Top Three: Indian athletes who have appeared in most Olympics editions

India made its debut at the Summer Olympics in 1900. From the 1920 edition, it has not missed out on participation.

At Tokyo 2020, India will be participating in 15 disciplines. Over a hundred athletes have already qualified and a few more, including the likes of Hima Das and Dutee Chand, are still vying for qualification.

Let us look at the Indian athletes in individual sports with most appearances at the Olympics:

Leander Paes (Tennis)

The ace tennis player has participated in seven consecutive Olympics from 1992 to 2016. No other Indian has appeared as many times in the marquee sports competition of the world.

In his second appearance in 1996 at Atalanta, he won a bronze medal in the men's singles category. After losing to Andre Agassi in the semifinals Paes beat Fernando Meligeni to win the bronze medal. He was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna after the feat as he became the first Indian to win an individual medal since wrestler KD Jadhav won bronze at the Helsinki 1952 Olympics.

Since the Athens Olympics in 2004, he has been participating only in the doubles category. At Rio 2016, he teamed up with Rohan Bopanna but lost to the Polish pair of Marcin Matkowski and Łukasz Kubot in the first round.

Mahesh Bhupathi (Tennis)

Mahesh Bhupathi is another Indian tennis legend and he comes at number 2 with five appearances. He made his debut at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and appeared in five consecutive editions till the London Olympics in 2012.

His best performance came at the Athens 2004 Olympics when he along with Paes finished fourth, after losing the third-place match to Croatian pair Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic. In his last appearance in 2012, he and Bopanna were ousted in the second round by French pair Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet.

Abhinav Bindra (Shooter)

India's only individual gold medal winner at the Olympics, Abhinav Bindra has also represented his country in five editions.

His maiden appearance came in Sydney, Australia in 2000. However, he finished 11th. In 2008, in Beijing, he won gold in his pet 10m air rifle event after scoring 700.5 in the finals. On the final shot, he almost hit the bullseye with a 10.8 while China's Zhu Qian could manage only 10.5. His final appearance came in Rio 2016, where he finished a heartbreaking fourth.

Apart from these three athletes, there are several sportspersons who have appeared multiple times in Olympics. Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt has four appearances and in 2012 he won bronze. Shooter Gagan Narang and Mansher Singh also have tried their luck in four Olympics and like Dutt, Narang won a bronze in 2012 in the 10m air rifle category.

Another tennis superstar in Sania Mirza will appear in her fourth Olympics in Tokyo, partnering Ankita Raina in women's doubles. Her best performance came in Rio when she finished fourth in mixed doubles with Rohan Bopanna.