Sports | The one and the many
India began clocking international wins in individual sports like never before: shooters, weight-lifters and tennis players led the charge
Even though his feted match with Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1995 atop New York’s World Trade Center was a loss, Lightning Kid Vishwanathan Anand more than proved his mettle 11 years later when he became only the fourth player in history to cross the 2800 Elo mark. If 1995-2005 was the decade of Sourav Ganguly’s elite ensemble taking India up a grade or two as a team in world cricket, it was also one where individual sports finally got their moment in the sun—tennis, chess, weight-lifting, athletics, shooting, each championed with aplomb on and beyond the national stage after decades of private gestation and self-doubt.
Even though his feted match with Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1995 atop New York’s World Trade Center was a loss, Lightning Kid Vishwanathan Anand more than proved his mettle 11 years later when he became only the fourth player in history to cross the 2800 Elo mark. If 1995-2005 was the decade of Sourav Ganguly’s elite ensemble taking India up a grade or two as a team in world cricket, it was also one where individual sports finally got their moment in the sun—tennis, chess, weight-lifting, athletics, shooting, each championed with aplomb on and beyond the national stage after decades of private gestation and self-doubt.
Fans remember well the moment when Leander Paes broke India’s 16-year-long record of winning nothing at the Olympics with a bronze in men’s singles in 1996—tacking on top of that the dual honour of being the only Indian and first Asian at the Olympics to win a medal in the sport. Three years later, he and Mahesh Bhupathi formed the first doubles team in 50 years to reach the finals of all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same calendar year, also clinching two of them. The early 2000s also saw the Sania Mirza phenomenon come smashing out of the void, creating a space all her own.
Right on cue for the 21st century, Andhra native Karnam Malleswari punched through the glass ceiling in 2000 by becoming the first Indian weightlifter to win an Olympics medal. Having hefted a total of 240 kg for the bronze, she was also the first Indian woman to climb an Olympic podium, drawing on the experience of numerous international titles won in relative obscurity and now on her way to inspiring a generation that includes Mirabai Chanu, Sushil Kumar, Geeta Phogat and Bajrang Punia.
Anju Bobby George wasn’t far behind when she long-jumped into the history books with a bronze at the 2003 Athletics World Championship, becoming the first Indian to win a medal there. Even though she considers her 2005 gold at the World Athletics Final to be her finest showing, it was the record she made a year before at the Olympics—soaring 6.83 m across that strip of tantalising sand—that is her personal, and the national, best.
Shooting also saw a new posse of gun-slingers ride into town. Jaspal Rana was already there on main street, crafting a remarkable career. But Abhinav Bindra arrived, not even 20 when he won a silver and gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who bagged a gold there, hit a higher target two years later at Athens by winning India’s first shooting silver at the Olympics. Bindra’s bullseye would come, soon.