Host :
Tokyo 1st Asian City to host Summer Olympics for the 2nd time (previously hosted in 1964)
4th Olympic games in Japan – 1964 Summer, 1972 Winter, 1998 Winter, 2020 Summer Olympics
Olympic Motto – ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together’
‘Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communis’ in Latin
Seiko Hashimoto (Japan) was the President of Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee
Events:
Total of 339 Events from 33 different Sports, which saw participation from 206 countries of NOC (National Olympic
Committee).
Opening Ceremony:
• 4 New Sports Introduced – Karate, Surfing, Skateboarding, and Sport Climbing
• Sports Reintroduced – Baseball/Softball
• A total of 34 new events were added in the 2020 Olympic games
Top 3 Sports with most medal events:
• Athletics – 48 events
• Swimming – 35 events
• Cycling – 22 events
Concept – “United by Emotion”
Emperor Naruhito, Japan’s 126th Emperor, officially opened the 2020 Games.
The 2020 Olympic torch represents the ‘Cherry Blossom’ of Japan.
Muhammad Yunus (Bangladesh) became the 2nd recipient of “Olympic Laurel award” during the inauguration
event.
• Muhammad Yunus was awarded with Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, for establishing ‘Garmeen Bank’ in Bangladesh to
provide micro-credit facility to the poor.
• Kip Keino (Kenya) became the 1st recipient of the award, when he received it during the 2016 Rio Olympic games.
Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) participated in the Opening Ceremony.
• Thomas Bach is an Olympic Gold Medal winning German Fencer at the 1976 Montréal Games.
• He was appointed as IOC’s President in 2013 & got reappointed in 2021 for a 4 year term.
In the 2020 Olympics, the USA with 613 athletes (285 men and 330 women) became the country with most athlete
participation, which is followed by Japan (556) & Germany (425).
Concept – “Worlds We Share”
• The Olympic flag was passed to ‘Paris’ which will host the 2024 Olympic games.
• In 2020 Olympics, the Russian Team was represented under the name ‘ROC’ – Russian Olympic Committee, as
Russia was banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) from participating in all Sporting Events for 4-years,
till December 2022.
• IOC suspended North Korea from participating in the 2022 Winter Olympics, due to the country’s absence from
participating in the 2020 Olympic games, its 1st absence since 1988.
2020 Medal Tally:
Rank Country Medals
Closing Ceremony:
1 USA 113 medals (39 Gold, 41 Silver, 33 Bronze)
2 China 88 medals (38 Gold, 32 Silver, 18 Bronze)
3 Japan 58 medals (27 Gold, 14 Silver, 17 Bronze)
48
India 7 medals (1 Gold, 2 Silver, 4 Bronze)
Medals :
In the Olympics, 3 Medals are awarded for the winners – Gold, Silver, Bronze.
Gold Medal – They are made of 92.5% Silver with a minimum 6 grams of Gold coated over it, Diameter 85mm. The
Olympic medals were entirely made of metals taken from recycled electronics.
• Total approx weight of medal – 556 grams
Silver Medal – They are made of Pure Silver.
• Total approx weight of medal – 550 grams
Bronze Medal – They are made of Red Brass (95% Copper and 5% Zinc).
• Total approx weight of medal – 450 grams
In the Olympics, two Bronze medals were awarded in 5 selected sports.
• Martial Arts – Judo, Taekwondo, Karate
• Combat Sports – Boxing & Wrestling
Background of Olympic Games:
(i) From recorded history, the Olympic Games has been held once in every 4-years since 776 BC at the foothills of
Mount Olympus in Greece, to honour Greek God ‘Zeus’.
• The Game traced its name from Greece’s Mount Olympus.
(ii) The Modern day Olympic games has been organised once in every 4-years by the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) since its inaugural edition in 1896 at Athens. Only 1916, 1944 & 1940 games cancelled due to War.
• 280 participants from 12 nations competed in 43 events in the 1896 Athens Olympics.
Pierre de Coubertin is fondly known as the ‘Father of Modern Olympics’
Henri Didon, a French Dominican priest, coined the Latin version of Olympic motto – ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’, which
means ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’
Olympic Flag:
To showcase the global integrity of Olympic games, Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of IOC designed the Olympic
Flag, which consists of the iconic 5 Interlaced Rings.
The Five interlaced rings were inspired from the logo of USFSA (Union of French Athletic Sports Societies).
The flag is made of 5 interlocked rings of equal dimensions, made of 6 colours.
6 Colours in Olympic Flag:
Flag Background – White Top 3 rings – Blue, Black, Red Bottom 2 rings – Yellow, Green
What does the Colours represent?
The 5 Colours in the Olympic rings are designed to represent the unity among the 5 continents of the World.
