By Uma Mahesh Ponganti, Hyderabad: We are taking a look at the Indian contingent at London 2012 Summer Olympics. The games are just two weeks shy away, are schedule to start from 27 July 2012 to 12 August 2012. India is going to compete in 13 Sporting activities, with 81 athletes at these games. This is infact India's largest ever Olympics contingent at the games.
Beijing 2008 – The Turning Point
Indian athletes have won three medals in individual sports at Beijing games 2008, one gold, one silver & one bronze.

Table 1: Medal Winners at Beijing Olympics, 2008
Athlete Medal Event
Abhinav Bindra Gold Shooting
Vijender Singh Silver Boxing
Sushil Kumar Bronze Wrestling

This has raised the bar for Olympic sports in India and fans expectations from the Indian athletes are at all time high. Rich hall of medals are expected from boxers, shooters, wrestlers at London 2012.

Table 2: Medal Prospect at London Olympics, 2012
Athlete Event
Deepika Kumari Archery
Male & female Archery team Archery
Gurmeet Singh Athletics - 20 km walk
Krishna Poonia Athletics - Discus
Saina Nehwal Badminton
Mary Kom Boxing
Vijender Singh Boxing
Vikas Krishan Yadav Boxing
Abhinav Bindra Shooting
Gagan Narang Shooting
Ronjan Sodhi Shooting
Sushil Kumar Wrestling

 
India’s Participation at London 2012
Indian athletes are going to compete across 13 disciplines and 54 events; with 58 male and 23 female athletes in fray.
Table 3: Indian Athletes Competing at Olympics 2012.
Sport Male
athletes Female
athletes Events
Archery 3 3 4
Athletics 8 6 11
Badminton 2 3 4
Boxing 7 1 8
Field hockey 16 0 1
Judo 0 1 1
Rowing 3 0 2
Shooting 7 4 9
Swimming 1 0 1
Table tennis 1 1 2
Tennis 5 2 4
Weightlifting 1 1 2
Wrestling 4 1 5
13 sports 58 23 54

Archery - Aim at the Glory

The Indian challenge is in men and women recurve event. India is competing in both individual and team events. Deepika Kumari is the current world no. 1 in this event and she is the brightest medal contender. Medals are also expected from both men and women team events also; currently ranked in world's top recurve teams.

Table 4: Archery Team at London 2012
Athlete Event
Jayanta Talukdar Men -Individual
Rahul Banerjee Men -Individual
Tarundeep Rai Men -Individual
Jayanta Talukdar Men Team
Rahul Banerjee Men Team
Tarundeep Rai Men Team
Laishram Bombayla Devi Women - Individual
Deepika Kumari Women - Individual
Chekrovolu Swuro Women - Individual
Laishram Bombayla Devi Women Team
Deepika Kumari Women Team
Chekrovolu Swuro Women Team

Athletics – track and field events

Fourteen athletes in total representing India in athletics at London 2012. Medals are expected from Krishna poonia , Viksh Gowda both discus. It won't surprise if Gurmeet in walking and Tintu Luka in 800m make it to the medal podium.

Table 5: Track & Field Events
Athlete Event
Track & road events
Basanta Bahadur Rana Men 50 km walk
Baljinder Singh Men 20 km walk
Gurmeet Singh Men 20 km walk
Irfan Kolothum Thodi Men 20 km walk
Ram Singh Yadav Marathon
Field events
Vikas Gowda Men Discus throw
Om Prakash Karhana Men Shot put
Renjith Maheshwary Men Triple jump
Seema Antil Women Discus throw
Mayookha Johny Women Triple jump
Krishna Poonia Women Discus throw
Sahana Kumari Women High jump
Track & road events
Tintu Luka Woman 800 m
Sudha Singh Woman 3000 m steeplechase

Badminton – Can Saina & Co. stop the Chinese domination…!

Saina and Jwala along with Ashwini with their recent wins have announced to the world that Chinese domination in badminton is going to be challenged at this Olympics by their neighbor.

Table 6: Indian Shutters at London 2012
Athlete Event
Parupalli Kashyap Men's singles
Saina Nehwal Women's singles
Jwala Gutta Women's doubles
Ashwini Ponnappa Women's doubles
Valiyaveetil Diju Mixed doubles
Jwala Gutta Mixed doubles

Boxing – India the emerging Cuba…!

Indian boxers managed to win just a single bronze at 2011 World Boxing Champions and now they are determined to erase that from the memory of their fans. The inspirational Vijender (Silver medalist at Beijing Games) and the raising star Vikas Krishan and the veteran four time world women boxing champion Mary Kom are India's best medal hopes at London games.

