Tokyo Olympics, Paralympics "Historic And Memorable" For Indian Athletes: Anurag Thakur

Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur on Sunday said that both the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics are historic and memorable for every Indian. In the 2020 Paralympics, the Indian contingent managed to win 19 medals including five gold while in the Olympics, India won seven medals with the country's first gold coming at track and field through javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra. "Thank you to the people of Japan for being such a gracious and wonderful host. #Tokyo2020 #Paralympics Games are both historic and memorable for our athletes and every Indian," tweeted Thakur.

In another tweet, Thakur said: "I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge & appreciate the sheer sacrifice of the families of our athletes, guidance of coaches and dedication of the support staff along w/ support provided by various stakeholders including the Govt - everyone has contributed in their own way."

The Indian contingent finished their campaign at the Tokyo Paralympic Games 2020 at an all-time high by securing a total of 19 medals which includes 5 gold, 8 silver, and 6 bronze medals. India sent its biggest ever contingent of 54 para-athletes across as many as 9 sporting disciplines at the Games. Badminton and Taekwondo made their debut in Tokyo, both of which were represented by India.

Since making its first appearance at the Paralympics in 1968, India had won 12 medals in total till the 2016 Rio edition. The country has now massively improved upon that entire number by 7 medals at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020 alone. Out of a total of 162 nations, India have finished 24th in the overall medal tally, while its accomplishment of 19 medals is ranked 20th based on the number of medals.

The Gold medalists from the Indian contingent at Tokyo Paralympics were: Avani Lekhara in Women's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1, Pramod Bhagat in Men's singles SL3 badminton, Krishna Nagar in Men's singles SH6 badminton, Sumit Antil in Men's Javelin Throw F64, and Manish Narwal in Mixed 50m Pistol SH1.

Silver medalists were: Bhavinaben Patel in Women's Singles Class 4 Table Tennis, Singhraj Adhana in Mixed 50m Pistol SH1, Yogesh Kathuniya in Men's Discus F56, Nishad Kumar in Men's High Jump T47, Mariyappan Thangavelu in Men's High Jump T63, Praveen Kumar in Men's High Jump T64, Devendra Jhajharia in Men's Javelin F46, and, Suhas Yathiraj in Men's Singles Badminton SL4.

Bronze medalists were: Avani Lekhara in Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1, Harvinder Singh in Men's Individual Recurve Archery, Sharad Kumar in Men's High Jump T63, Sundar Singh Gurjar in Men's Javelin Throw F46, Manoj Sarkar in Men's Singles Badminton SL3, and Singhraj Adhana in Men's 10m Air Pistol SH1.

The records made by the Indian medallists are as follows: Sumit Antil - World Record in F64 Men's Javelin (Gold), Avani Lekhara - Equalled the World Record and made a Paralympic Record in R2 Women's 10m Air Standing SH1 (Gold), Manish Narwal - Paralympic Record in P4 Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 (Gold), Nishad Kumar - Asian Record in Men's High Jump T47 (Silver), and Praveen Kumar - Asian Record in Men's High Jump T64 (Silver).