Who were the first Olympians in wrestling from India?
Two Indian wrestlers participated in the 1920 edition of Olympics.
India has a long standing history of participating in the Olympics with its first contingent debuting way back in 1900 in Paris, France. However, it was only in 1920 that the Indians took part in the mega sporting event again. Incidentally, it was also the first time that the Indian wrestling team was part of the contingent.
India has won five medals in wrestling till now, the most in an individual sport at the Olympics.
There will be a minimum of seven wrestlers representing India in Tokyo which is set to start from July 23 which includes the likes of Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat. However, Rio bronze medallist Sakshi Malik will not be competing in Tokyo as the 62kg quota has been won by Sonam Malik.
Let us take a look at the members of India's first wrestling contingent that went to Antwerp, Belgium in 1920.
Kumar Navale
Kumar Navale represented India in the middleweight category. He was 23 years old when he competed at the Olympics. However, he could only finish ninth in the rankings.
Randhir Shindes
Randhir Shindes participated in the featherweight category. He had an impressive outing as he reached the semifinals of the competition. After the Olympics, he was regarded as a national hero since he defeated Henry Inman of Great Britain. However, in the semifinals, he lost in a close fight and finished fourth.
India's first wrestling team in Olympics after Independence
In 1948, the newly-formed nation had six members in the squad. A young wrestler called K D Jadav participated in the flyweight category and stood sixth after he was defeated by Iran's M. Raisi. In the next edition of Olympics in Helsinki, he would go on to win a bronze medal for India.
But the other members of the team did not advance as far with their performances. Nirmal Bose in bantamweight, S. Suryavanshi in featherweight, Banta Singh in lightweight, and Keshav Roy in middleweight were all ousted in the second round. Anant Bhargava in the welterweight category reached the third round but could not progress further.