The first year of the new decade will also see the first Summer Olympics of the decade. Olympics 2020 schedule will take place from 24 July 2020 to 9 August 2020. The Games will have 339 events in 33 sports.
The Indian athletes produced an impressive haul of six medals in the 2012 London Olympics but the medal count slumped to two in the last Olympics in Rio in 2016. Since then, the athletes from all around the country have put in a lot of work and have given their best to make the Olympic cut.
Manu Bhaker
Manu Bhaker had a lot of success and is one of the best hope for a gold medal for the country. She achieved the Olympic quota in 10m event during the Munich World Cup last year. He won four World Cup gold in the 10m air pistol mixed team event year. Manu recently won twin gold medals in the women’s 10m air pistol senior and junior events of the National Shooting Championship. The 17-year-old will compete in 10m and 25m air pistol event in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Indian contingent would surely be aiming for a position in the top 30 or 40 in the Tokyo Olympics Medal Tally.
Bajarang Punia
Bajrang Punia will be a prominent contender for a medal in wrestling at the upcoming Olympics. Last year, he won third World Wrestling Championship medal of his career, securing his berth for the 2020 Olympics. He also bagged gold medals at the Asian Championships. With three-time Olympian Shako Bentinidis as his coach, Bajrang is giving his everything to get a medal at this year’s Olympics. Bajrang will compete in the highly competitive men’s freestyle 65-kg category event. He will have to surpass the challenge from the world’s top wrestlers including world number one Gadzhimurad Rashidov of Russia.
PV Sindhu
The silver medalist the 2016 Rio Olympics is against a medal hopeful for the country. Sindhu has not been in her best form lately, having failed to defend the World Tour Finals title. But the World Championship gold medal winner may turn it around when the time comes. Sindhu has personally admitted that she is working on rectifying his faults and to win more tournaments. Sindhu can become the first female athlete from India to secure two Olympic medals and only the second Indian to do so after Sushil Kumar. Sindhu will be focused on doing good in the tournaments preceding the Olympics and preparing hard to give her best in the Olympics and get the top spot at the podium.
Amit Panghal
Amit Panghal has on the rise since winning the bronze medal in the 2017 Asian Championship in the 49kg category. He made history when he became the first Indian male boxer to reach the finals at World Boxing Championships in Russia. He also won the gold medal at the 2019 Asian Championships and 2018 Asian Games. Amit’s biggest target, for now, is to do well in the Asia-Oceania tournament in China, scheduled to take place from February 3 to February 14 2020.
Mirabai Chanu
Former World Champion Mirabai Chanu is India’s biggest medal hope in weightlifting. Chanu ended 2019 by winning gold at the Qatar International Cup, an Olympic qualifying silver level event. She is currently at eighth spot in the Olympic qualifiers ranking list released by the International Weightlifting Federation. She is well on her way to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games. She had a good streak of performances in 2019 and even managed to cross the 200kg mark by lifting her personal best in all three sections at the World Championship in September,2019.
