India’s Olympic Hockey Performance

India’s best sport has traditionally been hockey, particularly at the Olympics. With eight gold medals won, India is the most successful team in the history of the Olympics in this particular sport. Regretfully, since 1980, the team’s domination has never been the same, but throughout the past several years, they have been getting back to their best. With their Bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics, India’s men’s hockey team broke their 41-year medal drought, and expectations are high going forward.

Despite being ruled by the British, India participated in its first Olympics in 1900. Under Dhyan Chand’s leadership, the team began to dominate hockey in 1928. India won consecutive gold medals under his direction in the Olympics in 1928, 1932, and 1936. Balbir Singh Sr. guided the hockey team to victory in the Games, giving India its first gold medal in the sport since gaining independence. The gold medal came next in 1952 and 1956, and India had to settle for silver at the 1960 Rome Olympics after losing to Pakistan in the championship match.

Even with inconsistent results in the ensuing summer games, India was still able to win gold in hockey in 1964 and 1980 and place third in the other events. However, the sport saw a severe medal drought after 1980. However, on August 5, 2021, in Tokyo, a team captained by Manpreet Singh made history by taking home the bronze. The blue-clad men won the first medal in the sport for their nation in forty-one years, shocking Germany 5–4.

India’s performance in field hockey at the Olympics:

Total medals – 12

Gold – 8, Silver – 1, Bronze – 3

India’s Hockey squad for Paris Olympics 2024

Goalkeepers: PR Sreejesh

Defenders: Jarmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Harmanpreet Singh, Sumit, Sanjay

Midfielders: Rajkumar Pal, Shamsher Singh, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad

Forwards: Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh

Alternate players: Nilakanta Sharma, Jugraj Singh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak

India’s schedule at Paris Olympics

July 27 – India vs New Zealand – 9 PM IST

July 29 – India vs Argentina – 4:15 PM IST

July 30 – India vs Ireland – 4:45 PM IST

August 1 – India vs Belgium – 1:30 PM IST

August 2 – India vs Australia – 4:45 PM IST