INDIA AT OLYMPICS 2008

THE OLYMPIC RINGS "These five rings -- blue, yellow, black, green and red -- represent the five parts of the world now encompassed by Olympism and ready to compete against each other. Moreover, the six colors (including the white background) thus combined represent those of all nations, without exception. The blue and yellow of Sweden, the blue and white of Greece, the French, English, American, German, Belgian, Italian and Hungarian tricolors, the yellow and red of Spain are side by side with the new Brazilian and Australian flags, the old Japan and the new China. It is a true international emblem

BEIJING OLYMPIC EMBLEM

Every emblem of the Olympics tells a story. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games emblem "Chinese Seal, Dancing Beijing" is filled with Beijing's hospitality and hopes, and carries the city's commitment to the world.

‘ One World One Dream" fully reflects the essence and the universal values of the Olympic spirit -- Unity, Friendship, Progress, Harmony, Participation and Dream.

OFFICIAL MASCOTS OF BEIJING 2008

The Five Olympic Rings from which they draw their color and inspiration, Fuwa will serve as the Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace -- and good wishes from China -- to children all over the world

In Singapore on the 6th of July, London was named host of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games: after four rounds of voting, the British capital beat out Paris, Madrid, New York City, and Moscow. Moscow was cut in the first round, New York in the second, and Madrid in the third. In the fourth round, London defeated Paris with the absolute majority of delegates required to win. London is therefore successor to the Olympic Games in Beijing and may present itself at the closing ceremony in 2008 as the next host. THE 2012 OLYMPICS IN LONDON

INDIA AT OLYMPICS 2008 INDIA’S 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS DREAMS

A 99 member squad is to represent India in the 2008 Beijing Olympics (8th to 24th August 2008). Saying "represent India" is playing a bit fast and loose with the word itself, unless by "represent" I mean "the number of Indians definite to land at the Beijing airport". The figure 99 consists of 57 athletes and 42 officials

India’s Total Olympics Medal Tally:

8 Gold medals, 1 Silver medal and 2 Bronze medals in Hockey

2 Silver medals in Athletics and 1 in Shooting

Bronze for wrestling ( Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav 1952 Helsinki)

Bronze for tennis ( Leander Paes 1996 Atlanta)

Bronze for weightlifting ( Karnam Malleswari 2000 Sydney

Indian 2008 Olympics Medal Hopes:

These are the Indian participants at the 2008 Olympics to watch out for:

Manavjit Singh - Shooting (Trap Men)

Rajyavardhan Rathore - Shooting(Double Trap Men)

Anju Bobby George - Athletics (Long Jump)

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati - Tennis (Mens Doubles)

Dinesh Kumar - Boxing (-81 kg category)

Akhil Kumar - Boxing (-54 kg category)

Vijender - Boxing (-75 kg category

For the first time India is sending a team of swimmers to the Beijing Games. So below is the list of members from India at the beijing olympics.

Archery: Dola Banerjee, Pranitha Vardhineni, L Bombayala Devi, Mangal Singh Champia.

Athletics: Anju Bobby George (Long Jump), Krishna Poonia (Discus), Harwant Kaur (Discus), Preeja Sreedharan (10,000m), Manjit Kaur (400m), Chitra Soman (4×400m relay), Sini Jose (4×400m relay),MR Poovamma (4×400m relay), Mandeep Kaur (4×400m relay), S Geeta (4×400m relay), K Mridula (4×400m relay), J J Shobha (Heptathlon), Sushmita Singh Roy (Heptathlon), G G Pramila (Heptathlon),Vikas Gowda (Discus), Renjith Maheswary (Triple Jump), Surender Singh (10000m).

Badminton: Anup Sridhar, Saina Nehwal

Boxing: Jitender (51kg), Akhil Kumar (54kg), A L Lakhra (57kg), Vijender(75kg) and Dinesh Kumar (81kg)

Judo: Khumujam Tombi Devi, Divya. Rowing: Bajrang Lal Takhar (Single M1X), Devnder Khandwal and Manjeet Singh (Light Weight Double Scull).

Shooting: Manavjit Singh Sandhu (Clay Pigeon Trap), Mansher Singh (Clay Pigeon Trap), Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (Clay Pigeon Double Trap), Gagan Narang (10m Air Rifle), Abhinav Bindra (10m AirRifle), Samresh Jung (10m Air Pistol), Sanjeev Rajput (50m Rifle 3 Position), Anjali Bhagwat (50m Rifle 3 Position), Avneet Kaur Sidhu (10m Air Rifle).

Swimming: Virdawal Khade (50m, 100m, 200m Freestyle), Ankur Poseria (100m Butterfly), Sandeep Sejwal (100m, 200m Breaststrokes), Rehan Poncha (200m butterfly).

Table Tennis: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Neha Aggarwal.

Tennis: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi (doubles), Sania Mirza (singles and doubles), Sunitha Rao (doubles). Weightlifting: L Monika Devi (69kg)

Wrestling: Sushil Kumar (66 kg Freestyle), Yogeshwar Dutt (60 kg Freestyle), Rajiv Tomar (120 kg Freestyle

Yachting: Major NS Johal (Heavyweight Dinghy).

