A Muhammad Ali fan, Mary Kom is easily India's best bet to win a gold medal at the London Olympics. Mary Kom recently beat Chinese opponent Ren Cancan to win a gold medal at the sixth Asian Women's Boxing Championship. Mary Kom won her world amateur titles at 46 and 48kg but the lightest of the three weight categories in London will be 51kg. Her defeat at the weight class in the 2010 Asian Games semi-finals was a wake-up call and she spent a month in Pune sparring with three heavier male boxers to prepare. She knows that the transition from the 48-kg weight category to 51 kg has its pitfalls. A game trier, she says will certainly make a fight out of it. A mother of two, the 29-year-old says that the Olympics will be tough as she has powerful opponents to box against in her new weight category.
Named India's flag-bearer at London Olympics, Sushil Kumar won the bronze in the Men's 66kg Freestyle wrestling event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is the second Indian after Kashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav to win a medal in the wrestling event. Hailing from a modest family in Delhi, Sushil Kumar came to the limelight after he won a bronze medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships in 2003 and then followed it up with gold at the 2004 Melbourne Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. He also won a gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
Saina Nehwal has struck stunning form at just the right time ahead of the 2012 London Games where she hopes to deliver India a first Olympic badminton medal. The world number five followed up victory in the Thailand Open with a third Indonesian Open triumph. In 2010, on home territory and once more with the aspirations of the country swirling around her, Nehwal won Commonwealth Games gold, surviving a match point against Malaysia's Wong Mew Choo. Nehwal was 18 at the Beijing Olympics where she reached the quarter-finals only to lose out in three sets to Indonesian Maria Kristin Yulianti. Despite her stellar June, a tough challenge lies ahead for Nehwal but the hope is constant as Wembley looms. "My dream is to win a medal for India in badminton," Nehwal says.
Deepika, who won two gold medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and is touted to be a huge prospect for the country in the upcoming London Olympics 2012, is said to have accepted the job offer. Deepika, who has been training with the Tata Archery Academy for the past four years or so, has also won the gold medal at the Youth World Championship in Turkey in 2008. She represented the Indian team that won the silver medal in the 1st Asian Archery Grand Prix held at Bangkok in 2009. She won the Silver Medal in World Cup Stage III held at Ogden in August 2010.
Teenage boxer Shiva Thapa qualified for the 2012 Olympics by entering the final of the 56 kg category at the Asian Olympic qualifying event, becoming the youngest Indian to do so. Shiva, a silver medallist at the 2010 Youth Olympics, was down 6-7 in the opening round. He changed gears in the second, taking a comfortable 15-6 lead. The Indian did not look back from there on and completed a comprehensive win. Shiva created quite a flutter by defeating a world champion in the finals in his debut senior international tournament, in Belgrade, where he went on to clinch a gold medal.
Whatever Sania Mirza has had to say on the mire that is Indian tennis should be taken with a pinch of salt. Sania, despite being torn out of a winning mixed doubles combination with Mahesh Bhupathi, will pair up (under pressure?) with Leander Paes, the country’s top-ranked doubles player – not such a bad state of affairs, one might think. The trouble is that Paes and Sania have not played competitively since the 2010 Commonwealth Games. One strategy that might work is Sania playing from the ad court, and Paes manning his usual spot on the deuce court. Sania might also consider landing her serve in once in a while. That would be a big help.
He began by shattering beer bottles on the lawn and graduated to smashing ampoules with pellets from the air gun - a decade later Abhinav Bindra went on to become the first Indian to win a gold in the 10m air rifle event of the 2008 Games. Starved of significant Olympic success, Bindra feat at the Beijing Olympics has raised expectations of the world's second most populous nation. His fans have virtually taken a second Olympic medal for granted, but Bindra is not saddling himself with unnecessary pressure.
Vijender Singh, became the first Indian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics. At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, he defeated Ecuadorian Carlos Góngora in the quarterfinals to win a bronze for India. Vijender became the first Indian boxer to qualify for the Olympic Games for a third successive time after beating Chuluuntumur Tumurkhuyag of Mongolia. After the Beijing Olympics and the Milan World Championships Vijender was the top ranked boxer in the 75kg weight category, however injuries and a spate of poor performances has seen him drop out of the top 45.
She thinks it may take India years to emulate China's sporting success, but the badminton doubles specialist hopes to bring her country a step closer to that goal by earning a medal at the London Olympics. Having beaten some of the formidable Chinese pairs earlier, Gutta and Ponnappa gives themselves a fair chance of winning a medal in the women's doubles and mixed doubles events at London. Ashwini started playing with Jwala only in 2009 but the pair soon achieved success, winning the Commonwealth Games gold and bronze in World Championship at Wimbley arena in London, the same venue where badminton events will be held during the London Olympics
Rifle ace Gagan Narang is hoping to be third time lucky and experience the heroic feeling of winning the planet's biggest sporting event in the upcoming London Olympics after two unsuccessful attempts in Athens and Beijing. Since missing out on the final by a point in the Beijing Games fours summers ago, Narang has gone on to win numerous medals in the ISSF World Cups, World Championship, Commonwealth Games and the Asiad, besides creating a new world record in 2008. Going by his form over the past couple of years, Narang stands a realistic chance of making a podium finish in London.
Is half the battle won already for this duo, now that they’ve finagled their way – as a team – to the Olympics. We think not! Since pairing up together at the beginning of 2012 – with an eye on London (as is repeatedly reinforced) – Bhupathi and Bopanna have won a solitary tournament from 14 outings. They have racked up five semifinals appearances too, but have been a stark disappointment in the majors, as indicated by a first round exit at Roland Garros and a second round ouster at Wimbledon. How Bhupathi’s solid baseline game complements Bopanna’s cannonball serve remains to be seen - especially on a surface as capriciously inconsistent as grass – and on that survives the hope of an Indian medal in tennis.
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