Indian Women Medalists At Olympics Through The Years

Indian Women And Their Wins At Summer Olympics

Karnam Malleswari

It is a forgotten fact but India's first medal in Weightlifting was by a female athlete, Karnam Malleswari in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She was the first Indian woman to win a medal (Bronze) in the Olympics but also the first Indian to win a medal in Weightlifting. Malleswari was also awarded the Arjuna Award in 1994 and 1999, with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award (India's highest sporting honour). She is now a retired weightlifter but was once the reason for India's pride and since then, always an icon to be remembered for her performance. 

Saina Nehwal

The next medal was bagged by the much-renowned Saina Nehwal, a former World No.1 player in badminton. Indian women's badminton was recognised on a global level due to Nehwal's 24 International titles. She was the first and only Indian woman and the second Indian (overall after Prakash Padukone) to have World No.1 rank in her career.

Saina Nehwal won a bronze medal in Badminton (women's singles) at the 2012 London Games. Although Saina had been World No.2 player since 2009 it was in 2015 that she unlocked the much-awaited rank of number one Saina Nehwal became the first Indian ever to win an Olympic medal and since then she has represented India in 3 Olympic Games- Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.

M.C. Mary Kom

Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, the recipient of the Padma Vibhushan and Arjuna Award has punched her way through glory, became a household name and synonymous with 'girl power' in 2012 when she bagged the bronze medal in the London 2012 Games. Her win felt even greater since the 2012 London Games was the debut of Women's boxing in the Olympics, which made her the first woman and the second Indian (after Vijender Singh) to win a medal in boxing.

Mary Kom has upheld the notion that 'hard work pays off' through her brilliant career as a boxer and even as a politician (former member of Rajya Sabha). She is the only boxer to win the World Championship 8 times and the only woman to win the World Boxing Championship 6 times. It is hard to count the number of times Ms. Kom has made India and its people proud. 

P.V. Sindhu

In the Rio Games of 2016, a new star emerged, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu. The icon who followed the path of Saina Nehwal and bagged a silver medal in Badminton (women's singles). Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win a silver medal in the Olympics. She is the only Indian Women athlete and overall the second Indian athlete to win 2 consecutive Olympic medals.

Sindhu's second win was in the Tokyo 2020 Games where she won a Bronze medal in Badminton (women's singles). She rose to an all-time high World Rank No.2 in 2017 after her many International wins. P.V. Sindhu is also the flag bearer in Paris Olympics 2024 alongside Sharath Kamal and Ms. Sindhu will be leading the Indian Badminton team as well. 

Sakshi Malik

The 2016 Rio Games brought another historic win for India when Sakshi Malik won a bronze medal in Wrestling (58kg category). Her win marked the first-ever medal of India in Women's Wrestling. Sakshi Malik was honoured with Padma Shri (fourth highest civilian award) in 2017, after her international titles and in 2024 she was the only Indian wrestler to feature in Time's Magazine 100 most influential people in the world. 

Mirabai Chanu

The next Games saw the emergence of yet another star- Mirabai Chanu. The Tokyo 2020 Games was a victorious event for Ms. Chanu where she won the silver medal and became the first Indian weightlifter (male and female) to bag a silver medal in the Olympics. She was also the only other Indian woman to win silver in the 2020 Games along with P.V. Sindhu. Mirabai Chanu had also participated in Rio 2016 but did not qualify for the finals. Throughout her career, she has won many World Championships and Commonwealth Games for which she was revered with Padma Shri Award in 2018. 

Lovlina Borgohain

The Tokyo 2020 Games saw boxer Lovlina Borgohain at her finest as she clinched the bronze medal in Women's welterweight boxing (69kg category). However, her final match showed great strength and perseverance on her part as she defeated Germany’s Nadine Apetz and then Chinese Taipei’s Chen Nien-chin. It was the world No.1 Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey who defeated her. In 2020, Lovlina Borgohain became the third Indian boxer overall to win a medal in the Olympics and the first and only female and second boxer to represent Assam in the Games. 

Even though we celebrate women athletes at every Olympic Games, it isn't very pleasant to see only a handful of women being selected for the Games. There has been no hidden fact that in terms of gender representation in sports, India falls much behind other nations. It is from the grassroots level that we see underrepresented female athletes. Some inadequate facilities and institutions directly confront the issue of representation. But the most basic problem still lies in the patriarchal mindset of letting women choose sports and play games for a living.

These seven women and every other female athlete and sportswoman have not only broken societal barriers but personal afflictions as well and that makes nothing more but proud of them and their courageousness.