Tokyo Olympics 2020: Can the two previous medal winners from India win their second Olympic medals in Tokyo?
India is sending a 117 member contingent for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, which will start on 23rd July. The Indian contingent has quite a few champion athletes across various disciplines who are expected to win medals in Tokyo.
The main medal hopes for India at the Tokyo Olympics are in sports like shooting, archery, boxing, wrestling, badminton, athletics and tennis.
The majority of India's medal hopes going to the Tokyo Olympics have not won any Olympic medals in the past. In fact, the entire squad has only two athletes who were previous medallists in the Olympic Games. They are PV Sindhu (Badminton) and MC Mary Kom (Boxing).
Analyzing PV Sindhu and Mary Kom's medal chances at the Tokyo Olympics
PV Sindhu (Badminton): Silver Medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics
PV Sindhu is one of the best medal prospects for India at the Tokyo Olympics. She is the present World Champion and one of the best female players on the circuit. Off late Sindhu's form has been a little inconsistent because of which she has not been able to win any big events in the last 1.5 years.
However, considering her ability to bring out her best performances in big events like the Olympics and World Championships, Sindhu will definitely be a force to reckon with at the Tokyo Olympics.
Although Spain's defending champion Caroline Marin has withdrawn due to injury, it is still a very tough field. There are at least half a dozen players other than Sindhu, viz. Tai-tzu-Ying, Chen Yufei, Akane Yamaguchi, Nozomi Okuhara and Ratchanok Intanon, who are capable of winning the title at the Tokyo Olympics.
So Sindhu has to be at her very best if she has to win her second consecutive Olympic medal in Tokyo.
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MC Mary Kom (Boxing): Bronze Medalist at the 2012 London Olympics
The 38 year old boxer from Manipur is one of the best boxers in the history of the game. She is a six time World Champion and has won gold medals in almost all big events like the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the Asian Championships.
However, in the Olympics Mary has won only a solitary bronze medal till now, at the 2012 London games. This is because women's boxing was not a part of the Olympic Games during Mary Kom's heydays.
Mary will be participating in the Women's 51kg category at the Tokyo Olympics. She will be the most experienced boxer in her category. If we go by past records, then Mary seems to be the hot favorite to win gold.
But at the swansong of her career, Mary is not the same boxer, as she used to be in her hay days. Thus it will not be an easy task for her to win the elusive Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.
For that to happen, she has to win five consecutive bouts and beat in-form players like Korea's Chol Mi Pang and Turkey's Busenaz Cakiroglu, who are ahead of her in the current AIBA rankings.
However, considering Mary's talent, grit and determination to win, nothing is impossible for her to achieve. Indian fans will hope to see their iconic boxer end her illustrious career with a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.