Over 100 athletes will represent India in 69 medal events across 16 sports at the Paris 2024 Olympics, which officially gets underway on July 26 in France.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!However, the initial stages of a few sports, including football, rugby sevens, handball and archery, will kick off before the opening ceremony. The Paris 2024 Olympics will be live-streamed and telecast in India for free, as per a release by Olympics.com.
India’s first engagement at Paris 2024 will be in the archery ranking rounds on July 25 with a six-member team, including Deepika Kumari and Tarundeep Rai set to compete.
India enter Paris 2024 on the back of their most successful Olympic performance at Tokyo 2020, where athletes from India won seven medals – one gold, two silvers and four bronze – in Tokyo.
Neeraj Chopra, who won the men’s javelin throw gold at Tokyo 2020, made history by becoming the first Indian to win an Olympic medal in athletics.
It was also only the second individual gold medal in India’s history after Abhinav Bindra’s success in men’s 10m air rifle shooting at the Beijing 2008 Games.
Neeraj, the reigning world and Asian Games champion, will be in Paris to defend his title and will be in action on August 6 and 8.
Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, badminton player PV Sindhu, boxer Lovlina Borgohain are the other individual Olympic medallist in India’s 112-member strong contingent to Paris.
The Indian men’s hockey team which won bronze at Tokyo 2020 to end a 41-year medal drought will also be in Paris to sustain the momentum garnered in Japan three years back. A medal from Paris will also be a fitting farewell to legendary goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who announced he will retire after the upcoming Summer Games.
Young guns like hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, badminton stars Lakshya Sen, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, world champion boxer Nikhat Zareen, tennis player Sumit Nagal and wrestler Antim Panghal will also look to stamp their authority in Paris.
Shooter Manu Bhaker, meanwhile, will hope to put her Tokyo 2020 disappointment behind her as she spearheads a 21-member Indian shooting team in Paris.
At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna, aged 44, will be the oldest athlete while swimmer Dhinidhi Desinghu at 14 is the youngest competitor.
Athletics is the largest contributor to the Indian contingent with 29. Avinash Sable, Annu Rani, Kishore Jena and Tajinerpal Singh Toor are the other big names in athletics.
Badminton star PV Sindhu will be chasing history in Paris and will be looking to become the first Indian to win three individual Olympic medals after a silver at Rio 2016 and bronze at Tokyo 2020, the release added.
History will also be made by equestrian Anush Agarwalla, who is all set to become the first Indian to compete in dressage events at the Olympics.-ANI