20 days to go: 20 Indian athletes to watch out for at the Tokyo Olympics

Deepika Kumari (Archery)

"She has been there, seen it all but has not finished the job" is the thing comes to mind when people think about her. This time she will try to turn the tables when she competes in Individual women's recurve and mixed event pairing up with Atanu das. If her recent performances in World cup at Paris are taken into consideration, then she should be winning atleast one medal. Anything less than a medal would be hurtful for fans watching her back home.

Atanu Das (Archery)

Atanu Das had won a gold medal in men's individual recurve at Gautemala city in the 2021 Archery world cup but major expectation from him would be to win an Olympic gold in the mixed event, in which he will be pairing up with World no.1 Deepika Kumari.

Neeraj Chopra (Athletics)

Neeraj Chopra is keeping India's medal hopes alive in athletics with some good performance on road to the Olympic. His personal best throw of 88.07m which he threw at Patiala in 2021, is the season's fourth best throw. If he throws something better than his personal best at the Olympics, we will be able to witness Independent India's first Olympic medal in athletics.

Murali Sreeshankar (Athletics)

Murali Sreeshankarn will be representing India in long jump at Tokyo Olympics. The qualification for Olympics was set at 8.22m for a jump and he qualified by the jumping distance of 8.26 at the Federation cup in Patiala. With the jump of 8.26m, he holds the national record in this category and it is the eleventh-best jump in the world this season. The third-best jump this season is held by the American Jeff Henderson and the Cuban Maykel Masso with 8.39m. If the performances in 2021 are anything to go by, Murali Sreeshankar is just 0.13 away from an Olympic medal.

Kamalpreet Kaur (Athletics)

Kamalpreet Kaur will be representing India in discus throw at Tokyo Olympics. She qualified for the Tokyo Olympics with a national record attempt of 65.06m during the athletic federation cup in Patiala and again she broke her own national record with a discuss throw of 66.59m in her fifth attempt during Indian Grand prix IV in Patiala. Her throw of 66.59m is now the sixth-best in the world this season, with the best throw of 70.22m this season held by Jorinde Van Klinken. So, we can't rule her out of the podium finish yet.

Amit Panghal (Boxing)

Amit Panghal is an amateur boxer who will be representing India in 52kg category at the Tokyo Olympics. He will be entering the Tokyo Olympics as the world number one and he is the only Indian Olympic-bound boxer to be ranked as number one. The 25-years-old boxer is the reigning Asian Games champion and World Championships silver-medallist.

Vikas Krishan (Boxing)

Vikas Krishan Yadav is an amateur boxer who will be representing India in 69kg category at the Tokyo Olympics. With three medals at the Asian games, one at the commonwealth games, a bronze at the World championship makes him one of the players to watch out for at the Olympics. He was part of two Olympics, 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio Olympics, Tokyo will be his third Olympics.

Bajrang Punia (Wrestling)

Bajrang Punia born on is a freestyle wrestler who will be representing India in 65kg category at the Olympics. With bronze medal at the 2019 World Championship and silver medal at the 2021 Asian championship, he will definitely be the Indian wrestler to watch out at Olympics.

Deepak Punia (Wrestling)

Deepak Punia is a freestyle wrestler who will be representing India in 86kg category at the Tokyo Olympics. He has won gold medal at the 2019 junior World Championship and also silver medal at the 2019 Senior World Championship. If he performs like he did at the 2019 World championship, we could very well see him in the podium at Tokyo Olympics.

Vinesh Phogat (Wrestling)

Vinesh Phogat born is a freestyle wrestler who will be representing India in 53kg category at the Tokyo Olympics. She has won medals in almost all the competitions such as World championships, Commonwealth games and Asian games. In 2016 Olympics, if not for her injury she could have won medal there too and now she will look to add an Olympic medal to her cabinet.

