London Olympics 2012 has been the second most successful and historic Olympics for India. A total of 83 athletes from India participated in 13 sports. These 83 athletes included 60 male and 23 female athletes. In team based sports, only the hockey team was able to qualify from India. In this edition, the Indian team won the highest number of medals till that time, 6, which included 2 silver and 4 bronze. Not only this, after being accused of doping during the Beijing Olympics, India also made a comeback in weightlifting this year after facing an international suspension for two years. Although India got many successes in the London Olympics, but it is remembered for the historic medals of Mary Kom and Saina Nehwal.

Historical feat of Mary Kom and Saina Nehwal

By winning 6 medals in the London Olympics, India had given its best performance till that time. Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom were the most talked about athletes of this edition. While Saina did a great job by winning the bronze medal in badminton, Mary Kom won a historic medal in boxing.

Saina Nehwal won the bronze medal in the London Olympics. Before this, no Indian female athlete could win any medal in badminton or boxing. Therefore, from the point of view of female players, this was a very golden moment for India. Inspired by these two players, female athletes like PV Sindhu and Lovlina Borgohain later won medals for India in badminton and boxing.

Mary Kom won bronze medal in boxing.

Amazing shooting again

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Abhinav Bindra won a historic gold medal in shooting. However, he could not reach the final round in the 2012 London Olympics, but this time Vijay Kumar and Gagan Narang took up this responsibility. They were the first Indians to qualify for the London Olympics and they also opened the medal tally in 2012. Narang won the bronze medal in the 10 meter air rifle. After him, his shooting teammate Vijay Kumar did wonders. He won the silver medal for India in the 25 meter rapid fire pistol. This was the first silver in India's Olympic history in this sport.

Gagan Narang (left) won bronze and Vijay Kumar (right) won silver medal in shooting at the London Olympics. (Photo: Getty Images)

Sushil Kumar created history

After the feats of the badminton, boxing and shooting teams, Indian wrestlers were also not going to stay behind. Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt won a medal each, taking India's medal tally to 6, which became a record for winning the most medals at that time. This record was broken by Indian athletes in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In the 60Kg Men's Freestyle Wrestling, Yogeshwar Dutt defeated Jong Myong of North Korea to secure third place and won a bronze medal for India in wrestling. This was India's fifth medal in the London Olympics.

Now it was the turn of 2008 Olympic medal winner Sushil Kumar. Sushil had already achieved a feat by winning the bronze medal in the Beijing Olympics. Now even better performance was expected from him, which he lived up to. This time he won the silver medal and with this became the first Indian to win two individual Olympic medals.