With 119 athletes, this will be India's largest Olympic contingent ever. India will participate in 65 events. India had sent 56 athletes to Beijing in 2008, 83 to London in 2012. With an increase in the number of athletes who qualified for Rio, chances of India improving its medals tally is high. Compare this with Pakistan, our neighboring country. None of the Pakistani athletes qualified for Rio Olympics. Pakistan had to take support of Wild Card entry system to send 7 of its athletes (most of them do not even live in Pakistan) to participate in Rio. Their participation will be a mere formality. Compare this with India, our tally have been increasing since 2008, however we still stand nowhere on the medals table. Let us hope that our athletes make us proud this year. Here are some medal hopefuls for India at Rio:
Shooting:
India has high hopes from its shooters - Abhinav Bindra and Narang, however Jitu Rai is also a shooter to watch out for. Rai has been a medal winner at the ISSF World Cup multiple times and won the gold in 2016. The next person that India has high hopes on is Miss Apurvi Chandela. She broke the world record in the finals of the Air Rifle World Championship and became the first Indian woman to qualify for Rio this year.
Badminton:
India is relying heavily on Saina Nehwal to bring home the glorious gold medal in Badminton. Female debutante PV Sindhu will be joining her as well.
Gymnast:
Dipa Karmakar is the first Indian woman to participate in Gymnastics at Olympics 2016. She was a bronze medalist at the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
Boxing:
This year's boxing contingent is smaller compared to the one at the London games. Mary Kom failed to qualify.
Rowing:
Dattu Bhokanal has qualified for the event
Judo:
Avatar Singh will be presenting India at the event
Hockey Team:
India has high hopes on Men's Hockey Team which had failed to qualify in Beijing. Our Men's Hockey Team is participating after a silver at the Champions Trophy.
Tennis:
Leander Paes and Sania Mirza will be representing India in Tennis at Rio Olympics with Rohan Bopanna in the men?s doubles and mixed doubles categories respectively. Sania Mirza will also be playing in the women?s doubles category.
Weightlifting:
Sivalingam Sathish Kumar will be representing India in weightlifting this year. He was a gold medalist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
100m Sprint
Mumbai girl Dutee Chand will represent India in the women's 100m sprint at Rio. Dutee works as a ticket collector for Central Railway in Mumbai
Wrestling:
Hopefully Salman Khan's sultan has inspired our wrestlers. Wrestling is said to be India's forte this year. Praveen Rana replaced Narsingh Yadav after the latter tested positive for banned substances. Praveen will participate in 74 KG Men's Freestyle.
Sandeep Tomar, who won a gold at the 2015 Asian Championships, is another hope for India.
Yogeshwar Dutt had already made us proud 4 years ago in London and hopefully he would repeat that feat this time
Discuss Thrower:
Vikas Gowda is the current Asian Champion with gold in 2014 Commonwealth games, and he is the only one from track and field department to do so in the past 50 years. We all hope that he brings a medal for our country this year.
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