Olympics: India's Past Medal Winners

The most successful team with 8 gold medals, India were one of the dominant forces in the sport three decades back. Despite the under-par performances in such multi-nation events, everyone's eyes are on the new captain Sreejesh Ravindra to guide the team to glory once again.

Abhinav Bindra, the name responsible for earning India its first ever individual gold medal at the Olympics, claimed gold in the 10 metre Air Rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Having lost in the qualification round in 2012, India's flag bearer at Rio will take his final shot at glory in Rio.

Having participated at the 2012 London Olympics in three different formats, ace shooter Gagan Narang found luck in the 10m air rifle event, where he claimed a bronze. Narang, along with compatriot Bindra narrowly missed out on medal at the ISSF World Cup, but is aiming nothing less than Gold at the Summer Olympics.

After 18th and 9th place finishes at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games respectively, wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt went on to win a memorable bronze in 2012 London Olympics in men's freestyle 60 kg, having defeated North Korea's Ri Jong-myong. With Sushil Kumar out, Yogeshwar is India's only real hope to claim a medal in the sport this time.

Having claimed a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a silver four years later in London, Sushil Kumar was hoping to complete a hat-trick of medals in Rio with a gold, before the Quota system earned Narsingh Yadav a place over the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medal winner.

India’s only Olympic boxing medalist, Vijender Singh's journey at the 2008 Olympics ended with a defeat to Cuba's Emilio Correa in the semi-finals, which meant that he could only claim a bronze medal. The Haryana-born boxer ruled himself out of participation in Rio giving importance to his pro-career.

Five-time women's boxing world champion Mary Kom earned India a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics defeating Tunisian boxer Maroua Rahali after being knocked out by the eventual champion, Nicola Adams in semi-finals. AIBA's application to give Mary wild-card entry at the Rio Olympics was rejected by IOC.

The winner of several Grand Slam titles in doubles category, Leander Paes' bagged bronze at the 1996 Olympic Games in men's singles format, where he defeated Brazilian Fernando Meligeni to bag the medal. The 43-year-old will be paring with Rohan Bopanna in the Men's doubles event at the upcoming Rio Olympics.

1994 World Title winner in the 54kg division, Karnam Malleswari, became the first Indian women to win an Olympic medal when she claimed bronze at the 2000 Sydney Games. Competing in the 69 kg category. Malleswari was just 2.5 kgs behind gold medalist Lin Weining of China.

Saina Nehwal claimed a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in women's singles event after her Chinese opponent Wang Xin retired from the match due to a knee injury. Having defeated former world No. 1 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand and China's Sun Yu, Saina's form is one of the reasons why many would put their money on the star shuttler to grab at least a medal in Rio.