Defying all odds and showing killer instincts, Sindhu, Sakshi and gymnast Dipa Karmakar became the unlikely heroes and saved the country’s pride from returning empty-handed for the first time since Barcelona 1992.
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India saw its first silver medal won by a woman athlete when PV Sindhu reached the Badminton finals, losing out on the gold to Spain’s Carolina Marin. Sakshi has won medals at Asian Championships, Commonwealth Games and now Olympic Games.
The silver and bronze medal won by PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik respectively not only saved India from the embarrassment of drawing a blank at Rio but also earned them a lot of fans for their fantastic performance, especially from a country that lacks the infrastructure and financial support a sportsperson requires.
“Sakshi opened the medal account for India in Rio and Sindhu added to it”.
However, all those assumptions were dashed and India ended up saving their image at the hands of two women, Sakshi and Sindhu, who were never seen as medal hopes. He also offered the ace shuttler a Government job.
He plans to host a function in Kochi to honour the Olympic medalists who made India proud.
Other sports like swimming, judo, rowing, table tennis and weightlifting also featured Indian athletes, but they all were buried by the top competition. A day after that, the Serbian suffered another defeat as he and his partner Nenad Zimonjik also crashed out of the men’s doubles event.
Two personalities stood out at Rio: US swimmer Michael Phelps and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
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Meanwhile, American swimmer Michael Phelps continued his dominance of the pool as he extended his tally to a staggering 22 Olympic gold medals, to end his career with a total of 28 Olympic medals. Even superstar Salman Khan, a goodwill ambassador of the Indian contingent at the Rio Games, promised a cheque of Rs 1,01,000 for all the athletes who took part in the Olympics.
