By Anirudh Bhargava
Japan, July 23: Tokyo Olympics 2020 began with a grand opening ceremony. The theme of the ceremony was ‘Moving Forward’. The ceremony began with fireworks in the air. Performances suggested that human body parts are connected. The Japanese flag was carried and unfurled. The athletes were welcomed to orchestra music. The marchpast began with Greece, followed by the Refugee Olympic Team. There were participants from 205 countries.
India was serial no. 21 in the marchpast and saw nineteen of their athletes represent the country in the opening ceremony.
The serial no. is decided by alphabetical order based on the language of the host city. Boxer Mary Kom and Indian hockey team Captain Manpreet Singh were the flag-bearers at the Japan National Stadium. This is India’s largest contingent ever. The Olympic cauldron was lit by the Olympic torch, which travels on a months-long journey, lit months before and carried by many. This is called the Olympic torch relay.
Indians in the Tokyo Olympics: In the Tokyo Olympics 2020, India sent a 228-member contingent with 127 Indian participants across eighteen sports. In 2016 Olympics, 117 Indians participated in fifteen sports.
Archery: Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and Pravin Jadhav (Men’s Recurve) Deepika Kumari (Women’s Recurve)
Athletics: KT Irfan, Sandeep Kumar and Rahul Rohilla (Men’s 20km race walking) Bhawna Jat and Priyanka Goswami (Women’s 20km race walking) Avinash Sable (Men’s 3000m steeplechase) Murali Sreeshankar (Men’s long jump) MP Jabir (Men’s 400m hurdles) Neeraj Chopra, Shivpal Singh (Men’s javelin throw) Annu Rani (Women’s javelin throw) Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Men’s shot put) Dutee Chand (Women’s 100m and 200m) Kamalpreet Kaur (Women’s discus throw) Seema Punia (Women’s discus throw)
Badminton: PV Sindhu (Women’s singles) B Sai Praneeth (Men’s singles) Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (Men’s doubles)
Boxing: Vikas Krishan (Men’s, 69 kg) Lovlina Borgohain (Women’s, 69 kg) Ashish Kumar (Men’s, 75 kg) Pooja Rani (Women’s, 75 kg) Satish Kumar (Men’s, 91 kg) Mary Kom (Women’s, 51 kg) Amit Panghal (Men’s, 52 kg) Manish Kaushik (Men’s, 63 kg) Simranjit Kaur (Women’s, 60 kg)
Equestrian: Fouaad Mirza. This is the first time an Indian
Fencing: Bhavani Devi became the first Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympics.
Golf: Anirban Lahiri, Udayan Mane and Aditi Ashok has qualified in 20 years.
Gymnastics: Pranati Nayak, the second Indian woman gymnast to qualify for Olympics.
Hockey: Men’s National Team: Goalkeepers: P. R. Sreejesh, Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Surender Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Birendra Lakra Midfielders: Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit Forwards: Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh
Women’s National Team: Goalkeepers: Savita Defenders: Deep Grace Ekka, Nikki Pradhan, Gurjit Kaur, and Udita. Midfielders: Nisha, Neha, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Monika, Nanjot Kaur, Salima Tete. Forwards: Rani, Navneet Kaur, Lalremsiami, Vandana Katariya, Sharmila, Devi. Judo: Sushila Devi Likmabam
Rowing: Arjun Jat, Arvind Singh
Sailing: Nethra Kumanan, the first Indian woman sailor (Laser Radial), Vishnu Saravanan (Laser Standard), KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar (49er)
Shooting: India’s largest shooting contingent: 15 shooters: Anjum Moudgil (10m Women’s Air Rifle) Apurvi Chandela (10m Women’s Air Rifle) Divyansh Singh Panwar (10m Men’s Air Rifle) Deepak Kumar (10m Men’s Air Rifle) Tejaswini Sawant (50m Women’s Rifle 3 Position) Sanjeev Rajput (50m Men’s Rifle 3 Position) Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar (50m Men’s Rifle 3 Position) Manu Bhaker (10m Women’s Air Pistol) Yashaswini Singh Deswal (10m Women’s Air Pistol) Saurabh Chaudhary (10m Men’s Air Pistol) Abhishek Verma (10m Men’s Air Pistol) Rahi Sarnobat (25m Women’s Pistol) Chinki Yadav (25m Women’s Pistol) Angad Veer Singh Bajwa (Men’s Skeet) Mairaj Ahmad Khan (Men’s Skeet.
Swimming: Sajan Prakash, Srihari Nataraj and Maana Patel
Table Tennis: Sharath Kamal (4th appearance at the games) Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Manika Batra (Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra will also compete together in the mixed doubles).
Weightlifting: Mirabai Chanu (women’s 49 kg weight division) – ranked second in the world and a former world champion
Wrestling: Seema Bisla (Women’s Freestyle, 50 kg) Vinesh Phogat (Women’s Freestyle 53 kg) Anshu Malik (Women’s Freestyle 57 kg) Sonam Malik (Women’s Freestyle 62 kg) Ravi Kumar Dahiya (Men’s Freestyle 57 kg) Bajrang Punia (Men’s Freestyle 65 kg) Deepak Punia (Men’s Freestyle 86 kg).