Blue for ‘Europe’ Black for ‘Africa’ Red for ‘America’ Yellow for ‘Asia’ Green for ‘Oceania’
Though the Flag was introduced in 1914, it was hoisted for the 1st time in the 1920 Olympic games that was held in
Antwerp, Belgium.
Olympic Torch:
The Olympic Torch was first introduced during the 1928 Amsterdam Games, which was conceived by Dr. Carl Diem
(Germany), inspired from Ancient Greek paintings.
During the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Greece athlete Konstantin Kondylis became the 1st Olympic Torch bearer.
Enriqueta Basilio (Mexico) became the 1st Woman Torch bearer during the 1968 Mexico games.
Upcoming Olympic Games:
Summer Olympics
2024 Paris, France
2028 Los Angeles, USA 2026
2032Brisbane, Australia 2030
Winter Olympics
2022 Beijing, China
2026 Milan–Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy
Bajrang Punia (Wrestling)
Bajrang Punia (Haryana) won the Bronze medal in 65kg Men’s Freestyle Wres-
tling, after defeating Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov.
Men’s 65kg Medal winners:
• Gold Medal – Takuto Otoguro (Japan)
• Silver Medal – Haji Aliyev (Azerbaijan)
• Bronze Medal – Gadzhimurad (ROC), Bajrang Punia(India)
Indian Wrestlers at Olympics:
(i) India’s 1st Individual Olympic Medal after Independence was won by K D
Jadhav at 1952 Helsinki Olympics, where he won a Bronze medal in Men’s
57kg Freestyle event.
(ii) Sakshi Malik is India’s 1st Female Wrestler to win an Olympic medal, after
winning the Bronze medal in the Women’s 58kg Freestyle event at 2016 Rio Olympics.
(iii) Sushil Kumar is also the 1st Indian to win 2 Individual Olympic medals –
Bronze (2008-Beijing) & Silver (2012-London)
• Yogeshwar Dutt has also won a Bronze medal at 2012 London Olympics in
Men’s 60kg FreestylWrestling.
Important Terms related to Wrestling:
Fall – Win declared by 3 counts with the loser’s shoulders on the mat. (Ravi
Dahiya won the Olympic Semi-finals by ‘Fall’)
Terms – Dawai, Cradle, Bridge, Passivity, Takedown
About Wrestling Federation of India (WFI):
President – Brijbhushan Sharan Singh
Headquarter – New Delhi
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (Weightlifting)
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (Manipur) won Silver Medal in 49 kg weightlifting with a total lift of 202 kgs.
• Mirabai Chanu’s Olympic Coach – Vijay Sharma
• Gold Medal – Hou Zhihui (China) with a Total lift of 210 kgs
• Bronze Medal – Windy Cantika Aisah (Indonesia)
She is the 2nd Indian Weightlifter to win a medal & the 1st weightlifter to win Silver in Olympics.
• Karnam Malleswari (69 kg category) won India’s 1st medal (Bronze) in Weightlifting at the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics.
In 2018, Mirabai Chanu was awarded with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Padma Shri awards.
Indian Men’s Weightlifter ‘Jeremy Lalrinnunga’ (Mizoram) participated in 2020 Tokyo Olympics under Men’s 67kg
category.
Weightlifting was one of the sports conducted in the inaugural 1896 Athens Olympic games.
Types of Weightlifting – ‘Clean and Jerk’, ‘The Snatch’
About International Weightlifting Federation:
Interim President – Ursula Papandrea
Founded – 1905
Headquarters – Lausanne, Switzerland
Neeraj Chopra (Javelin Throw)
Neeraj Chopra (Haryana) won India’s 1st Gold medal in a track & field event (Men’s Javelin Throw)
Best Throw distance in Finals – 87.58m
• Silver Medal – Jakub Vadlejch (Czech Republic)
• Bronze Medal – Vitezslav Vesely (Czech Republic)
Other Indian Participants
• Shivpal Singh – Men’s Javelin Throw
• Annu Rani – Women’s Javelin Throw
Neeraj Chopra is the 2nd India to win an individual Olympic Gold medal.
• 1st Individual Olympic Gold was won by Abhinav Bindra at 2008 Beijing Olympics in Men’s 10 metre air rifle event.
Neeraj Chopra’s Coach for Tokyo Olympics – Uwe Hohn (Germany)
• Uwe Hohn holds the World Record for longest Javelin throw of 104.80 m
Neeraj Chopra was awarded with the Arjuna Award in 2018.
After his Olympic Win Defence Ministry renamed the Army Sports Institute at Pune as “Neeraj Chopra Stadium”
Athletics Federation of India’s (AFI) announced to annually celebrate August 7 as “National Javelin Throw Day” marking
Neeraj Chopra’s Olympic Gold victory.
