The number of Indian athletes participating in the Summer Olympic Games has seen a rise in each of its past three editions and all signs point to the finest athletes continuing that trend for India at Tokyo 2020.
More than 70 Indian athletes have already earned a quota for next year’s showpiece event in Japan, with many more in contention to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
Below are the names of all Indians qualified for the Olympics in Tokyo, sorted by their sport, discipline and category:
Archery
- Tarundeep Rai, Men’s Recurve
- Atanu Das, Men’s Recurve
- Pravin Jadhav, Men’s Recurve
- Deepika Kumari, Women’s Recurve
The men’s trio will also compete as a team at Tokyo 2020.
Athletics
Athletics has never been India’s strong suit at the Olympics but emerging javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh have raised hopes this time around.
The 4×400 mixed relay, which will make its debut at Tokyo 2020, will also see an Indian team, which had Asian Games gold-medallist Muhammed Anas, after they finished third at the World Athletics Championships in 2019.
But it was KT Irfan that offered the first hope when in March 2019, he became the first Indian athlete to qualify for the 2020 Olympics.
- KT Irfan, Men’s 20km race walking
- Sandeep Kumar, Men’s 20km race walking
- Rahul Rohilla, Men’s 20km race walking
- Avinash Sable, Men’s 3000m steeplechase
- Murali Sreeshankar, Men’s long jump
- Neeraj Chopra, Men’s javelin throw
- Shivpal Singh, Men’s javelin throw
- Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Men’s shot put
- Kamalpreet Kaur, Women’s discus throw
- Bhawna Jat, Women’s 20km race walking
- Priyanka Goswami, Women’s 20km race walking
- 4×400 Mixed Relay
Badminton
World champion PV Sindhu will be aiming to better her silver medal from the last Games when she hits the court in Tokyo in the women’s singles. Accompanying her will be B Sai Praneeth in the men’s singles and the duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
- PV Sindhu, Women’s singles
- B Sai Praneeth, Men’s singles
- Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, Men’s doubles
Boxing
The Indian boxers punched as many as nine tickets to the Tokyo Olympics at the Asia Oceania boxing Olympic qualifiers held in Amman, Jordan.
Indian boxing queen MC Mary Kom.
- Vikas Krishan (Men’s, 69kg)
- Lovlina Borgohain (Women’s, 69kg)
- Ashish Kumar (Men’s, 75kg)
- Pooja Rani (Women’s, 75kg)
- Satish Kumar (Men’s, 91kg)
- Mary Kom (Women’s, 51kg)
- Amit Panghal (Men’s, 52kg)
- Manish Kaushik (Men’s, 63kg)
- Simranjit Kaur (Women’s, 60kg)
Equestrian
Fouaad Mirza is the first Indian equestrian to qualify for the Games in 20 years. He sealed his quota after topping the group in the individual event category at the South East Asia and Oceanic qualifiers in November 2019.
Fencing
Bhavani Devi became the first Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympics. The sabre fencer from Chennai booked her slot for Tokyo 2020 through the Adjusted Official Ranking (AOR) method at the Budapest Sabre World Cup, an Olympic qualifying event, in Hungary in March.
Golf
India’s participation in golf at Tokyo 2020 will be restricted to Anirban Lahiri and Aditi Ashok in the men’s and the women’s events respectively. The two golfers made their Olympic debut at Rio 2016.
- Anirban Lahiri
- Aditi Ashok
Gymnastics
Pranati Nayak is only the second Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics. She made the cut in May via the Asian quota.
Hockey
- Men’s National Team
- Women’s National Team
This will be the 20th Olympic Games list to feature the Indian men’s hockey team, who sit fourth in the world rankings, while the women’s side will be making their third appearance and second in succession.
Both teams qualified in November 2019 and each of them will carry a 16-member squad to Tokyo 2020.
Judo
Sushila Devi Likmabam will be India’s only participant in Judo at Tokyo 2020. The 26-year-old made the Olympic cut in the women’s extra-lightweight (48kg) division as the highest-ranked Asian judoka outside the top 18 on the Olympic Game Quota (OGQ) rankings list.
