Guwahati Aug 29: It was back in 2006 that the then FIFA president Sepp Blatter described India as a 'sleeping giant' in the world of football. The overall sports scenario too wasn't anything different then. Although not much has changed in football, India definitely has made rapid strides in the world of sports of late. The Tokyo 2020 campaign proved to be India's most successful Olympics -- returning with seven medals. The star of the campaign was undoubtedly Neeraj Chopra, who won India's first track-and-field gold medal in the javelin throw. It was India's first gold medal since Abhinav Bindra's in Beijing in 2008. Hardly a few would have predicted Assam's Lovlina Borgohain on the podium in Tokyo. But that's what sports are all about. Sports in India, especially in the Northeast, are surely on the next level. Now as the country celebrates National Sports Day there couldn't have been better news than Neeraj clinching the Diamond League meet title by winning the Lausanne leg two days back. The youngster from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana became the first Indian to win a Diamond League crown.
From the early hockey dominance to a medal drought and finally a shooting and track star -- Indian sports have come up a long way since making their first appearance as an independent nation in the 1948 London Olympics. After years of dominance on the hockey turf, the country failed to keep up with the growing competition in the sport -- with the last gold coming their way in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. That's when the barren run started with not even a single medal won in the next three consecutive editions (1984, 1988, and 1992). Finally, Leander Paes won bronze in the men's singles event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics to end the medal drought. The country has since managed to clinch at least a medal in the following editions.
However, it was the 2008 Beijing Olympics that was a watershed moment in Indian Olympic history as shooter Bindra claimed the nation's first individual gold in the 10m Air Rifle event. Boxer Vijender Singh and wrestler Sushil Kumar also won bronze medals -- ensuring that India won multiple medals at a single Games for the first time since 1952. This was perhaps the beginning of a journey that changed the approach toward sports completely. Unperturbed by the pressure or who their opponents were, several athletes since then went on to make podium finishes. Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu (two-time medallist) made India a force to reckon with in badminton while shooting remains India's major medal-winning prospect. From the 'Magnificent' MC Mary Kom to our very own Lovlina -- pugilists from the Northeast had shaken their opponents with their power-packed punches to earn their place on the podium. After a disappointing show at the Rio edition -- Indian weightlifting ace Saikhom Mirabai Chanu grabbed the silver in Tokyo to show the world the amount of talent the region possesses. The Indian men's hockey team broke its 41-year Olympic medal drought with bronze and the women's team recorded its best-ever finish of fourth. Apart from the medallists, there have been countless instances of India coming close to a podium finish at the Olympics. The most prominent ones are Milkha Singh, PT Usha, Anju Bobby George, and Dipa Karmakar.
Coming into cricket -- it was back in 1983 when Kapil Dev scripted the game's biggest underdog story which completely changed the status of the sport in the country. Cricket today is perhaps a religion, but things back then weren't the same. To say today that India and its billion citizens love cricket would be an understatement.
Sports today are no more what they used to be once upon a time. It's a booming industry that provides innumerable avenues to earn handsomely.