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6 best pre-Independence Indian athletes

Nearly two decades before India threw off the shackles of imperialism, the country had already etched its name in the glorious annals of sport history by winning the Olympic Gold in Hockey at the Amsterdam Games. India wasn’t free, but with the help of sport, it had shown the world, that its spirit was very much alive and burning.While India continued to dominate the game of hockey at the quadrennial event for nearly an entire decade, Indian athletes in other sports too were placing the country on the global sporting map with their accomplishments.Let us take a stroll through history and remember the Indian athletes whose achievements made the country that was still under the yoke of colonialism proud.

#1 Norman Pritchard

Norman Pritchard (In-set) was the first athlete to represent India in the Olympics.

Born in Calcutta, in June 1877, Norman Pritchard was the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic medal.

Pritchard was born to Great Britain parents in India, and he went on to become the first athlete to represent the country of his birth in the Olympics at Paris in 1900. Pritchard won two silver medals in the Paris Olympics in 1900.

He finished second to American Walter Tewksbury in the 200 metres race, while he came second to the great Alvin Kraenzlein in the 2000 metres hurdles. Pritchard briefly held the record in the second heat of the 100 metres hurdles before Kraenzlein overtook him in the final.

Norman Pritchard, later became Norman Trevor, as he charted a career as an actor on Broadway and Hollywood. He went on to star in films like Beau Geste (1926) and Dancing Mothers (1926) before he passed away in Los Angeles in 1929. 

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