NEW DELHI: Hockey was the first to put India on the world's sporting map. Dhyan Chand and his boys were the world's envy, even 19 years before the country gained independence. Winning the first gold in 1928 and adding five more to it back-to-back is one record that can safely be called 'unbeatable' in today's cut-throat competition. But the sport drifted post 1980 -- the year India won its 8th Olympic gold.
It took 41 years for India to win another medal at the Olympics -- a bronze in Tokyo. Just three years after that, at the 2024 Paris Games, the Indian team repeated its feat. Before that, it was in 1968 and 1972 that India won consecutive Olympic medals.
