India : Triple medal

·         On August 23, 2008 at Beijing, pugilist Vijender Kumar received Olympic bronze - none of the IOA officials were present there to cheer. (IOA Chief Suresh Kalmadi and SG Randhir Singh were said to be scheduled to attend another medal presentation)

·         On August 22, 2008 at Beijing, Cuban Emilio Correa Bayeaux, son of 1972 Munich Games gold medallist Emilio Correa Vaillant, outsmarted Vijender 8-5 to win the 75kg category semifinal, Vijender became first Olympic medal winning boxer for India.

Mission IAS’2009

·         On August 20, 2008 at Beijing, freestyle wrestler Sushil Kumar scored a stunning win over Kazakhstani Leonid Spiridonov in the extra 30-second period after the third round of the 66 kg category to clinch a surprise Olympic bronze medal

o        Sushil factfile  1998 World Cadet championships, Gold 2000 Asian Junior Championships, Gold 2003 Senior Asian Championships, Bronze Commonwealth Championships,  fourth place 2004 Athens Olympics, 14th place (60 kg) 2005 Commonwealth Championships, Gold 2007 Commonwealth Championships, 2008 Asian Championships, Bronze Beijing Olympics, Bronze

·         On August 20, 2008 Vijender became the first Indian boxer to be assured of a medal for India, when he defeated Carlos Gongora of Ecuador in quarterfinal bout at Beijing Olympics Sushil Kumar became second wrestler with distinction.

·         In 1952 wrestler KD Yadav had won a bronze medal in bantamweight.

o        After wrestler K.D. Jadhav won the bronze in 1952 Olympics, India did have a couple of good wrestlers in Uday Chand and Bishambar Singh. But they could not progress to the medal round. Even Kartar Singh did not come anywhere near medal round in the Olympics.

·         Former Asian Games medallist and this year’s Dronacharya Award winning coach Jagminder Singh said Sushil Kumar used brawn and brain to record his victory.

·         After a bronze medal in 1952, Leander Paes won a bronze in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Then weightlifter K. Malleshwari (bronze, Sydney 2000), shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (silver, shooting, Athens 2004) and Abhinav Bindra (shooting, gold, Beijing 2008) have been the other individual medal winners.