India 75: A look at top sporting glories for India since Independence

India is all set to celebrate its 75th Independence Day on Monday, August 15. In the past seven decades, the country has come across many path-breaking moments in various fields with sports being one of them. The country has made rapid strides in the world of sports and today on the occasion of India at 75 we look at the top sporting moments during all these years.

India 75: India's top sporting moments 

1948 London Olympics: India wins gold medal 

Before the independence, India had won hockey medals under the British flag. However, the 1948 Olympics in London was the first time when India participated as an Independent nation. In the final match, India beat England 2-1 to win the gold medal.

1951 Asian Games: India wins gold in Football 

Back in 1950s and 60's the state of Indian football was not great. However, the journey towards the betterment of the spot started back in the 1951 Asian Games where India won gold under Syed Abdul Rahim. The feat was repeated once again during the 1960 Asian Games.

1952 Helsinki Olympics: Khashaba Jadhav wins Bronze medal

India's first medal in the Olympics and wrestling was won by Khashaba Jadhav in the bantamweight category.

Milkha Singh gold at 1958 Cardiff Commonwealth Games

Milkha Singh will always be remembered for putting India on the athletics map. He became the first Indian to clinch a gold medal at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in the 440 yards category.

1980 All England Badminton Championships 

India's badminton legend Prakash Padukone created history by winning the All England Open at just 24 years of age. The title was historic since it was India's first triumph and Padukone was the first Indian ever to achieve the feat.

1983 World Cup triumph at Lords

The face of cricket in India changed following the country's historic 1983 World Cup triumph against West Indies in the final at Lords. The Men in Blue went on to achieve the feat once again back in 2011 under MS Dhoni.

Vishwanathan Anand Wins Chess World Championship

India's legendary chess player Vishwanathan Anand made history back in 2000 when he became the first player from the country to win Chess World Championships.

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore makes history at Athens Olympics 

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore's silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics was India’s only medal in the event. Before taking part in Athens Olympics, Rathore served as a colonel in the Indian Army and fought in the 1999 Kargil war. 

Vijender Singh and Abhinav Bindra make history at the 2008 Beijing Olympics 

The Beijing Olympics was historic for India with the country making history in shooting and boxing. Abhinav Bindra became India's first gold medalist in Beijing Olympics, while Vijender Singh won the bronze medal in the middleweight category to give India its first-ever Olympic medal in boxing.

India's best performance at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Delhi 

The 2010 Commonwealth Games were held in India and athletes of the host nation took full advantage of it producing their best ever performance in the multi-sport event. India won a total of 101 medals which included 38 Gold medals, 27 Silver & 36 Bronze medals. The country had their best finish ending up at 2nd position in the medals table that year. This is the only instance when India won more than 100 medals in a Commonwealth Games event.

India lifts the 2011 World Cup at home

MS Dhoni ended India's 27-year-long wait to win their 2nd World Cup title on April 2nd 2011. In the final which was played at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets to become the first country to win the Cricket World Cup final on home soil.

Indian athletes' performance at Tokyo Olympics 2020

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be remembered by Indian fans for a lot of reasons. The first one was Neeraj Chopra's historic Gold medal which made him only the second Indian after Abhinav Bindra to achieve the feat. Besides Chopra, Mirabai Chanu won silver in the Women's weightlifting 49kg category. PV Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win two Olympic medals after her bronze medal performance. In Wrestling Ravi Kumar Dahiya won the silver medal on his debut, while Bajrang Punia won bronze after overcoming injury concerns. India's men's and women's hockey teams also made history in Tokyo. While the men's team won the bronze medal, the women's team finished fourth. Lovlina Borgohain became the third boxer after Vijender Singh and Mary Kom to win a boxing medal in Olympics.

Weightlifters, Wrestlers make history at Commonwealth Games 2022

India finished 4th in the medal tally with 22 Gold, 15 Silver and 23 Bronze medals and with a total of 61 medals at the Commonwealth Games 2022 held in Birmingham. The Wrestling event was India's most successful discipline at CWG 2022 with wrestlers winning 12 medals. The weightlifting contingent was a close second with 10 Indians winning medals which also included three gold medals. The boxers and table tennis team ended up winning seven medals.

In athletics Murali Sreeshankar and Tejaswi Shankar made history winning silver and bronze medals in the long jump and high jump respectively. Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker claimed gold and silver in the men's triple jump. The Indian women's lawn bowls team won a gold medal which was also the country's first medal in the spot. PV Sindhu finally managed to lay her hands on the gold medal in badminton singles, while the men's and women's hockey teams won silver and bronze respectively. The Indian women's cricket team ended up winning the silver medal with women's cricket making its debut at CWG 2022.