Saikhom Mirabhai Chanu (weightlifting)

Saikhom Mirabhai Chanu is an Indian weightlifter who will be representing India in 49kg category at Tokyo Olympics. Recently, at the Asian Weighlifting Championships in Tashkent, she created a world record in 49kg by lifting 119 kg in clean and jerk and also national record for combined effort of 205 kg, which also won her the bronze medal at the tournament. She will be the Only Indian lifter at the Tokyo Olympics.

PV Sindhu (Badminton)

Who can forget her silver medal effort at the 2016 Rio Olympics, which is still fresh in our memory with whole nation glued to their seats watching her play against Carolina Marin. She has a tough competition this time compared to last Olympics but still she knows how to win matches at the big occasions. She is the only woman singles player at Tokyo Olympic with Saina Nehwal not qualifying for the Olympics.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag shetty (Badminton)

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag shetty will be representing India in the men's doubles at Tokyo Olympics. Some of this pair's major achievements are Silver medal in the 2018 Commonwealth games, Gold medal in the 2019 Thailand Open and silver medal in the 2019 French Open. They are very much medal contenders in this event if a thing or two goes in their way.

Rani Rampal (Hockey)

Rani Rampal plays as a forward for the Indian team and also captain of the side in the Tokyo Olympics. She is the youngest player to play for India when she made her debut at the age of 15 in the 2010 World cup. The 26-years-old has made more than 200 appearances for the Indian team. This will be her second Olympic after first one at 2016 Rio Olympics.

Manpreet Singh (Hockey)

Manpreet Singh is the captain of the Indian hockey team at Tokyo Olympics. He made his international debut at the age of 19 and plays as a halfback for the team. He was part of the team which won gold medal in Asian games at Incheon 2014. After that, he was awarded with Asia's "Junior player of the year" by Asian Hockey Federation. He has represented India in 2012, 2016 Olympics and this will be his third One.

P.R Sreejesh (Hockey)

P.R Sreejesh born is the most experienced player in the team travelling to Tokyo. He is the former captain and plays as a goalkeeper in the Indian team. His international debut came way back in 2006 at the South Asian games in Colombo and since then he has been part of many international assignments. He was part of 2012 Olympics and 2016 Olympics, in which he was the captain of the side taking India into the quarterfinals. He is the only goal-keeper announced in the squad.

Elavenil Valarivan (Shooting)

Elavenil Valarivan born is a sports shooter who will be representing India in women's 10m Air rifle & 10m Air Rifle mixed team event at the Tokyo Olympics. She is the only Indian shooter to get the Tokyo slot without winning a quota. Her previous achievements are a silver medal at the 2018 ISSF World championship at Changwon, gold medals at the ISSF World cup at Rio de Janiero and Putian in 2019.

Abhishek Verma (Shooting)

Abhishek Verma is a sport shooter who will be representing India in 10m air pistol & 10m air pistol mixed team event at Tokyo Olympics. He is currently ranked World number one in 10m air pistol. The 31-years-old shooter will be pairing up with Yashaswini Deswal in the mixed team event.

Manu Bhaker (Shooting)

Manu Bhaker is a sport shooter who will be representing India in three events such as 10m air pistol, 25m air pistol and 10m air pistol mixed team event at the Tokyo Olympics. She won gold medal in both 10m air pistol & 10m air pistol mixed team event in the ISSF World cup Final in 2019. Recently, she won silver medal in the ISSF World cup mixed team event pairing up Saurabh Chaudhary. There is a huge expectation on this pair to win a gold medal in this category at Olympics.

Saurabh Chaudhary (Shooting)

Saurabh Chaudhary is a sport shooter who will be representing India in the 10m Air Pistol individual & 10m Air Pistol mixed team event at the Olympics. He has won gold medals in various events such as ISSF World cup, ISSF World championship, Youth Olympics and Asian games. Recently, he won a bronze medal in the men's 10m air pistol event and partnering with Manu Bhaker, the pair won the silver medal in the mixed event at the ISSF World cup, Croatia in 2021