First medal in history for India in track and field

Pretty Cool.

Norman Pritchard from 1900 says "Don't forget about me!"

1+ billion people. Given the number of track and field events I am surprised this is India's first medal of any kind.

Congrats to India. Vetter bombed big time. Yes, he'll blame it on the runway surface but everyone had the same conditions.

Yes that is the big debate as to which country his medals should be credited to : India or Great Britain.

Taken from Wikipedia:

In the historical records section Pritchard was listed as having competed for Great Britain in 1900.

Research by Olympic historians has shown that Pritchard was indeed chosen to represent Great Britain.

However, the IOC still regard Pritchard as having competed for India, and his two medals are credited to India.

So surprised to see this result. For a big country, India doesn't win a lot of medals. Only Indias second individual gold. Great to see diversity in this event. With the Trinidad thrower winning before. And the Kenyan winning worlds, I think. And a Pakistani in 5th as well.

1.3 billion fans cheering. Congrats. He’s set for life.

Only a few states in U.S. have javelin throw as a standard high school event. We need all states in U.S. to include javelin throw as a standard high school event.

For winning the gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics:

₹75 lakh (US$110,000) from the Government of India.

₹6 crore (US$840,000) from the Government of Haryana.[

Javelin world record holder competed at 6'1" 192 pounds. The fella who just won is 5'11 1/2" 180 pounds. U.S. is a nation with millions of potential gold medal javelin throwers. U.S. could take over javelin throw sooner than U.S. can fix the other events.

What happened with Johannes Vetter and DeAnna Price? Both reached history No.2 this season, but bombed at the Olympics.

jav surprise wrote:

So surprised to see this result. For a big country, India doesn't win a lot of medals. Only Indias second individual gold. Great to see diversity in this event. With the Trinidad thrower winning before. And the Kenyan winning worlds, I think. And a Pakistani in 5th as well.

I suppose if I had been paying attention, it wouldn't be that surprising. He's had good results. World Junior Champion and WJR.

Despite India's huge population it is one of the poorest nations in the world in terms of per capita income, and sport has never been a priority for the government. Cricket is probably the only exception.

Agreed

Indian parents discourage their boys from participating in sports. They think it is a waste of timeZ they push their boys to become doctors, lawyers or engineers.

As for the girls? Forget it. Indian parents forbid their daughters from sports.

That is just the rich Indian immigrants we get here in the states.

What a weird javelin final.

I tuned in ready for Vetter vs Rohler and got a bunch of guys I mostly never heard of.

Solid throw for the Indian though. Well done.

There’s no room to run in India.

Too crowded.

SuprisedByThat wrote:

1+ billion people. Given the number of track and field events I am surprised this is India's first medal of any kind.

I am not surprised at all. The mean male height in India is about 165 cm. They have a very large population, but a very small athletic potential. In fact, I would rather expect some Indians in long distances or in the marathon. Certainly not in the javelin throw.

It was close in 1960:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkha_Singh