Who is India’s most successful athlete at the Olympic Games?

Hockey players Udham Singh and Leslie Claudius are the most successful athletes for India at the Olympics. India have won eight gold medals in hockey in the history of the showpiece event and the duo have played crucial roles in the wins.

Singh won four medals — in 1952 (gold), 1956 (gold), 1960 (silver), and 1964 (gold). He could have won another gold medal at the 1948 Olympics but missed out due to a finger injury.

Claudius, on the other hand, bagged the medals in 1948 (gold), 1952 (gold), 1956 (gold), and 1960 (silver). Singh also won the gold medal as a coach at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Claudius, however, holds the record for being the first Indian to win four medals in the history of the quadrennial event.

Moreover, he was the first player in the world to take part in four Olympic Games, to go with 100 caps for the Indian team. Both Claudius and Singh used to ply their trade as half-backs for the national team. But Singh also showed his class as a center-back, showing a lot of versatility.

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Other successful Indian athletes at Olympics

Balbir Singh Sr, Raghunathan Francis, Randhir Singh Gentle, the legendary Dhyan Chand, and Richard James Allen won three medals apiece at the Olympics. The ones to have won two medals are Norman Prichard, Sushil Kumar, and PV Sindhu. While Prichard was a part of British India, Sushil and Sindhu represented Independent India.

Sindhu is an active athlete and was on the verge of making a hat-trick of medals when she arrived for the Paris Olympics. Back in 2016, she won the silver medal in Rio after losing to Carolina Marin in the final.

At the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, Sindhu bagged the bronze medal and became the first Indian woman to win multiple Olympic medals. In Paris, her campaign ended in the round of 16.

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