Kolkata: The onus will be on a 126-strong Tokyo-bound Indian contingent across 18 disciplines, the biggest-ever to any Olympics, as they will strive to do one better after the disappointment of Rio five years back in 2016. It was eventually left to two women athletes, PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik, to end an agonising search for medals with a silver and bronze medal in badminton and wrestling, respectively.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday interacted virtually with some of the leading members of the contingent on the eve of their departure on July 17 (Saturday) - often surprising with the homework that he had done about them.
Manpreet Singh, captain of the hockey team and one of the flagbearers at the opening ceremony along with the decorated boxer M.C. Mary Kom on July 23, was excited to interact with Modi. “It was fantastic to interact with the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. He always encourages us to perform to the best of our abilities and his motivational words have definitely inspired us before the biggest competition of our lives. I would also like to thank our countrymen for their unstinted support.
‘‘We will keep the Indian flag and aspirations of 1.3 billion countrymen in mind when we step onto the field in Tokyo. I would also like to wish all Indian athletes the very best for the Tokyo Games,” he told Hockey India.
Talking to javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, the Prime Minister said: “I have been told that you got injured, but still you created a new record. You don’t need to get bogged down by expectations, don’t take the burden of expectations, just focus on your goal.
Chopra replied: “I am focusing on my game and anything I want, the government is helping me in that. We have a limited career and because of injury, I lost some time but I was fully focused on the Olympics. Because of Covid-19, Olympics got postponed but I kept on preparing for the event.”
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The virtual conferencing session was kickstarted by Anurag Thakur, the newly appointed Union Sports and Youth Affairs Minister while Minister of State, Nisith Pramanik and Law Minister Kiren Rijiju (the erstwhile minister in-charge of Sport) were also present along with Indian Olympic Association President Narinder Batra.
Athletes such as Mary Kom (boxer), Sania Mirza (tennis), Manika Batra (table tennis), Dutee Chand (sprinter), Deepika Kumari (archery) and Sajan Prakash (swimmer) were all part of the session.
There are a number of notable ‘firsts’ in terms of participation as for the first time in history, a fencer from India (Bhavani Devi) has qualified for the Olympic Games. Nethra Kumanan is the first-ever female sailor from India to make the cut, while swimmers Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj are the first swimmers from India to qualify for the Olympics by achieving the ‘A’ Qualification standard in a build-up event in Rome last month.
Wrestler Bajrang Punia will be India’s flagbearer at the closing ceremony.