Rowing
Indian rowers Arjun Jat and Arvind Singh qualified in the men’s lightweight double sculls event at the Asian qualifiers in Tokyo, Japan in May.
Sailing
Nethra Kumanan became the first Indian woman sailor to qualify for the Olympics at the Mussanah Open Championship 2021 in April. Three other Indian sailors also made the Tokyo cut in Oman. For the first time India will be competing in more than one sailing event at the Games – Laser Radial, Laser Standard and 49er. India never had more than two sailors at a single Olympics before.
- Nethra Kumanan, Laser Radial
- Vishnu Saravanan, Laser Standard
- KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar, 49er
Shooting
As many as 15 Indian shooters have achieved Olympic qualification so far, making it the country’s largest contingent at any Games.
Youngsters Divyansh Singh Panwar and Elavenil Valarivan are highest-ranked in the 10m Air Rifle men’s and women’s respectively, while Manu Bhaker has had prolific returns, so medal expectations are quite high.
Manu Bhaker is a prime medal contender among the Indian shooting contingent that has qualified for Tokyo
While the following athletes secured a quota place in their respective category, their participation at the showpiece event was decided by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI). The final team saw Chinki Yadav‘s quota handed to rifle shooter Elavenil Valarivan.
- Anjum Moudgil, 10m Women’s Air Rifle
- Apurvi Chandela, 10m Women’s Air Rifle
- Divyansh Singh Panwar, 10m Men’s Air Rifle
- Deepak Kumar, 10m Men’s Air Rifle
- Tejaswini Sawant, 50m Women’s Rifle 3 Position
- Sanjeev Rajput, 50m Men’s Rifle 3 Position
- Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar, 50m Men’s Rifle 3 Position
- Manu Bhaker, 10m Women’s Air Pistol
- Yashaswini Singh Deswal, 10m Women’s Air Pistol
- Saurabh Chaudhary, 10m Men’s Air Pistol
- Abhishek Verma, 10m Men’s Air Pistol
- Rahi Sarnobat, 25m Women’s Pistol
- Chinki Yadav, 25m Women’s Pistol (replaced by Elavenil Valarivan)
- Angad Veer Singh Bajwa, Men’s Skeet
- Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Men’s Skeet
Swimming
Sajan Prakash will head to Tokyo for his second Olympics after becoming the Indian to claim a direct entry into the Summer Games. He will compete in the 200m butterfly event.
Table Tennis
Four Indian table tennis players qualified for the Olympics at the Asian qualifiers in Doha in March. It includes the veteran Sharath Kamal, who will be making his fourth appearance at the Games. While G Sathiyan and Sutirtha Mukherjee sealed their Tokyo spots with wins in their respective groups, Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal booked their place on the basis of their rankings.
- Sharath Kamal
- Sathiyan Gnanasekaran
- Sutirtha Mukherjee
- Manika Batra
Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra will also compete together in the mixed doubles after earning their Olympic berths at the Asian qualifiers.
Weightlifting
Mirabai Chanu will be India’s only representative in weightlifting at Tokyo 2020. Ranked second in the world, the former world champion is among the favourites for a medal in the women’s 49kg weight division. China’s Hou Zhihui is her main competitor at the Tokyo Games.
Wrestling
There will be at least seven wrestlers from India competing at Tokyo 2020. While the grapplers secured a quota place for their country in their respective categories, the Wrestling Association of India has confirmed their seats for Tokyo 2020. With Sonam Malik winning the quota in the 62kg category, Rio 2016 bronze medallist Sakshi Malik will not be wrestling at the Tokyo Olympics.
Wrestler Vinesh Phogat (R) has qualified for her second-straight Olympics
- Seema Bisla, Women’s Freestyle, 50kg
- Vinesh Phogat, Women’s Freestyle 53kg
- Anshu Malik, Women’s Freestyle 57kg
- Sonam Malik, Women’s Freestyle 62kg
- Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Men’s Freestyle 57kg
- Bajrang Punia, Men’s Freestyle 65kg
- Deepak Punia, Men’s Freestyle 86 kg
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