India at major international events

India first participated at the Olympic Games in 1900, with a lone athlete (Norman Pritchard) winning two medals in athletics. The nation first sent a team to the Summer Olympic Games in 1920, and has participated in every Summer Games since then. India has also competed at several Winter Olympic Games since 1964. India has won a total of 20 medals at the Olympic Games. India won its first gold medal in Men's field hockey in the 1928 Olympic Games. Abhinav Bindra became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games, and India's first gold medal since 1980, when the men's field hockey team won the gold.
India is remarkable among nations for having won very few Olympic medals, despite a population exceeding one billion, around half of them under the age of 25. Numerous explanations have been offered for the dearth, including poverty, malnutrition, widespread vegetarianism, neglected infrastructure, the lack of sponsorship, the theft of money and equipment, political corruption, institutional disorganisation, social immobility, the predominance of cricket, and other cultural factors.
According to several informal statistics, India is a country in the world with the lowest number of total Olympic medals per capita (of those countries those have actually won at least one medal).
In the Winter Olympic Games, India has seen 4 consecutive representations, Nagano (Japan, 1998), Salt Lake City (USA, 2002), Torino (Italy, 2006), and Vancouver (Canada, 2010) through Shiva Keshavan, who is the current Asian Champion.

History of INDIAN sports

Field hockey is the official national sport in India, and the country has won eight Olympic gold medals in field hockey, though cricket is the most popular sport. Recent RTI revealed that India has no national game. After the 1982 Asian Games hosted in New Delhi, the capital city (New Delhi) now has modern sports facilities, and similar facilities are also being developed in other parts of the country. Besides sports and games included in the international sporting agenda, there are many which have developed indigenously and continue to be popular.
A wide variety of sports is played throughout the country. These include kabbadi, kho kho, pehlwani, and gilli-danda. British rule brought many popular sports in India including football, rugby union, cricket, golf, tennis, squash, hockey, boxing, snooker, and billiards.
India has hosted and co-hosted several international sporting events, such events include the 1951 Asian Games and the 1982 Asian Games, the 1987 Cricket World Cup and 1996 Cricket World Cup, the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, the 2010 Hockey World Cup, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Major international sporting events annually held in India include the Chennai Open, Mumbai Marathon, Delhi Half Marathon, and the Indian Masters. India also hosted its first Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit, an Indian motor racing circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh in India.
India is also home to cricket's Indian Premier League, launched in 2008. According to Forbes magazine, IPL is the second richest sporting league after the NBA.


Before independence

The history of sports in India dates back to the Vedic era. Physical culture in ancient India was fed by a powerful fuel: religiousrights. There were some well-defined values like the mantra in the Atharva-Veda, saying," Duty is in my right hand and the fruits of victory in my left". In terms of an ideal, these words hold the same sentiments as the traditional Olympic oath: "For the Honour of my Country and the Glory of Sport."
Badminton probably originated in India as a grownup's version of a very old children's game known in England as battledore and shuttlecock, the battledore being a paddle and the shuttlecock a small feathered cork, now usually called a "bird."
Games like chess, snakes and ladders, playing cards, and polo had originated as sports in India and it was from here that these games were transmitted to foreign countries, where they were further modernized.


After independence

After the IX Asian Games in New Delhi in 1982, the capital city now has modern sports facilities. Such facilities are also being developed in other parts of the country. Besides sports and games included in the international sporting agenda, there are many which have developed indigenously. Among these are wrestling and several traditional systems of martial arts. The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports was initially set up as the Department of Sports in 1982 at the time of organisation of the IX Asian Games in New Delhi. Its name was changed to the Department of Youth affairs & sports during celebration of the International Youth Year, 1985.
India has hosted or co-hosted several international sporting events, such as the 1951 and the 1982 Asian Games, the 1987 and 1996 Cricket World Cup, the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, the 2010 Hockey World Cup, and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Major international sporting events annually held in India include the Chennai Open, Mumbai Marathon, and the Indian Masters. The country hosted the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the first Indian Grand Prix in 2011.

LOG ON as disheartened sports lover

Hello every one... The name is Asish Aich...or you can call me GNX....or anythning u want(obiously not some thing inhuman)...this is my first blog post....let me tell about where every thing started....i came through a quiz contest ...that's inspired me....thought i myself should keep blogging...i dont know where it would end....or how far it would go.....but its the start..

Here u can also see the current news of world sports event in  my blog title "CURRENT EVENTS".