The 32nd Edition of Olympic Games is taking place in Tokyo, Japan from 23rd July, 2021 – 8th August, 2021.
- The Specific Motto of the Tokyo Olympics is ‘United by Emotion’.
- Japanese Emperor Naruhito officially declared the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics open, while Japanese Women’s Tennis Players lit up the Olympic Cauldron.
- The Opening ceremony took place at the newly-built National Stadium, Tokyo.
India’s Performance
India has won 2 medals – 1 Silver, 1 Bronze till August 3, 2021.
Medals
MirabaiChanu wins Silver Medal in Weightlifting
MirabaiSaikomChanu (Manipur) won the Silver Medal in 49kg Weightlifting category with a total lift of 202 Kg. She became 1st Indian Weightlifter to win Silver in Olympics.
- The Gold Medal was won by China’s HouZhihui (combined lift of 210 kgs) and the Bronze medal was claimed by Indonesia’s Windy CantikaAisah.
- Mirabai Chanu’s silver medal is only the 2nd Weightlifting medal for India since Karnam Malleswari’s Bronze (69 kg category) at the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics.
P.V. Sindhu wins Bronze Medal in Badminton
P.V. Sindhu (Telangana) won the Bronze Medal in Women’s Badminton after defeating China’s He Bingjiao in the Bronze Medal match. She became the 1st Indian Woman and 2nd Indian overall to win 2 Olympic Medals.
- P.V. Sindhu was defeated in the semi-final match by Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying.
- P.V. Sindhu had clinched Silver Medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
- Wrestler Sushil Kumar is the 1st and only other Indian to win 2 Olympic medals (Bronze at 2008 Beijing Olympics & Silver at 2012 London Olympics).
- Saina Nehwal was the 1st Indian to win a badminton medal at the Olympics when she finished with a Bronze in Beijing in 2008
Fact -P.V. Sindhu is only the 4th Women’s singles player to win a medal at successive Olympics after Susi Susanti (Indonesia), Bang Soo-Hyun (South Korea) and Zhang Ning (China).
Other Significant Achievement of Indians
i.Tennis – SumitNagal (Haryana) defeated Denis Istomin (Uzbekistan) in his opening round match. With this, he became the 1st Indian since 1996 (3rd overall) to win a singles match at the Olympics.
- The other 2 Indians are Zeeshan Ali (Seoul 1988 Olympics) & Leander Paes (Bronze Medal at 1996 Atlanta Olympics).
ii.Hockey – VandanaKatariya (Uttarakhand) became the 1st Indian woman to score a hat-trick at Olympics, she scored three goals during the match against South Africa.
iii.Discus Throw – Kamalpreet Kaur (Punjab) finished 6th in the Women’s Discus Throw event.
iv.Fencing – CA Bhavani Devi (Tamil Nadu) who became the 1st ever fencer to represent Indian at Olympics also became the 1st Indian Fencing Player to win an Olympic Match.
- She defeated Tunisia’s Nadia Azizi in the 1st round, but was defeated in the 2nd round by France’s Manon Brunet.
World Records
i.South Africa’s TatjanaSchoenmaker set the 1st Individual Swimming World Record at Tokyo Olympics, when she clocked 2 minutes, 18.95 second in the Women’s 200-meter breaststroke.
- CaelebDressel (US) set a new record in 100m butterfly (swimming) to win the Gold Medal.
- Kathleen Ledecky (US) won the Gold Medal in the 800m freestyle (olympic).
ii.Norway’s Karsten Warholm clocked 45.94 seconds to break the world record and win Gold in Men’s 400m hurdles.
iii.Men’s 100M Sprint – Marcell Jacobs (Italy) clocked 9.8 seconds to win Gold in the Men’s 100 m event. Fred Kerley (US) took silver, while Canada’s Andre de Grasse took bronze.
- Jacobs is the 1st Italian in history to win the 100m event. He also became the 1st European man to win Gold in the Men’s 100 meters since Linford Christie of Great Britain in 1992.
iv.Papua New Guinea’s Loa Dika Toua became the 1st Weightlifter to participate in 5 Olympics. She has been participating in the Weightlifting event ever since it was introduced in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
v.Bermuda’s Flora Duffy won the Gold medal in the Triathlon event. With this, Bermuda became the smallest country to win Olympic Gold.
vi.Australian Swimmer Emma Mckeon became the 1st Female Swimmer & 2nd woman in any sport to win 7 medals (4 Gold, 3 Bronze) at one Olympics.
- The 1st woman to win 7 medals at one olympics is Soviet gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya, who claimed 2 golds and 5 silvers at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics Games.
vii.South Korean Archer ‘An San’ became the 1st woman since 1904 to win 3 Golds in Archery at the same olympics. She won Gold in Mixed Teams, Women’s teams and Individual events.
- She became the 1st South Korean to win more than 2 medals in a single Summer Games.
One Liners
- The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has recommended a Cash award of INR 75 Lakh for each gold medal winner; INR 40 Lakh for Silver medal; INR 25 Lakh to Bronze medal winners.
- IOA has roped in Adani Group as sponsor for the Indian Contingent at the ongoing Tokyo Games.
- IOA has appointed IPS Officer B K Sinha as Dual role of Security as well as Press Attache of India’s contingent.
- Guinea & North Korea pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics.
- Indian Golfer Diksha Dagar qualified for the Olympics at the last moment. She will be India’s top woman golfer, Aditi Ashok at the olympics.
About International Olympic Committee (IOC)
President – Thomas Bach
Headquarters – Lausanne, Switzerland
