London Olympics 2012 – focusing India

The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports felicitated heroes of London Olympics 2012 at a function organized at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium. Six medal winners namely, Mr Sushil Kumar, Mr Vijay Kumar, Mr Gagan Narang, Ms Saina Nehwal, Ms M C Mary Kom and Mr Yogeshwar Dutt  along with their parents and 47 Athletes  and 17 Indian and foreign Coaches who participated at recently concluded London Olympics 2012 were  the special guests at today’s function. Shri Ajay Maken, Minister of State (I/C) for Youth Affairs & Sports presided over the felicitation ceremony, which was attended by  representatives of Indian Olympics Association, National Sports Federations, officials of the Sports Ministry and Sports Authority of India ( SAI). More than 2000 young sports persons of  “COME & PLAY SCHEME” of  SAI and children from several schools added colours to the ceremony.

At the function, six young talented sports persons of “Come & Play Scheme” presented cheques of Special Cash Awards to each of medal winners of London Olympics, 2012. The Cheques of cash award of Rs. 30 Lakh each to two Silver medal winners, namely, Mr Sushil Kumar and Mr Vijay Kumar and of Rs. 20 Lakh each to four Bronze Medal winners, namely, Mr Gagan Narang, Ms Saina Nehwal, Ms M C Mary Kom and Mr Yogeshwar Dutt were given away under the “Scheme of Special Award to Medal winners in international Sports events” of the Sports Ministry.

After the felicitation function, six medal winners along with rest of members of Indian contingent to London Olympics  and more than 2000 young sports persons of “Come & Play Scheme” and school children marched to Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate  and paid the floral tributes to the martyrs.

While speaking earlier at felicitation ceremony , Shri Ajay Maken, lauded the athletes and their coaches for their extra ordinary performance at London Olympics. Keeping in view, best results achieved under “OPEX London 2012” ,Shri Makan announced that a programme on similar lines “OPEX Olympics -2020” would be launched  with a target to get 25 Medals.  As a part of the programme, all athletes would be provided international and domestic exposure, foreign coaching and other infrastructural facilities, he added.

Brief Achievements of Medal Winners at London Olympics are as follows:-

a) SUSHIL KUMAR

India’s star grappler Sushil Kumar won the men’s 66kg freestyle category silver in the London Olympics.

Sushil thrashed Akzhurek Tanatarov of Kazakhastan 9-6 in the semifinals to become first India wrestler to reach the final of Olympic.  After taking 3-0 lead in the first round, Sushil was down by his opponent in the second round. However, the Indian wrestler fought back to score 6 points in the final round, finishing with the score of 9-6 at London’s Riverbank Arena.  Sushil had earlier defeated Ikhtiyor Navruzov of Uzbekistan in his quarterfinal bout.  Sushil Kumar won his opening bout against Ramazan Sahin of Turkey, who had won the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

(b) VIJAY KUMAR

Army sharp shooter Vijay Kumar fought a nerve-wracking battle with five other top marksmen to clinch the silver medal in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the Olympic Games.

Vijay Kumar beat back the challenge of world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia, Chinese duo of Ding Feng and Zhang Jian and German Christian Reitz in the 40-shot final to finish runner-up in a thrilling finale behind Cuba’s Leuris Pupo who shot his way to the gold with a world record equalling score of 34.

The 26-year-old Army subedar from Himachal Pradesh found the target 30 times out of 40 attempts in the series comprising eight rounds of five shots each.

( c)  GAGAN NARANG

Opening the medals account for India, Gagan Narang won the country its first medal in the London Olympics 2012. Narang bagged a bronze medal in the 10m air rifle event.

Narang has won numerous medals in the ISSF World Cups, World Championship, Commonwealth Games and the ASIAD, besides creating a new world record in 2008.

(d) SAINA NEHWAL

Saina Nehwal gave India its maiden medal in Olympic Games badminton .

Her opponent  folded up with a dodgy knee after leading 21-18, 1-0, but Saina was on the threshold of entering the zone from where she might have dominated this bronze playoff, getting her tiring opponent to play long rallies, even as she stumbled, slipped and asked for water breaks.

(e) MARY KOM

India’s star woman boxer MC Mary Kom, fivetime world champion ensured a piece of history for herself and the country by fetching a bronze in the flyweight 51kg category.

“Magnificent Mary”, from Manipur,   was the lone Indian in fray when women’s boxing made its Olympic debut in the London Games.

(f) YOGESHWAR  DUTT

Yogeshwar Dutt put up a brilliant display of powerpacked freestyle wrestling in the Olympic Games and won a bronze medal.

The 29-year-old experienced grappler from Sonepat in Haryana showed tremendous fighting spirit and exhibited excellent technique against three very strong rivals in the repechage rounds to clinch India’s fifth medal of the Games.

