It's said that unless cricket returns to the Olympics, Indians will never be able to muster any excitement about the four-yearly gathering of sporting nations. For years, Olympic medals came only in hockey. Until 1996, when Leander Paes ended a 16-year drought with a tennis medal, followed four years later by Karnam Malleshwari's bronze medal for weightlifting.
The new century has proved fortunate for India, and the country has progressively done better, with a gold and two bronze medals in 2008, its best year to date. However, it is still only 50th in the medals table, behind much smaller nations such as Estonia, Latvia and the Dominican Republic.
With 1.3 billion people, can cricket-crazy country India do better in 2012? This year, seven athletes, including ace 400-metre runner Ashwini Akkunji, are under bans for drugs violations, so there's even less to be excited about. But widen the lens to other, less-glamorous sports, and there are many medal prospects this summer.
India is likely to take part in 15 disciplines, subject to qualifications. These include aquatics, athletics, archery, boxing, gymnastics, hockey, judo, shooting, rowing, sailing, table tennis, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling. We look at some of the contenders.
Tennis
Now that Sania Mirza has dropped out of the top 100, the All India Tennis Association (AITA) hopes to get her a wildcard entry into the games, S.P. Misra, India's Davis Cup captain and a member of the TAC, told the PTI news agency. The AITA wants her to compete alongside 1996 bronze medallist Leander Paes in the mixed doubles event, but to do so, she must take part in either of the two women-only events.
Sania, 25, has until June to reach the top 64 players worldwide, which would automatically make her eligible for the games. What happens if the Hyderabadi girl gets there, however, only time will tell.
On the men's side of the net, both Paes, 38, and former doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi, 37, are expected to take part. While the two reunited early last year with the Olympics in view, they have since parted ways once again and there is now no love lost between the two.
Both will look to pair with a younger player, either Rohan Bopanna or Indian number one and world number 86, Somdev Devvarman.
Although he is at an age when singles tennis players often retire, Paes has high hopes of winning a doubles medal, most likely by pairing with Bopanna. "I didn't win a Grand Slam title last year. And this being an Olympic year, that's definitely a time when I'll peak," Paes told reporters at the Chennai Open recently.
Meanwhile, the field for the singles is wide open for Devvarman, who won gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games but faces much tougher hurdles in London.
Badminton
India's other racket woman, Saina Nehwal, ended an otherwise disappointing 2011 on a high. Despite crashing out of the World Championship, she finished the year by becoming the first Indian singles player to reach the summit stage of year-ending Super Series finals last year. Having made it to world number two in 2010 and closing out 2011 at number four, it remains to be seen whether she will make it beyond the quarter-finals at the Olympics, which was the position she achieved at the Beijing 2008 Games.
"2012 is going to be a great year, the Olympics are coming. I just hope I win big matches, so that I get confidence," Nehwal, 21, told reporters in Hyderabad recently. "I have to do something for my mind to relax, to just be focused on the game." >
"I don't want to really think about what people are thinking. But it will only happen when I keep away from all these things and just focus on my game," Nehwal added.
Shooting
India's strongest medal hope is a man who says he has forgotten his last hurrah — the 2008 games, where he won the nation its first-ever individual gold medal in the men's 10m Air Rifle final.
Ace shooter Abhinav Bindra has set his sights firmly on the British capital, and is a sure-shot medal prospect. "London is a new day, I can't transfer my past. I don't remember the past...it is over. I want to win at the Olympics, as simple as that," the Dehradun native told PTI last month. "I am very hungry and desirous of winning and right now I am chasing my dreams." The 29-year-old is already in form, having won the first gold of the 12th Asian Shooting Championship in Doha this month.
Other shooters to watch out for among the eight who are headed for London are Gagan Narang, who bagged four gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and double trap world number two Ronjan Sodhi, who while already set for London, did not make the final round in Doha.
Boxing
Four young men will ensure the Indian flag flies high in the boxing ring this summer. Fresh from the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, are teenagers Vikas Krishan (69kg) from Bhiwani, who shot to fame after winning a gold medal in the 2010 Asian Games in the Lightweight category, Devendro Laishram, an upcoming Indian boxing sensation competing in the 49kg category, Jai Bhagwan (60kg) and Manoj Kumar (64kg), the Commonwealth Games gold medallist in his category.
"No one expected the four of them to qualify for the Olympics from the World Championships because it had never happened before. In the last World Championships before the Olympics, we had just one boxer making the cut. So, it was a fantastic performance this time," national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu told PTI.
The quartet of pugilists will hopefully be joined by two of India's biggest names, 26-year-old Vijender Singh, the country's only Olympic medallist in the sport, and five-time world champion and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardee M.C. Mary Kom. The 28-year-old Manipuri is a potential medal prospect in women's boxing, a discipline that makes its Olympics debut this year.
Athletics
2011 began badly for Indian athletics, which was overshadowed by a drugs ban for six women stars — all 400 metre runners, including Ashwini Akkunji, Mandeep Kaur, Tiana Mary Thomas and Priyanka Panwar — and male long jumper Harikrishnan Muralidharan. However, counterbalancing that was news that several athletes had begun their Olympic preparations after achieving qualifying marks.
Among them are Krishna Poonia (women's discus throw), Mayookha Johny (women's triple jump), Tintu Luka (women's 800m), Om Prakash Karhana (men's shot put) and Gurmeet Singh (men's 20km walk).
Wrestling
Olympic bronze medallist Sushil Kumar is considered by many as India's best chance to win an individual medal at the 30th Olympiad — but the world champion wrestler has yet to qualify for London. Currently training in the US city of Colorado Springs, he has three chances to book a berth: the Asian Wrestling Championship in Kazakhstan in March, followed by back-to-back qualifying events in China and Finland in April and May respectively.
"I am confident of qualifying for the London Olympics at the first qualifying event in March," the 28-year-old told reporters in New Delhi last month, adding that his coach, Satpal Singh has chalked out a full plan for him for the next seven months. "I am undergoing a strict training regime with the entire focus on Olympics," he added.
Archery
Arjuna award-winner Jayanta Talukdar, 25, sealed his Olympic berth for the men's individual recurve event at the Archery World Championship in Turin, Italy, last July.
The South Asian Games gold medallist will be joined in London by a women's team that includes Laishram Bombayla Devi, who also represented India in Beijing, Deepika Prajapati, the gold medallist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and Chekrovolu Swuro, who beat France to win India three Olympic quota places. The women's team is a medal favourite this year.
Hockey
No article can be written about India at the Olympics without considering the chances of the hockey team. The eight-time champions, who failed to make the cut for the Beijing 2008 Games, are likely to at least make it to this year's games — given that they have the advantage of playing on home ground at next month's qualifiers.
India will battle it out with France, Canada, Italy, Poland and the United States at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium from February 18-26. Coach Michael Nobbs has been credited with helping the team reinvent itself by deepening the pool of players and by largely raising team fitness levels.
"We're nearing the Olympic qualification and we're trying to bring the magic back into Indian hockey," the normally low-profile Australian told reporters on the sidelines of a preparatory camp for a Test series against South Africa earlier this month.
"Destiny is in our hands. If we play like we can, we will qualify," he said in an interview to an Indian news magazine. "As things stand, I am 90-95 per cent certain that we will qualify. We just have to guard against setbacks like injuries, cards, poor umpiring or lack of concentration. It will come down to one or two matches."
