India’s most Memorable Olympics campaign – Tokyo Olympics.
India won 7 medals in Tokyo Olympics 2021. These 7 medals include 1 Gold Medal, 2 Silver medals and 4 Bronze medals. This is the highest count of medals that India has ever won in the Olympics. As the athletes won hearts of billions of people, we should give the due credit to the coaches too.
“A good coach can change a game; a great coach can change a life” – John Wooden
Know your coaches here:
1. Neeraj Chopra : Gold Medal : Athletics - Men Javelin throw
Coach : Uwe Hohn
Nationality : German
Uwe Hohn is a retired German track and field athlete is the only athlete to throw a javelin 100 meters or more, with his world record of 104.80m. A new javelin design was implemented in 1986 and the records had to be restarted, thus Hohn's mark became an "eternal world record". The German has been the IAAF World Cup Champion of 1985 in Javelin and European Champion of 1982.
2. Ravi Kumar Dahiya- Silver Medal : Wrestling - Men’s Freestyle 57kg
Coach : Anil Mann
Nationality : Indian
Anil Kumar Mann is an Indian wrestler who was a silver medalist at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in the men’s freestyle 96 kg event. In 2013 Mann was presented the Dhyan Chand Award.
Mr. Mann trained at the famous Guru Hanuman Akhara in Delhi. It is the oldest extant wrestling school in India. The young wrestlers trained there have a belief that the land is blessed. So much that even when the government offered to provide a larger land with better training facilities, most of the wrestlers refused to shift out of the blessed akhara.
3. Mirabai Chanu : Silver Medal : Weightlifting - Women’s 49kg
Coach : Vijay Sharma
Nationality : Indian
Coach Vijay Sharma is a famous Indian weightlifting coach, athlete, and also serves the position of high superintendent at the Ministry of railways who hails from Uttar Pradesh. Coach Vijay is a Dronacharya Award holder.
Most of the major achievements of the 26-year-old at the highest level has come under guidance of Vijay Sharma.
4. Bajrang Punia : Bronze Medal : Wrestling - Men’s Freestyle 65 kg
Coach : Emzarios Bentinidis
Nationality : Georgian
Emzarios Bentinidis is a male freestyle wrestler who represented Georgia at the 2000 Summer Olympics and Greece in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Representing Greece, he also participated in Men's freestyle 74 kg at 2008 Summer Olympics.
He won a bronze medal at 2008 European Wrestling Championships.
5. Men’s Hockey Team : Bronze Medal : Hockey - Men’s Tournament
Coach : Graham Reid
Nationality : Australian
Graham Reid is a former Australian field hockey player who played as a defender and midfielder for the Australian national team.
He was a member of the team that won the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
Reid played 130 internationals for Australia scoring 36 goals including two Olympic Games (1988, 1992), one World Cup (1990) and nine Champions Trophies (1984, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, and 92). He has also won the Olympians medal (WA Best and Fairest medal) 3 times (1995, 96, and 98).
On 21 November 2015 Graham was inducted into the Queensland Hockey Hall of Fame
6. P.V. Sindhu : Bronze Medal : Badminton - Women’s Singles
Coach : Park Tae-sang
Nationality : South Korean
Park Tae-sang joined the Indian National Team in 2019 and began coaching the men’s singles players. He later became the mentor for Indian player P. V. Sindhu.
Park Tae-Sang began his career in badminton as a singles player and won a gold medal for South Korea in the Asian Games 2002. Park Tae-Sang had also claimed into the quarterfinals of the 2004 Athens Olympics and an Asian Badminton Championship bronze medalist before changing his paths to coaching in 2013. Park Tae-Sang also played an instrumental role as Korea's national badminton coach for five years from 2013 to 2018.
7. Lovlina Borgohain : Bronze Medal : Boxing - Women’s Welterweight
Coach : Mohammed Ali Qamar
Nationality : Indian
Mohammed Ali Qamar is an Arjuna Award holder boxer from Kolkata, India. He was the first Indian to win a gold medal in the discipline of boxing at the 2002 Commonwealth Games held in Manchester. Born into the Ghettoes of Kidderpore in Kolkata, Qamar was inducted into boxing at an early age by his father at the Kidderpore School of Physical Education, and was coached by Cheena Bhai.
Qamar's neighborhood of Kidderpore is the hub of Women's boxing in India inspired by Mr. Qamar.
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