ABHINAV BINDRA PROFILE

Achievements: Made a junior world record score of 597/6002001 Munich World Cup and won bronze;

gold in 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games; became the first Indian shooter to win a World Championship gold; Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2001.

Abhinav Bindra is the brightest star among a new breed of talented Indian shooters. Born on September 28, 1983, Bindra is quite often criticized for not delivering on the promise he showed as a child prodigy

In the 2004 Athens Olympics, despite breaking the Olympic record Bindra failed to win a medal. But on July 24, 2006, Bindra became the first Indian shooter to win a World Championship gold in Zagreb. Dr. Karni Singh's silver in 1962 was the previous best by an Indian in a World Championship meet.

ABHINAV BINDRA WINS GOLD AT BEIJING2008 OLYMPICS

Abhinav Bindra Wins Gold at Beijing 2008 Olympics, 10 metre Air Rifle Mens Event. Bindra is India’s First Ever Individual to win Gold in History .

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This is India’s First Olympic gold in an individual event in 28 years. The last time India won gold was at the 1980 Moscow Olympics for Hockey! The calm and composed 2006 world champion shooter entered the final in fourth place (100,99,100,98,100 and 99) but held his nerves until the end .

Tally Score Board

He finished ahead China’s Zhu Qinan and Finland’s Henri Hakkinen by scoring 104.5 points in the final round and clinching India’s First Individual Gold. Bindra finished with 700.5 points overall. Zhu, the 2004 Gold Medalist from Athens Olympics, had 699.7 points. Hakkinen got the bronze with 699.4 points. I personally feel this gold ranks higher than even our 1983 Cricket World Cup victory.

Our heartiest congratulations to Abhinav Bindra for Making India Proud!!!

I hope all the other Indian Olympians take the initiative now and deliver more.Then 2008 Beijing and Bindra’s gold will be viewed as the Turning Point in our Sports History.

With this Gold Medal, India is ranked 11th in the Medals Tally. Probably its highest ever

Bindra made some really nice comments after his win. He said that his Gold is for the entire nation and the problem with Indian Olympic sport has always been Negativism and he hopes it will change from now on .

REWARDS POUR IN FOR ABHINAV

In an attempt to encourage sports in India, many States and Organisation has decided to rewards (cash or others) for Abhinav Bindra:

The Punjab government has announced a cash reward of 1 crore for Abhinav.

The Haryana Governement too has honoured this shooter with a cash reward of 25 lakhs .

The BCCI , keeping to it promise to help nurture other sports in India too has announced a 25lakhs reward

The Chattisgarh govt . has decided to reward Abhinav with 1 lakhs .

The Bihar Govt. has taken the unique and noble decision to name the Patna Indoor Stadium after this top notch shooter. This is in addition to a cash reward of 11 lakhs .

WRESTLER SUSHIL KUMAR

: Wrestler Sushil Kumar and boxer Vijender Singh, who had won bronze medals in their respective categories, returned home in the week hours of morning. Both were given a rousing welcome at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport . .

Sushil Kumar won the medal in the men's 66 kg freestyle category, defeating Leonid Speiridonov of Kazakhistan. He became the second Indian wrestler after 56 years to bag a bronze medal. Earlier, Khashaba Jadhav of Karad, Maharashtra, had won an individual bronze in the Helsinki Olympics in 1952.

REWARDS

State-owned telecom PSU MTNL today announced a cash reward of Rs 11 lakhs for Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar, who clinched a bronze medal in men's 66kg freestyle category at the Beijing Olympics. Sushil Kumar, currently employed with the Indian Railway, was a MTNL employee till 2004. His father Diwan Singh is also an employee of MTNL, the release said. During his stay at MTNL, he participated in various national and international wrestling tournaments, including the Commonwealth Wreatling championship in 2003 at Ontario, Canada, where he clinched gold medal. PTI

BOXER VIJENDRA KUMAR

Vijender Kumar became the first-ever Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal. His performance also boosted India's medal tally in Beijing Olympics to three, after shooter Abhinav Bindra won gold in 10m air rifle event and wrestler Sushil Kumar bagged bronze.

Vijender Kumar of India reacts after defeating Carlos Gongora of Ecuador in a men's light middleweight 75 kilogram quarterfinal boxing match at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008

What can be done to Improve India’s chances of WINNING OLYMPIC MEDALS

This is a very interesting piece of information I came across while watching the News (CNN IBN) the other day. It said that the reason for winning more medals have nothing to do with population or the wealth of a nation. The news quoted the findings of a research carried out by two experts (Anirudh Krishna and Eric Haglund) at the Duke University - USA, Social Mobility is the key to sucesss at the Olympics.

Social Mobility is brought about by better infrastructure. The study cited the example of Portugal whose Olympic medals tally increased with the improvement of Radio Network . According to the research, better informed people perform better

INDIAN GLORIFIED ARCHIVE

FROM THE HIGH OF BINDRA‘S GOLD TO THE DESPAIR OF SAINA‘S LOSS, THE OLYMPICS HAS BEEN ONE AMAZING ROLLERCOASTER. I WOULD LIKE TO CONGRATULATE BINDRA, SUSHIL AND VIJENDER AGAIN FOR THEIR SUPERLATIVE PERFORMANCE