On the last day of the Tokyo Olympics, the United States won three gold medals to once again top the tally with a total of 113 medals, including 38 Gold medals. China was leading 38-36 as the action headed to the final day but with 3 gold medals, the US piped China in one of the closest races for the Olympic top spot in the history of the Games. As for India, it ended up surpassing their previous best tally at an Olympics of six medals, which the contingent achieved at the 2012 London Olympics, with Neeraj’s gold being their seventh medal.
The Tokyo Olympics started with a bang for India with weightlifter Mirabai Chanu becoming the second individual silver medallist at the Games from the country. And, after a lull in the middle as the shooters and archers failed to live up to expectations, India made a good comeback towards the end with the performances of the men›s and women›s hockey teams and P.V. Sindhu›s bronze medal victory. And the icing on the cake was Neeraj Chopra winning a historic javelin throw gold in the last event of the Tokyo Games that featured an Indian.
India headed to the Tokyo Games with their biggest-ever medal contingent and finished with their biggest-ever medal tally.
As the Tokyo Olympics 2020 came to an end on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the Indian contingent for showing the best-ever performance at the Games.
“As #Tokyo2020 draws to a close, I would like to congratulate the Indian contingent for their stupendous performance at the games. They personified the best of skill, teamwork, and dedication. Every athlete who represented India is a champion,” tweeted PM Modi.
In another tweet, the Prime Minister said: “The medals India has won has certainly made our nation proud and elated. At the same time, this is the time to keep working to further popularise sports at the grassroots so that new talent emerges and gets the opportunity to represent India in the times to come. #Tokyo2020.”
India won seven medals in the multi-sporting event, its best-ever performance. In the ongoing Tokyo 2020, Neeraj Chopra (gold), Bajrang Punia (bronze), Mirabai Chanu (silver), P.V. Sindhu (bronze), Lovlina Borgohain (bronze), men’s hockey team ( bronze), and Ravi Kumar Dahiya (silver) won medals.
PM Modi also lauded the Government of Japan for successfully hosting the Tokyo Olympics even when the world continues to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic. “A special thank you to the Government and people of Japan, especially Tokyo for hosting the well-organised games. To host it so successfully, in such times, gave out a strong message of resilience. It also demonstrated how sports is a great unifier,” he tweeted.
Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Sunday said that the Tokyo Games were held successfully and it gave hope to the entire world. “I think we can already now say with confidence that we have experienced a very successful Olympic Games,” Kyodo News quoted Bach as saying.
“I think we can say with confidence that these Olympic Games happened at the right time and that the athletes for whom we did it really appreciated it and considered it also to be the right moment in time to come together again and give hope and confidence not only to the Olympic community but for the entire world,” he added.
About 11,000 athletes from over 200 countries competed in the Tokyo Olympics.