THE WORLD PORTAL

India acquired three individual medals for this Summer Olympics 2008 at Beijing. This will be the most successful Olympics in the entire history of India. They were ranked 50th for their performance. India is one of the risen country in this Summer Olympics 2008. A great togetherness and spirit was seen in all Indians for this Olympics 2008. The historic Gold medal for India has changed the status and spirit to a new level for all the Indians. That was the first Indian Gold medal after a span of 30 years. The national anthem heard after many years made many Indians to risen up and aim their goal. It made all the new upcoming talents to get provoked. Its been first time in India that Indians giving attentions and showing spirit to other events other than Cricket. India had sent many participants for the Olympics in various fields. Lets check out the Olympic medal achievers from India.

1. Abhinav Bindra

He is the man who raised the pride of India. He won gold in 10m Air rifle thereby ending the decade’s long hunger of an individual gold for India. He is from Chandigarh and from an affluent Sikh family. He is very much educated, he holds a BBA degree. He is the current CEO of his highly reputed company Abhinav Futuristic, a PC games peripherals distributor based in Chandigarh. He is very much indulged and a hard worker for shooting from his earlier ages. He used to practice for 12 to 14 hrs a day in the shooting range. His hard work and dedication paid him many awards and a big one that changed his life i.e. Olympic award in 2008. By that he became the brightest young star in the new breed of shooters. His medal hunt started at the age of 15 in commonwealth games in 1998. He was the youngest participant in that game. He received Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna awards for his performance. Thus he became the first Indian to score an individual gold at the Olympics after 28 years, since the mens Hockey team won the gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. All the state governments of India announced their gratitude and rewards for Abhinav.

2. Sushil Kumar

Sushil Kumar is one of the Indian wrestler who brought smiles on the faces of millions of Indians all over the world by his Bronze medal just after Abhinav Bindra thereby adding the second one in the medal count for India. Sushil bagged bronze for his event Wrestling in 66kg category freestyle event. India has to wait for a long haul of 56 years for any medals in this event after KD Jadhav brought glory at Helsink. Sushil kumar is from a very poor family in New Delhi. His father is MTNL bus driver. Sushil got inspiration from his cousin Sandeep and mainly from his father who was a wrestler before. He struggled hard to get into that position. He was trying for 10 years to get into Olympics and practiced day night for that. His family supported him to their fullest. They were very much concerned about his diets and gives healthy foods like tinned foods, Ghee and vegetables. He got many offers of cash prizes by many ministries and organizations.

3. Vijender Kumar

Vijender Kumar is the new champ from the world of Boxing . He reached quarter finals of his category and won Bronze medal for India at the Beijing Olympics when he beat Ecuador in the quarter-finals of the 75 kg category in the boxing. Vijender is all geared up for the quadrennial event as he recently stunned Olympic gold medalist Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan in the quarter-finals of the AIBA President’s Cup boxing tournament. He was from a very poor family. His earlier life was also filled with poverty . His father was a Bus driver and worked overtime for Vijenders coaching early time. Seeing his talent India’s national boxing coach Gurbux Singh Sandhu came forward to coach him at an institute of Sports Authority of India (SAI) in Patiala. India’s third medal winner at the Olympics is a hot property because of his good looks . He has received several chances to act in Indian movies and many offers to endorse brands. Vijender carried the Indian flag at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, and says that moment was the greatest in his life.

Indonesia is well known for its Badminton team. They had set the majority of awards for Badminton for this Summer Olympics 2008 for men and women. They are ranked 42nd in this Olympics . Considering with the last Olympics, it was an improvement for Indonesia . For this Olympics, they got 5 medals including one Gold medal. The Indonesian Flag was held by Gusti Made Oka Sulaksana, an Indonesian professional sailor and windsurfer for the opening ceremony at Beijing Olympics. He was representing his country for the last two Olympics also. Now these are the five medalist from Indonesia for this Bejing Olympics 2008.

1. Markis Kido,  Hendra Setiawan

They are the splashing Badminton double players from Indonesia. They won the first gold medal for this Olympics for their event Badminton Doubles. The final match was so thrilling to see the Badminton experts on field. All the Badminton fans were satisfied with that. The Duo Markis and Hendra defeated  the Chinese pair of Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng 12-21, 21-11, 21-16 sets. It was a commanding victory for the dashing duos from Indonesia. They later admitted that they got highest motivation when they were not able to play for 2005 World Cup. After that disappointment they really worked hard and it payed them off for this Olympics. They represent that incident as “Blessing in Disguise”. They are the only gold medalist from Indonesia for this Olympics.

2. Liliyana Natsir, Nova Widianto

Liliyana and Nova are the 2nd ranked world champions for Mixed doubles from this Olympics. They had won a silver medal for this summer Olympics 2008. An amazing set of co-ordination was seen in their game. That will be the true way for their achievement. This silver medal was the first Olympic medal in their entire career. This will be the second doubles medal for Badminton from Indonesia. Nova was a former soccer player and later changed his career into Badminton and joined the club Tangkas Jakarta Badminton club. Liliyana current rank is in the top position ie No:1 player in mixed doubles. Their hard work and commitment paid off after bringing home a silver medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

3.  Maria Kristin Yulianti

Maria is known as the “Queen of three games”. She is the new face of badminton player from Indonesia. She received bronze medal for womens single badminton. She was the first non-Chinese player to enter into semi finals for past four years. She is the third Indonesian player to hold a medal from Olympics. She started badminton at the age of 10 and joined the Djram club. Her father was her coach then and he forcefully made her to choose badminton. She submits all her records to her coach Olympian Hendrawan. He was appointed as the coach to train all the female shuttlers from Indonesia.

4. Eko Yuli Irawan

Eko is one of the most youngest weightlifter who hails from Indonesia. He won Bronze medal for this olympics 2008 in 56kg category by lifting 269 kg in total. He won gold medal for world championships for lifting 273 kgs in total. He also won silver for  lifting 303kgs in total for 62 kg category in 2008 Asian games. He was not able to follow that form in Olympics. Eko was ranked No:1 by the International Weightlifting Federation after totaling a Southeast Asian Games-record 284 kg. Beijing Olympics was his first Olympics in his career and he achieved from the beginning itself.

5.  Triyatno

Triyatno is one of the successful weightlifter from Indonesia. He received Bronze medal for 62kg category. His favorite wish was to travel all around. Somehow he became professional player and is enjoying his favorite wish with that. He was brought up from a poor family. His father was a farm laborer. His former achievements before Olympics was in Czech Republic where he placed in fourth position by lifting of 300kg and the 2007 SEA Games where he had a total lift of 290 kg. His greatest wish in his life is to turn his bronze medal to gold for coming Olympics at London 2012.