Indian women at the Olympics

Several Indian women have participated in the Olympics in the past. Seven(7) women from India have won an Olympic medal so far and their names are as follows:- Karnam Malleswari, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Chanu Saikhom Mirabai and Lovlina Borgohain. Sakshi is a Freestyle Wrestler and she won the nation a Bronze in the Rio 2016 summer Olympics. Information for the rest can be found below.

The first Indian woman to ever win an Olympic medal was Karnam Malleswari who won a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the Women's 69 kg category in Weightlifting.^[1]

Mary Kom (in red) vs Nicola Adams at the London 2012 Summer Olympics

In the 2012 London Olympics, women's boxing was featured as a sport for the first time. India was represented by five-time world champion Mary Kom who was the only Indian to qualify for the event.^[2] However, she lost to Nicola Adams of the UK in the semi-final.^[3] She stood third in the competition and earned herself an Olympic Bronze medal.^[4]^[5]^[6] Sakshi Malik became the first Indian woman to win a medal in Wrestling. She won the Bronze medal in Women's 58 kg freestyle wrestling in 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio.Saina Nehwal was the first Indian to win a medal in Badminton at the Olympics,^[7] by winning the Bronze medal at the London Olympics 2012 on 4 August 2012.^[8]Geeta Phogat became the first ever Indian woman to qualify for the women's 55kg wrestling in the London Olympics 2012. Women's wrestling was announced in 2004.^[9]

P.V. Sindhu became the first ever Indian woman to win the Silver medal at the Olympics, by reaching the Badminton final at Rio Olympics 2016. However, she lost to Carolina Marín of Spain in the final on 19 August 2016.^[10] She became the youngest Indian woman to win an Olympic medal.

P.V. Sindhu, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu and Lovlina Borgohain made India proud by winning medals at Tokyo Olympics 2020. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu won the Silver medal at the very first day(Day 1) of the Tokyo Olympics 2020, where she achieved the second position after the total count of both snatch and clean and jerk. Her highest lift at Snatch was 87 kg and at clean and jerk she was able to lift 115 kg making her overall score of 202 kgs. P. V. Sindhu became the first Indian women to win two Olympic medals. She won the Silver medal in Rio 2016 and in Tokyo 2020 she captured the Bronze medal by defeating China's He Bingiao 21-13, 21-15 in two straight sets. Also, Lovlina Borgohain snatched her first Olympic medal in Women's welterweight 64-69 kg Boxing event, where she assured her bronze medal after she defeated Taiwan's Chen Nien-Chin. However, in the semifinals she lost to world no. 1 Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey and got herself the bronze medal.

List of medalistsEdit

Medal	Name/Team	Games	Sport	Event	Date
Bronze	Karnam Malleswari	Template:GamesName	Weightlifting	Women's 69 kg	19 September 2000
Bronze	Saina Nehwal	Template:GamesName	Badminton	Women's singles	4 August 2012
Bronze	Mary Kom	Template:GamesName	Boxing	Women's flyweight	8 August 2012
Silver	P. V. Sindhu	Template:GamesName	Badminton	Women's singles	19 August 2016
Bronze	Sakshi Malik	Template:GamesName	Wrestling	Women's freestyle 58 kg	17 August 2016
Silver	Saikhom Mirabai Chanu	Template:GamesName	Weightlifting	Women's 49 kg	24 July 2021
Bronze	P. V. Sindhu	Template:GamesName	Badminton	Women's singles	1 August 2021
Bronze	Lovlina Borgohain	Template:GamesName	Boxing	Women's welterweight	4 August 2021