against a top-class field and acclimatise before his big title defence.

Team Chopra will pace the Indian javelin thrower before the upcoming Summer Games to avoid any injuries.

Neeraj, whose personal best of 89.94m is the standing Indian national record, will also have breaching the 90m mark on the back of his mind to get the psychological barrier out of the way.

The men’s javelin throw field at Paris 2024 is expected to have multiple members of the 90+ club, including Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of Czechia, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, former world champion Anderson Peters and Germany’s Max Dehning, the latest entrant to the elite group.

Dehning, just 19 years old, became the youngest javelin thrower to breach the coveted 90m mark at the German Winter Throwing Championships in Werferzentrum Brandberge in February. His 90.20m is still the world-leading javelin throw this year.

Joining Neeraj’s quest for gold at Paris will be compatriot Kishore Jena , who gave the reigning world and Olympic champion a run for his money at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. The Odisha athlete eventually settled for silver and breached the Paris 2024 qualifying mark with a personal best of 87.54m.

Like Neeraj, Jena is also expected to start his season in Doha, which will also be his Diamond League debut. The 28-year-old, who had a personal best of 78.05m after the 2022 season, has shown exponential growth and breached the 80m mark seven times in 2023.

“It's commendable the way Kishore has shown progress, especially at the big stages like the World Championships and Asian Games, and the way he has improved his distance,” Neeraj had gushed about his fellow countryman in a recent interview. “I've been stuck between 88 and 90m since 2018 and the way he is performing, he can breach the 90m mark before me.”

Barring any major incidents, Manu DP is also in line to join Neeraj and Jena at Paris 2024. Manu is yet to breach the qualifying standard of 85.50m in the qualification window but is placed comfortably in the 11th spot in the Road to Paris world rankings, which should be enough to earn him a ticket to Paris.

Like Manu, Annu Rani , ranked 21st in the women’s javelin Road to Paris rankings, is also expected to make the cut and ensure India has at least one athlete in both javelin throw competitions at Paris 2024.

The 31-year-old holds India’s national record of 63.82m but has endured a difficult year and a half. She was unable to breach the 60m mark for almost a year before curbing the trend at the Asian Games last October, where she managed 62.92m to win gold.

Rani hasn’t competed since her Hangzhou high but will need to get some events under her belt to build up momentum ahead of Paris 2024.

The Indian javelin thrower is in Germany’s Leichtathletik Gemeinschaft Offenburg Centre to train under foreign athletics coach Werner Daniels and will be aiming to cross the 65m mark to try and be in medal contention at Paris.

At Tokyo 2020, Australia’s Kelsey-Lee Barber won the bronze medal with a 64.56m while China’s Liu Shiying won the gold with 66.34m. Interestingly, Rani had beaten Shiying (5th) en route to her Asian Games gold at Hangzhou.

With her base in Germany, Rani will have plenty of opportunities to compete in various competitions across Europe and finetune her skills.

Jeswin Aldrin to soften Sreeshankar blow?

Murali Sreeshankar secured a quota for Paris 2024 after breaching the men’s long jump Olympic qualifying standard of 8.27m at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, Thailand last year. He recorded 8.37m at the meet to claim silver.

However, in a heartbreaking development, Sreeshankar’s 2024 season was cut short due to a knee injury, which ruled him out of the Summer Games.

In Sreeshankar’s absence, Jeswin Aldrin will bear India’s hopes in the men’s long jump. Aldrin holds India’s national record of 8.42m but hasn’t been able to breach the Olympic entry standard since the athletics qualification window came into effect from July 1 last year.

Aldrin, in fact, has struggled for form and hasn’t breached the 8m mark since the qualifying rounds at the Budapest World Athletics Championships in August last year. The Indian long jumper has already competed in four different meets in 2024 and managed a best leap of 7.83m in Belgrade, Serbia so far.

Ranked 24th, Aldrin is still within the top 32 and stands to secure a spot at the 2024 Paris Olympics based on world rankings. However, he will need to hold on till the window closes on June 30.

Breaching the entry standard presents a far safer option, and Aldrin can potentially target domestic meets like the four Indian Grand Prix events and the Federation Cup to try and achieve the qualifying mark under familiar conditions.

Indian representation in the women’s long jump, however, seems like a longer shot with Shaili Singh, at world No. 41, outside the cut-off mark of 32. She will also need to add 0.10m to her personal best of 6.76m to meet the Paris 2024 women’s long jump qualifying mark.

Big year for Sable and Parul

Steeplechasers Avinash Sable and Parul Chaudhary are the two other Indian track and field athletes who have already breached the qualifying standards for Paris 2024.

Parul enjoyed a breakthrough season last year and is the reigning Asian champion. She won a silver medal in the women’s 3000m steeplechase race at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games while claiming a gold in the 5000m. Parul also reset the national record in her event courtesy a 9:15.31s run at the 2023 Budapest World Championships.

Similarly, Sable established himself as a true star of Indian athletics over the past couple of years.

After a historic silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Sable won the gold medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in the 3000m steeplechase and followed it up with a silver in the 5000m. He also holds India’s national record in both events.

Interestingly, though, neither Sable nor Parul has competed in a single steeplechase race this year. Both athletes competed in their respective 10,000m races at The Ten in Florida in March but that has been the only piece of competitive action for either athlete so far this year.

Both Parul and Sable are currently training at a high-altitude centre in Colorado Springs under coach Scott Simmons and it will be interesting to see when they decide to hit the tracks.