Pointers

• The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad, and also more generally known as London 2012, was a major international multi-sport event, celebrated in the tradition of the Olympic Games, as governed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), that took place in London, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The first event, the group stages in women’s football, began two days earlier, on 25 July. More than 10,000 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated.
• Approximately 4,700 Olympic and Paralympic medals have been produced by the Royal Mint at Llantrisant.They were designed by David Watkins (Olympics) and Lin Cheung (Paralympics). Virtually all the gold, silver and copper was mined in Salt Lake County, Utah in the U.S.Each medal weighs 375–400 g (13.2–14.1 oz), has a diameter of 85 mm (3.34 in) and is 7 mm (0.27 in) thick, with the sport and discipline engraved on the rim.The obverse, as is traditional, features Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, stepping from the Panathinaiko Stadium that hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, with Parthenon in the background; the reverse features the Games logo, the River Thames and a series of lines representing “the energy of athletes and a sense of pulling together”. The medals were transferred to the Tower of London vaults on 2 July 2012 for storage.
• Each gold medal is made up of 92.5 percent silver and 1.34 percent gold, with the remainder copper. The silver medal (which represents second place) is made up of 92.5 percent silver, with the remainder copper. The bronze medal is made up of 97 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc and 0.5 percent tin. The value of the materials in the gold medal is about $644, the silver about $330, and the bronze about $4.71 on the current market.
• Around 10,500 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) took part,surpassing the 1948 Summer Olympics in London and the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester as the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in the United Kingdom.
• Three athletes from the Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee, which had its membership withdrawn by the IOC Executive Committee at the IOC session of June 2011, and one athlete from South Sudan, which has no recognized NOC, participated independently under the Olympic flag.
• The official mascots for the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games were unveiled on 19 May 2010. Wenlock and Mandeville are animations depicting two drops of steel from a steelworks in Bolton.[385] They are named after the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock, which held a forerunner of the current Olympic Games, and Stoke Mandeville, a village in Buckinghamshire where a forerunner to the Paralympic Games were first held.The writer Michael Morpurgo wrote the story concept to the mascots, and an animation was produced. Two stories have been created about the mascots: Out Of A Rainbow and Adventures On A Rainbow.
• India  sent its biggest ever contingent for the London Olympics. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on sent 81 athletes in 13 disciplines who representing India at the quadrennial mega-event. India had sent 57 athletes in 12 disciplines for the Beijing Games in 2008.
• Parupalli Kashyap also made a mark by becoming the first Indian male to reach the quarterfinal stage of the Olympics in badminton
• Krishna Poonia qualified for the final of the women’s discus throw final and Vikas Gowda also did the same in the men’s discus throw. But in the final, Vikas finished 8th and Poonia finished seventh. Poonia could only hurl the discus to a distance of 63.62m, well below her personal best of 64.76m, also a national record. She was subdued throughout the competition. Gowda began on a promising note with a near 65m mark — a 64.79m throw — but eventually fizzled out without any semblance of fight.
• The lowest point in archery came when Deepika Kumari, the world number one, crashed out in the very first round of the women’s individual recurve. It was a shocker for the Indian camp.
• Indian Hockey team finished at the bottom of the table, at spot 12, not winning even a single match. Never in the history of Indian hockey has a team finished last in the Olympics, an 8th finish in the Atlanta Olympic Games being their worst show before the London debacle.
• Boxer Sumit Sangwan, lost a closely contested bout 14–15 against Yamaguchi Falcao Florentino of Brazil in the light heavyweight category – Round of 32. The ESPN commentators described the loss as “daylight robbery.” India’s Chef-de-mission, on the insistence of Sports Minister Ajay Maken, lodged an unsuccessful appeal against the judges’ decision believing he had won.
• A win by Vikas Krishan in the welterweight pre-quarters was overturned after an appeal by the opponent Errol Spence. The Indian was given four penalty points and the score was changed from 11–13 to 15–13 in favour of Errol Spence.[31] The decision was overturned citing the nine holding fouls committed by the Indian boxer in the third round and for spitting out the gumshield intentionally. As the jury’s decision was final, no further appeal by the Indians were permitted. India approached the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)but the appeal was rejected.
• Boxer Manoj Kumar lost his pre quarter final Light Welterweight bout against Great Britain’s Tom Stalker in a controversial manner. The boxer was at the wrong end of some of the dubious judging calls and he cried “cheating” openly before leaving the boxing arena.
• Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa missed out on a badminton – women’s doubles quarterfinal berth by a difference of one point after tying with Japan and Taipei on points. Prior to India’s final group game, the Japanese partnership of Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa lost to Chinese Taipei’s Cheng Wen Hsing and Chien Yu Chin. On behalf of the Badminton Association of India, a protest was lodged saying that the match between Japan and Chinese Taipei was fixed and that Japan had deliberately lost that match in order to have a better draw in the next round. The Indian appeal was turned down.
• 8 woman badminton players were disqualified from participating for allegedly throwing their games. The eight disqualified players are world doubles champions Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of China and their South Korean opponents Jung Kyung Eun and Kim Ha Na, along with South Korea’s Ha Jung Eun and Kim Min Jung and Indonesia’s Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii.
• The Olympic flag reached Rio de Janeiro, which will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games – a challenge which authorities in Brazil say, the city is prepared to conquer. Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes stepped off a plane carrying the flag, accompanied by Carlos Arthur Nuzman, President of the 2016 Games Organising Committee and Rio Governor Sergio Cabral.
• Top ten of the 2012 Summer Olympics medal table

Rank               NOC                 Gold     Silver   Bronze Total

1          United States (USA)    46        29        29        104

2          China (CHN)               38        27        23        88

3          Great Britain (GBR)* 29        17        19        65

4          Russia (RUS)               24        26        32        82

5          South Korea (KOR)     13        8          7          28

6          Germany (GER)          11        19        14        44

7          France (FRA)              11        11        12        34

8          Italy (ITA)                   8          9          11        28

9          Hungary (HUN)          8          4          5          17

10        Australia (AUS)           7          16        12        35

Total (85 NOCs)                      302      304      356      962