Javelin in Olympic:
Javelin throw introduced in Olympics – Men’s (1908), Women’s (1932)
Olympic record throw – 90.57 m by Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen (2008)
Javelin Dimension:
• Men’s Javelin – 2.6m-2.7m long & at least 800gm weight
• Women’s Javelin – 2.2m-2.3m long & at least 600gm weight
Runway – At least 4m wide and 30m length
Javelin is also referred as ‘Spear’
Men’s Javelin throw World Ranking:
Rank Athelete Country
4th Neeraj Chopra India
1st Johannes Vetter Germany
2nd Jakub Vadlejch Czech Republic
Ravi Kumar Dahiya (Silver Medal)
Ravi Kumar Dahiya (Haryana) won Silver Medal for India in the 2020 Olympic games
in the 57kg Freestyle Wrestling, after losing to Zavur Uguev (Russia) in the finals.
Men’s 57kg Medal winners:
• Gold Medal – Zavur Uguev (ROC)
• Silver Medal – Ravi Kumar Dahiya (India)
• Bronze Medal – Nurislam Sanayev (Kazakhstan) & Thomas Gilman (USA)
Ravi Dahiya became the 2nd Indian Wrestler to win an Olympic Silver medal.
• Sushil Kumar was the 1st Indian Wrestler to win a Silver Medal in Olympic games,
after finishing 2nd in the 2012 London Olympics under 66kg Freestyle wrestling.
Wrestling Categories in Olympics:
• Men’s Freestyle – 6 categories ranging between 57kg & 125kg.
• Women’s Freestyle – 6 categories ranging between 50kg & 76kg.
• Greco-Roman (Men’s) – 6 categories ranging between 60kg & 130kg. (In Gre-
co-Roman, holding thewrestler below waist is strictly prohibited)
Ravi Kumar Dahiya Wrestling Rules:
(i) In the Olympics, each Wrestling match is divided into two parts of 3 minutes
each with a 30 seconds break between them.
(ii) The Match is conducted on a mat of 9 meters in diameter.
(iii) Athletes are awarded points between 1 to 5 for every move, based on the
difficulty level.
P.V. Sindhu (Badminton)
P.V. Sindhu (Telangana) won the Bronze Medal in Women’s Badminton defeating China’s He Bingjiao.
• Gold Medal – Chen Yufei (China)
• Silver Medal – Tai Tzu-Ying (Taiwan)
P.V. Sindhu Coach in Tokyo Olympics – Park Tae-Sang (South Korea)
She is the 1st Indian Woman & 2nd Indian (after Sushil Kumar) to win back to back Olympic Medals.
• P.V. Sindhu won Silver Medal in 2016 Rio Olympics
Saina Nehwal was the 1st Indian to win a badminton medal at the Olympics when she finished with a Bronze in Beijing in
2008.
Other Indian Participants:
• B. Sai Praneeth participated in Badminton Men’s singles
• Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty took part in Men’s doubles
Badminton Men’s Singles:
• Gold Medal – Viktor Axelsen (Denmark)
• Silver Medal – Chen Long (China)
• Bronze Medal – Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (Indonesia)
Common Badminton terms – Set, Smash, Game, Baseline,
Flick, Rally, Serve, Doubles, Carry
Badminton Court Dimension:
Length – 13.4 metres (44 feet)
Width – 6.3 metres (20 feet)
Height of Net – 1.55 metres (5 feet 1 inch)
Note – Badminton made its Olympics debut in 1972 Munich Games
About Badminton World Federation (BWF):
Establishment– 1934
Headquarters- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
President– Poul-Erik Hoyer (2021-2025)
About Badminton Association of India (BAI):
President – Himanta Biswa Sarma
Founded – 1940
Headquarter – New Delhi
Rank Player Country
7th P.V. Sindhu India
1st Tai Tzu-Ying Taiwan
2nd Chen Yufei China
19th Saina Nehwal. India
India Men’s Hockey Team
India’s 18-member Men’s Hockey team won the Bronze medal in the 2020 Olympics after defeating Germany.
• Gold Medal – Belgium
• Silver Medal – Australia
Indian Men’s Hockey Team:
• Captain – Manpreet Singh
• Goalkeeper – PR Sreejesh
• Head Coach – Graham Reid (Australia)
India won its last Olympic medal in Hockey at 1980 Moscow Olympics (Gold)
India’s 1st Gold medal in Olympic games came from Hockey in 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
India with a total 12 medals holds the record for highest hockey medals by a team in Olympic games.
India’s Total Medals in Hockey:
• Gold – 8 (1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964, 1980)
• Silver – 1 (1960)
• Bronze – 3 (1968, 1972, 2020)
Hockey & India:
Hockey was 1st introduced in the 1908 Olympic games, and India has participated in all the games since its first ap-
pearance in 1928.