Table 7: Eight a Team of Boxers
Athlete Event
Devendro Singh Man Light flyweight
Shiva Thapa Man Bantamweight
Jai Bhagwan Man Lightweight
Manoj Kumar Man Light welterweight
Vikas Krishan Yadav Man Welterweight
Vijender Singh Man Middleweight
Sumit Sangwan Man Light heavyweight
Mary Kom Women Flyweight

Field Hockey –Re-create the Magic Once Again

The Indian field hockey team under its new coach Michel Nobbs is playing very attractive and attacking brand of hockey. The style which made India eight times Olympic champion. India won its last Gold in Hockey in 1980 Olympics. The current team is very much capable of re-creating the old magic of skillful hockey and give stiff competition to all the top teams. Sandeep Singh, Sardar Singh, Raghunath, Ignace Tirkey and Captain Bhatrat Chettri are key players of the team. It is needless to mention a podium finish in hockey is what every Indian fan is dreaming and expecting. Any medal in this event will be much cherished and surely reignite the nostalgia associated with hockey.

Shooting – Shoot the GOLD

India is hoping, rich hall of medals from the entire shooting contingent. All the shooters are highly ranked and equally talented in their own events. Abhinav Bindra is gold medalist from Beijing Olympics, determined to repeat his feet once again at these games. Gagan Narang and Ronjan Shodi are world beaters in their respective events. Other shooters of the team are also expected to perform very well and bring glory.

Table 8: Shooters with Golden Fingers
Athlete Event
Abhinav Bindra Men 10 m air rifle
Joydeep Karmakar Men 50 m rifle prone
Vijay Kumar Men 25 m rapid fire pistol
Gagan Narang Men 10 m air rifle
Gagan Narang Men 50 m rifle 3 positions
Sanjeev Rajput Men 50 m rifle 3 positions
Manavjit Singh Sandhu Men Trap
Ronjan Sodhi Men Double trap
Shagun Chowdhary Women Trap
Rahi Sarnobat Women 25 m pistol
Heena Sidhu Women 25 m pistol
Annuraj Singh Women 10 m air pistol

Tennis – Is the war house still in Order!
The old horses are at war with each other, but won't be surprised if they managed to put it across their personal issues at sidelines and win a medal at these games. Nine Players represent India at Olympics tennis singles and doubles events. Leander competing at his 6th Olympics a feet achieved by very few athletes, he is expected to bring all his experience in to play and win medals in doubles and mix doubles. Mahesh & Rohan are India’s best bet in tennis at these games. Sania is always being the focus point as far as India’s challenge in womens’ section.

Table 9: Except medals in doubles event
Athlete Event
Somdev Devvarman Men's singles
Mahesh Bhupathi Men's doubles
Rohan Bopanna Men's doubles
Leander Paes Men's doubles
Vishnu Vardhan Men's doubles
Rushmi Chakravarthi Women's doubles
Sania Mirza Women's doubles
Leander Paes Mixed doubles
Sania Mirza Mixed doubles

Wrestling
World & Commonwealth Champion and Bejing Olympics Bronze medalist Sushil Kumar is the best bet for podium finish of six member Indian wrestling team.

Table 10: Indian Wrestlers at these games
Athlete Event
Amit Kumar Men's freestyle 55 kg
Yogeshwar Dutt Men's freestyle 60 kg
Sushil Kumar Men's freestyle 66 kg
Narsingh Pancham Yadav Men's freestyle 74 kg
Geeta Phogat Women's freestyle 55kg

Rest of the Contingent consists of –
Judo, Rowing, Swimming, Table Tennis & Weightlifting
Katulu Ravi Kumar with his medal winning performance at commonwealth game at Delhi has emerged as a medal prospect in weightlifting event.

Table 11: Other contenders at these games
Athlete Event
Judo
Garima Chaudhary Women 63 kg
Rowing
Swarn Singh Virk Men Single sculls
Sandeep Kumar Men Lightweight double sculls
Manjeet Singh Men Lightweight double sculls
Swimming
Ullalmath Gagan Men 1500 m freestyle
Table tennis
Soumyajit Ghosh Men's singles
Ankita Das Women's singles
Weightlifting
Katulu Ravi Kumar Men's -69 kg
Ngangbam Soniya Chanu Women's -48 kg

Billion Hopes & Billion Wishes…..
Lets hope this time the athletes are going to bring the elusive Olympic medals. We wish the entire contingent will recreate history with their record breaking performance at London 2012. With billion prayers and billion wishes the Indian Olympic contingent termed as Contingent Hope.