India ki Jai ho! Hooray for New Zealand! That's what's going through the hearts and minds of Kiwis, Indians, and Kiwi-Indians.
This year, both India and New Zealand made history, when they broke their records for the highest ever medal tally on the world’s greatest sports stage. India came in with a grand total of seven Olympic medals from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, defeating the previous high of six in the London Olympics in 2012, and New Zealand came in with a whopping 20!
The games themselves have finally come to a close. And so, doston, let's take a look back at how these two countries outdid themselves at this year's Olympics.
INDIA
Mirabai Chanu - Women’s 49 kg Weightlifting, silver medal
India came in strong with weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, who lifted 202 kgs and won the silver medal in the women’s 49 kg category, establishing herself as one of the top-five weightlifters in the world in her division. This was her first Olympic medal, and with it, she brought a weightlifting medal to India after over 20 years.
PV Sindhu - Women’s singles badminton, bronze medal
Next we had India’s Badminton queen herself, PV Sindhu, who secured the bronze medal in Women’s singles badminton, winning against He Bing Jiao from the People’s Republic of China, having scored 21-13, 21-15. With the win, she became the first Indian woman who has won multiple Olympic medals, and the second Indian athlete, to bring home two individual Olympic medals.
Lovlina Borgohain - Women’s welterweight boxing, bronze medal
For Medal number three, we have to thank Lovlina Borgohain, who won the bronze medal after defeating Chen Nien-Chin in the quarter-final. This was her Games debut and she bombarded her way through, to get a prevailing 4-1 on points against her opponent. With this, she is now India’s second female boxer to win an Olympic medal.
Indian Hockey team: Men’s Hockey, bronze medal
It’s India’s national sport, lekin bhai, it was a long wait. But the men in Indian hockey team did it. After 41 arid years, India finally has an Olympic medal in men’s hockey again. In a comeback story worthy of the movies, India went from being 3-1 down to 5-4, scoring four goals in the span of seven minutes, beating Germany and securing the bronze medal.
Ravi Kumar Dahiya - Men’s 57kg freestyle wrestling, silver medal
In the world of Kushti, aka wrestling, Ravi Kumar Dahiya made his fellow pehlwans proud when he brought home the silver medal for the Men’s 57kg freestyle wrestling category. Like Borgohain, this was Dahiya’s Olympic debut, and with it, he continued India’s run of winning a wrestling Olympic medal since 2008.
Bajrang Punia - Men’s 65kg wrestling, bronze medal
Joining his wrestling teammate, Bajrang Punia became the third Indian debutant to win a medal at the Tokyo Olympic 2020. The only Indian wrestler who has won not one, not two, but three world championship medals, Punia dominated in his fight against Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov, an 8-0 victory.
Neeraj Chopra - Men’s javelin throw, gold medal
Finally, we come to the man who brought the gold back to motherland India, and made it India’s best ever Olympic medal haul, Neeraj Chopra. With his mighty throwing arm, Chopra became India’s second individual Olympic champion in the Tokyo 2020 games, also making history by winning India’s first medal in track-and-field, at any Olympic Games.
Of course, it wasn’t just a big event for India. We in Aotearoa also had every reason to celebrate.
NEW ZEALAND
As mentioned before, New Zealand had an incredible medal haul at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, bringing home an unbelievable twenty medals, absolutely smashing their previous record of eighteen at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics.
To give you a quick breakdown, New Zealand won: seven gold, six silver and seven bronze medals.
Out of all the competitions held, NZ proved its worth most at rowing, followed by athletics, sailing, and lastly canoeing. Their performance at the Games showcased Aotearoa’s mastery at watersports.
I wrote a short piece about each of the Indian medalists; however, I will not be doing the same for the NZ athletes. This is due to the sheer number of medalists who made it through. Twenty is no joke after all! I’ll list each of the winning events in the three medal categories as teams and individuals instead.
GOLD MEDALS
Kerri Gowler and Grace Prendergast - Rowing: Coxless Pair
Emma Twigg - Rowing: Women's Single Scull
Rowing: Men's Eight
Rugby: Sevens Women
Lisa Carrington - Canoe/Kayak: Women's K-1, 200m
Lisa Carrington, Caitlin Regal - Canoe/Kayak: Women's K-2, 500m
Lisa Carrington - Canoe/Kayak: Women's K-1, 500m
SILVER MEDALS
Rowing: Women's Double Scull
Rugby: Sevens Men
Rowing: Women’s Eight
Sailing: Men's Skiff 49er
Ellesse Andrews - Cycling: Women's Keirin
Campbell Stewart - Cycling: Men's Omnium
BRONZE MEDALS
Hayden Wilde - Triathlon: Individual Men
Michael Venus, Marcus Daniell - Tennis: Men's Doubles
Dylan Schmidt - Gymnastics: Men's Trampoline
Dame Valerie Adams - Athletics: Women's Shot Put
David Nyika - Boxing: Men's Heavy 81-91kg
Tom Walsh - Athletics: Men's Shot Put
Lydia Ko - Golf: Women's Individual
A big round of applause to all Indian and New Zealand athletes. You’ve done yourself and your country proud. And here's hoping the next Olympics is even more exciting.