In the last two Olympic Games, bronze medals from Leander Paes (tennis, 1996) and Karnam Malleswari (weightlifting, 2000) had given the Indians something to cheer about. Leander had, in fact, ended a 44-year wait in Atlanta in 1996 when he became the first Indian to win an individual medal after K.D. Jadhav, who had won a wrestling bronze in the 57kg category in Helsinki, 1952.

Barring these three, the only other individual medal winner for India was Norman Pritchard who won two silvers in Paris in 1900. Pritchard competed in four events — 100m, 200m, 110m and 200m hurdles (an event discarded later). He clocked 22.8 and 26.6, respectively, for the 200m and 200m hurdles silvers.

Antwerp 1920

The two-member squad of P.C. Banerjee and P.F. Chaugle failed to create an impact. Banerjee was eliminated in the first round of the 400m and Chaugle finished 19th among 47 participants in the marathon.

Paris 1924

India fielded an eight-member squad.

Amsterdam 1928

India’s domination in hockey began in Amsterdam. Making their debut in the discipline, the Indians won the title in style without conceding a goal. They beat hosts Holland 3-0 in the final.

Despite the presence of great players like custodian Richard Allen, Eric Pinniger, Rex Norris, skipper Jaipal Singh and Feroz Khan, a 23-year old called Dhyan Chand emerged the darling of the crowd and went on to become a legend with his magic stick-work.

The seven other members of the contingent failed to do anything worthwhile with the exception of long jumper Dalip Singh, who cleared 21 feet two inches.

Los Angeles 1932

R.J. Carr competed in the shorter relay and also won a gold as member of the hockey team. Led by Lal Shah Bokhari, the Indians beat Japan (11-1) and routed the USA 24-1. Dhyan Chand scored eight goals against the Americans with younger brother Roop Singh pumping in ten.

Berlin 1936

India were forced to march behind Great Britain. In a field of 56, C.S.A. Swami came 37th in marathon clocking 3::10:44 seconds. India completed a hattrick of triumphs in hockey, beating the hosts Germany 8-1 in the final. Dhyan Chand, now skipper, scored six of the eight goals in the final.

London 1948

The Olympic Games could not be held in 1940 and 1944 due to World War II and, by the 1948 edition of the Games, the Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) had been formed with G.D. Sondhi as president.

The hockey team, under Kishen Lal this time, won the gold again. Great Britain, having avoided meeting India for 20 years, lost 0-4 in the final.

Nineteen-year-old triple jumper Henry Rebello started favourite but strained a muscle and had to pull out of the final. Jim Vickers, reached the semis of the 100m hurdles, clocking 14.7.

Helsinki 1952

The Indian women made their Olympic debut. Mary D’Souza competed in the sprints and Nilima Ghose took part in 100m and 80m hurdles.

Among the men, Lavy Pinto reached the semis in both sprints and Sohan Singh’s effort of 1:52 to qualify for the 800m semi-final was also noteworthy.

Led by Kunwar Digvijay Singh ‘Babu’, the Indian hockey team once again struck gold, beating Holland 6-1 in the final. Forward Balbir Singh Sr. scored nine of India’s 13 goals in the tournament.

Apart from the hockey team, K.D. Jadhav took the bronze in 57kg wrestling (bantanweight) and K.D. Mangave came fourth in the 62kg featherweight class.

Melbourne 1956

By this time, other countries had picked up the nuances of hockey and India overcame a strong challenge from West Germany in the semi-final before edging Pakistan 1-0 for the gold.

The Indian football team stunned the world with a superb display against Yugoslavia in the semis and lost to Bulgaria in the battle for bronze.

Milkha Singh, who was to enter the record books four years later in Rome, was a last minute inclusion here and had a quiet outing.

Rome 1960

The Flying Sikh’s career highpoint came in Rome, where he started as one of the favourites in 400m and broke the Olympic record of 45.6 seconds. Even then, he had to settle for the fourth spot.

Zora Singh finished eighth and Ajit Singh 15th in a field of 39 walkers in the 50km event.

The hockey team’s golden march (including 30 consecutive matches since 1928) was finally halted. Raghubir Singh ‘Bhola’ failed to convert score a pass from skipper Leslie Claudius (playing in his fourth Olympics) as India lost the final 0-1 to Pakistan. Pakistan’s Nasir Ahmed ‘Bunda’ scored the winner.