Fans can expect to see Sable race in the Diamond League series before Paris 2024 with the Doha, Marrakech, Stockholm and Paris legs all featuring the men’s 3000m steeplechase race.

Parul’s rise over the past year, meanwhile, has been so impressive that Indian track and field legend Anju Bobby George identified the steeplechaser as one to watch out for in Paris.

Besides the ones who have already met the qualifying standards, multiple Indian track and field athletes and teams are in contention to make the cut through rankings.

If the qualifying window ended today, here’s the full list of athletes who would qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics based on their Road to Paris rankings.

* List as of April 20, 2024

Jyoti Yarraji will be one to look out for in the coming months.

The Indian athlete, who won a silver medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, fell just 0.01 seconds short of the Paris 2024 women’s 100m hurdles entry standard of 12.77 during the World University Games in Chengdu last August.

The mark still stands as the national record in the event and Jyothi needs to rewrite it just one more time before June 30 to meet the Paris mark.

The women’s 4x400m relay team, 17th in the top list, is also just one place below the cut-off mark while the mixed team is four places off. The top 16 in the relay tops list qualify for Paris 2024.

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China’s Swimmers Tested Positive. What Happens to Their Medals?

The short answer may be nothing. The world’s top doping regulator said there was “no credible evidence” to take further action.

By Andrew Das ,  Joe Ward and Matthew Cullen

Whenever a suspicion of doping arises in an Olympics, attention can shift quickly from the athletes who won gold, silver and bronze medals to the ones who missed out.

On Saturday, The New York Times published an investigation into an unreported case in which 23 top Chinese swimmers tested positive for a powerful banned drug in 2021, only months before the Tokyo Olympics. The swimmers — who made up about half of the Chinese swimming team at those Games — were cleared by China’s antidoping authorities and the World Anti-Doping Agency and allowed to compete.

The episode has not only alarmed experts in the antidoping community, but also raised other questions about athletes who tested positive, and what comes next: Which athletes? Which races?

And what about the medals they won in them?

For now, the answer — both for the Chinese athletes and the dozens of swimmers who finished behind them, on and off the medals stand — is that nothing has changed.

By comparing the names of the 23 swimmers who tested positive with results from the Games, The Times identified five events in which Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for a banned substance won medals:

Women’s 100-meter butterfly

The third day of the Tokyo Games opened with the first of four medals for Zhang Yufei, a silver. Torri Huske of the United States was fourth, missing out on the first Olympic medal of her career by one-hundredth of a second.

Margaret Mac Neil, Canada

Zhang Yufei, China

Emma Mckeon, Australia

Torri Huske, United States

Louise Hansson, Sweden

Marie Wattel, France

Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden

Anastasiya Shkurdai, Belarus

Source: Tokyo 2020

Women’s 200-meter butterfly

Three days later, Zhang claimed her second medal — and first gold — with an Olympic-record time. The Americans Regan Smith and Hali Flickinger touched the wall more than a second behind to claim silver and bronze.

Regan Smith, United States

Hali Flickinger, United States

Boglarka Kapas, Hungary

Svetlana Chimrova, Russian Olympic Comm.

Yu Liyan, China

Alys Margaret Thomas, Britain

Brianna Throssell, Austrailia

Svetlana Chimrova, Russian O.C.

Women’s 4x200-meter freestyle relay

Just over an hour after winning an individual gold, Zhang helped China win a relay gold. China’s time, a world record, was nearly half a second faster than that of the United States team. The Americans also broke the previous world record but went home with the silver.

United States

Russian Olympic Committee

Men’s 200-meter individual medley

Wang Shun became only the second Chinese man to win an individual swimming gold.

Wang Shun, China

Duncan Scott, Britain

Jeremy Desplanches, Switzerland

Daiya Seto, Japan

Michael Andrew, United States

Kosuke Hagino, Japan

Laszlo Cseh, Hungary

Lewis Clareburt, New Zealand

Mixed 4x100-meter medley relay

Britain set a world record in winning the mixed event, which was being held at the Olympics for the first time. But China’s team edged Australia to win the silver, delivering Zhang’s fourth and final medal of the Tokyo Games.

Netherlands

Chinese antidoping officials and the World Anti-Doping Agency, the global authority that oversees national drug-testing programs, defended their actions in handling the case of the pre-Olympic doping positives in statements to The Times this week.

China said it had acknowledged the positive tests and notified WADA. But in a report created by China’s antidoping agency and quietly submitted weeks before the Olympics, the Chinese authorities said their investigators concluded that the swimmers had ingested the banned substance unwittingly and in tiny amounts, and that no action was warranted.

WADA, citing “a lack of any credible evidence” to challenge China’s version of events, defended its decision not to take further action. It called any criticism unsubstantiated, even though it took a far harder line in a case involving a Russian figure skater only months later.

In that case, Russia was eventually stripped of a team gold medal , and multiple countries have appeals, seeking to upgrade their own finishes.

On Friday, the International Olympic Committee declined to comment on the positive tests, saying only that “anti-doping matters have been made independent from the I.O.C.,” and referring questions to WADA.

But with the antidoping agency adamant that it acted correctly and within its rules, there is no indication that any of the results of races will be affected, or any the medals reallocated.

An earlier version of this article misstated in one instance the type of event in which a Chinese swimmer won a gold medal. It was the women’s 4x200-meter freestyle relay, not the women’s 200-meter freestyle relay.

How we handle corrections

Andrew Das is an editor for the International section of The Times, focusing primarily on the ways sports intersect with power, money, business, media and culture. More about Andrew Das

  More about Joe Ward