India at Beijing, People’s Republic of China Olympics 2008
India was represented by the Olympic Association of India at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. A contingent of 57 athletes was sent, 25 female and 31 male athletes represented India at 12 Olympic events, and 2004 Athens Olympic silver medalist Rajyavardhansingh Rathore was the flag bearer of the opening ceremony.
The 2008 Olympics was again historical for India, as India won its first-ever individual Olympic gold medal and two bronze medals.
All About the Olympics
For the first time since 1928, the Men’s national hockey team was unable to take part in the Olympics due to its failure to qualify.
Only one Olympic weightlifter, Monika Devi was set to compete due to a two-year ban issued by the International Weightlifting Federation following the 2006 Commonwealth Games doping scandal, but she withdrew after failing a drug test.
The IWF later declared her clean but the event in which she was supposed to compete was already closed. However, what made the 2008 Olympic games so memorable for India was the fact that India won its first-ever individual Olympic gold.
On 11 August 2008 Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the 10 m air rifle event by defeating China’s Zhu Qinan, 2004 Athens gold medalist by scoring 700.5 points for the title. By doing so, India won its first-ever individual Olympic gold, as well as its first medal in any event in the 2008 Olympics and history, was created.
On the other hand, Vijender Kumar also created history by becoming the first-ever Indian boxer to enter the semifinals and winning a bronze medal in the middleweight category. Sushil Kumar won bronze in the 66kg freestyle wrestling event. All hopes were shattered when freestyle wrestler Sushil Kumar lost earlier in the day.
However, his hopes were revived when Andriy Stadnik of Ukraine, moved into the gold medal round and Sushil Kumar could now contest the repechage, and he didn’t disappoint. He won all three repechage bouts to clinch India’s second Olympic wrestling medal.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics saw the best ever performance by an Indian contingent in terms of the number of medals won with 3 medals.