Tokyo 1964

The Tokyo Games will be remembered for Gurbachan Singh Randhawa’s fifth place finish in 110m hurdles. Randhawa held four national records in separate events and made the Olympic final as the fastest loser in heats. His mark of 14.0 in the semis and in the final remained an Indian record for almost 34 years.

Under Charanjit Singh, India regained their hockey glory, although they struggled to reach the final, surviving 1-1 draws with East Germany and Spain. In the final, with five minutes gone in the second half, Munir Ahmed Dar of Pakistan was penalised for stopping a shot with his foot and Mohinder Lal converted the penalty shot for the only goal of the game.

Udham Singh played in his fourth consecutive Olympics — the second Indian to do so.

Mexico 1968

Indian hockey started swinging downwards from this period. They finished third and in athletics, there was nothing noteworthy, apart from high-jumper Bhim Singh’s national mark of 2.09m.

Munich 1972

The hockey team retained bronze and Sriram Singh clocked an impressive 1:47.7 in the 800m heats. The US-based Mohinder Singh Gill was a prospect in triple jump but fared miserably.

Grapplers Sudesh Kumar (52 kg) and Prem Nath (57 kg), however, finished fourth.

Montreal 1976

Indians performed creditably among the Asians.

Sriram Singh reached 800m final and finished seventh. He set an Asian record of 1:45.77 that stood for 18 years. It was a great effort because the pace he set early on helped Alberto Juantorena set a world record.

Two other Indians also created national records. Hari Chand clocked 28:48.72 in the 10,000m heats and Shivnath Singh finished 11th in the marathon, clocking 2::16:22.

The other athlete to do well was long jumper T.C. Yohannan (then Asian record holder at 8.07m) who leapt 7.67m in the qualifiers.

Suprisingly, under the same skipper Ajitpal Singh who had led India to World Cup triumph in 1975, India finished seventh in the hockey tournament.

Moscow 1980

The hockey gold was regained in Moscow, under V. Baskaran. India emerged best in a field without the top teams. India beat Spain 4-3 in the final.

P.T. Usha made her Olympic debut but didn’t create a stir. Wrestlers Mahabir Singh (48 kg) and Jagminder Singh (68 kg) came fifth in their events.

Los Angeles 1984

Usha was an established Asian star by the time the Los Angeles Games arrived. She lost the 400m hurdles bronze by a micro-second, clocking 55.42.

Shiny Abraham made the 800m semis (the first Indian woman to do so) and the women’s 4 x 400m relay team (Usha, Shiny, Vandana Rao and M.D.Valsamma ) finished seventh despite creating a national mark of 3:33.49.

In hockey, Zafar Iqbal’s team failed to score against West Germany in a crucial pool match and finished fifth. Wrestlers Rajinder Singh (74 kg) finished fourth and his compatriot Rohtas Singh (57 kg) fifth.

Seoul 1988

In Seoul, Indians took an on-the-spot trial to pick the women’s 4 x 400m relay team. An injury forced Usha to almost miss the event and predictably she fared poorly. The hockey team, under M.M. Somayya, finished sixth.

Barcelona 1992

Shiny Wilson and Bahadur Prasad were the two participants in athletics and despite doing well, they could not bring back memories of Rome, Tokyo, Montreal or Los Angeles. Shiny Wilson bettered the 800m national record clocking 2:1.90 (fourth in heats) and Bahadur Prasad clocked 13:50.16 for the 5000m. In hockey, India finished a poor seventh.

Atlanta 1996

Leander Paes lost the singles semi-final to Andre Agassi but beat Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni for the bronze medal.

The rest didn’t perform well and the hockey team slid to its worst-ever performance, finishing eighth under Pargat Singh.

Sydney 2000

Karnam Malleswari (competing in 69kg category) made September 19, 2000, a red-letter day in Indian sport when she lifted a total of 240 kg (110 +130), which was just 2.5 kg less that her rivals had lifted. Since one of her lifts was disqualified, she was awarded the bronze medal, becaming the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal.

Athlete K.M. Beenamol got eliminated in the 400m semi-finals after finishing 8th in her heat in 52.04. The hockey team under Ramandeep Singh finished seventh.