This Independence Day, we celebrate ten historic moments when Indian sports achieved glory, from India's first Olympic medal in 1948 to Prakash Padukone’s All England Championship win in 1980. Published: August 15, 2024 7:00 AM IST By Edited by Seventy years back, on 15 August 1947, India got freedom from the ‘Rule of the British’. Since then, the country has covered a lengthy path, struggling through a lot of hindrances, to stand on the doorsteps of glory.
Time and again, in those phases of communal turmoil, sports made its presence felt as a strong bond, binding the nation as one. The games have silently evolved into becoming a source of immense joy and a prideful feeling of patriotism for the entire nation. This Independence Day, let’s glance into ten times the entire country tasted victory and glory.
The Indian hockey team won three gold medals at the Olympic Games before 1948 but India was a British Colony at tat time. The 1948 Olympics in London became the first occasion when India won its first medal as an Independent nation. The grit and determination was at it’s peak as the side won all their games and then edged out great Netherlands by 2-1 in the semi-final clash to make their place in the final.
In the final, India locked horns with Great Britain at Webley, where Balbir Singh’s beautiful brace helped the side to ace the final by 4-0. India was looking to dominate other disciplines as well other than hockey where country got success in making a niche for itself. At the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Maharashtra’s Khashaba Dadasaheb Jhadav became secured bronze medal in the bantamweight category of freestyle wrestling.
Jhadav also took part in the 1948 games but failed to clinch a medal. He avoided mistakes which restricted him from the medal and became India’s one of the legends of Indian wrestling. It was long before when cricket was just another sport in the country.
India’s legendary batsman Lala Amarnath already etched his name in the history books by becoming first Indian player to score a century in 1933 but his peak career moment came in the year 1952 when he captained India to their first Test series win. This victory cam against arch rivals Pakistan, India won the first and third Test matches at Delhi and Bombay respectively to clinch the series 2-1. After getting a victory against strong Hungary side, India pocketed hosts Australia in the quarter-finals clash, Neville D’Souza’s amazing hattrick made things easy for the side.
This is the closest India has come to winning a medal at the Olympics in football. Till 1958 India made significant progress in wrestling at the global stage, but the first breakthrough moment came in Cardiff Games in 1958 where Indian wrestling won its first gold in a multi-sport event. Lila Ram Sangwan took home the yellow metal in the heavyweight category of freestyle wrestling.
The English Channel is gruffly considered one of the toughest stretches swam and hard litmus tests for human endurance. In 1958, Mihir Sen became the first Indian to swim the stretch between Dover and Calais. Ramanathan Krishnan had set a record of sorts when the racquet games had arrived in India in a big way long before he reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon.
The oldest tennis tournament and erstwhile regarded as the most important event of the sport, Wimbledon was the most prestigious event before the Open era get underway. Krishnan, seeded seventh, had this fantastic run brought to an end at that semifinal stage by Neale Fraser of Australia, who eventually won the championship. India was not yet a dominant power in cricket, but there was a new face to it with the breed of fresh cricketers.
Charismatic leader that he was, Mansoor Ali Khan changed India’s perspective on the game. But it was during his aggressive captaincy that India won its first-ever series in a foreign land—against New Zealand, in a historic 3-1 series. The third men’s hockey World Cup was held in Kuala Lumpur in 1975.
India, though having won bronze and silver in the first two tournaments, was determined to do better this time. Helmed by skipper Ajit Pal Singh, India topped the pool and defeated the host, Malaysia, 3-2 in the semifinals. In the final, India faced arch-rivals Pakistan and won 2-1 with goals from Surjit Singh Randhawa and Ashok Kumar, son of the legendary Dhyan Chand.
That is still India’s only gold medal in the men’s hockey World Cup. Before the inception of Super Series events in world badminton, the All England Championships was the most significant event in world badminton, where all the world-class players used to converge from all over the world. Indian shuttler Prakash Padukone hogged the international limelight by posting a victory in the championship through the deserving triumph over the best possible field in 1980.
The very next year, he was to capture the World Cup besides pocketing a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games men’s singles and two bronze medals in the Asian Games team event. For breaking news and live news updates, like us on or follow us on and . Read more on Latest on .
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