Indian Women’s Hockey team, for the 1st time, participated in the 1980 Moscow games, and it is yet to win an Olympic
medal
India is the most successful country in Olympics Hockey, where it has won 6 consecutive Olympic Gold medals be-
tween 1928 & 1956.
India’s highest sporting honour, ‘Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award’ has been renamed to ‘Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna
Award’ to honour the 3-time Olympic Gold winning Hockey player – ‘Major Dhyan Chand’.
• In India, 29th August is celebrated as the National Sports Day, marking the birth anniversary of Major Dhyan
Chand.
International Hockey Federation (FIH) Rankings – 2021:
Men’s Ranking
India 3rd
Belgium 1st
Australia 2nd
Netherlands 4th
Lovlina Borgohain (Boxing)
Lovlina Borgohain (Assam) won Bronze Medal in the Women’s WelterWeight (64-69kg) Boxing Category after being
defeated by Busenaz Surmeneli (Turkey) in the semi-finals.
Women’s WelterWeight (64-69kg) Boxing:
Gold Medal – Busenaz Surmeneli(Turkey)
Silver Medal – Hong Gu(China)
Bronze Medal – Oshae Jones(USA), Lovlina Borgohain (India)
Lovlina is the 2nd Indian Woman Boxer and 3rd Boxer overall to win an Olympic medal.
• Vijender Singh (Bronze in 2008) is the 1st Indian Boxer to win
Olympic medal
• Mary Kom (Bronze in 2012) is the 1st Indian Woman Boxer & 2nd Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal.
In 2020, Lovlina was awarded with ‘Arjuna Award’ for Boxing.
Olympic Boxing – 3 Rounds of 3 minutes each
Weight Categories:
• Women’s – 5 Categories, ranging between Flyweight (51kg) & Middleweight (75kg)
• Men’s – 8 Categories, ranging between Flyweight (52kg) & Super heavyweight (+91kg)
Common Boxing Terms – Standing 8 Count, Weaving, Clinch, Break, Bout, Knockout
About Boxing Federation of India (BFI):
President – Ajay Singh
Headquarters – Gurugram, Haryana
About International Boxing Association (AIBA):
President – Umar Kremlev
Headquarters – Lausanne, Switzerland
Vandana Katariya (Womens Hockey)
Vandana Katariya (Uttarakhand) became the 1st Indian woman to score a hat-trick at Olympics, she scored three
goals during the match against South Africa.
Indian Women’s Hockey Team:
The Indian Women’s Hockey team lost to Great Britain in the Bronze Medal match in the 2020 Olympics.
• Gold Medal – Netherlands
• Silver Medal – Argentina
• Bronze Medal – Great Britain
Indian Women’s Hockey Team:
• Captain – Rani Rampal
• Head Coach – Sjoerd Marijne (Netherlands)
Women’s Ranking
India 8th
Netherlands 1st
England 2nd
Argentina 3rd
Hockey Rules:
Hockey is traditionally played in natural grass, and for the 1st time artificial turf
(synthetic grass) was used in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where an AstroTurf
was used.
• Total On-field Players – 11 (including Goalkeeper)
• Substitute Players – 5 (There is no upper limit on number of times a player
can be substituted)
Hockey Stick – Maximum weight of 737 grams & Maximum length of 105 cm
Common Hockey Terms – Dribble, Flick, Scoop, Backsticks, Undercutting.
About International Hockey Federation (FIH):
President – Narinder Dhruv Batra
Headquarters – Lausanne, Switzerland
About Hockey India:
President- Gyanendro Ningombam
Headquarters– New Delhi
overview Athletics 100 Meters:
Marcell Jacobs (Italy) clocked 9.8 seconds to win Gold in the Men’s 100 m event. Fred Kerley (USA) took silver, while
Canada’s Andre de Grasse took bronze. Jacobs is the 1st Italian in history to win the 100m event.
Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) won his 2nd consecutive Olympic Gold medal in the Marathon event at 2020 Games.
Tennis: Men’s Event –
• Gold – Alexander Zverev (Germany)
• Silver – Karen Khachanov (ROC)
• Bronze – Pablo Carreño Busta (Spain)
Women’s Event –
• Gold – Belinda Bencic (Switzerland)
• Silver – Markéta Vondroušová (Czech Republic)
• Bronze – Elina Svitolina (Ukraine)
Football: Men’s Football –
Brazil won the 2nd consecutive gold medal in men’s football.
• Silver – Spain
• Bronze – Mexico
Women’s Football –
Canada clinched their 1st-ever gold medal in women’s Olympic football
• Silver – Sweden
• Bronze – USA
Winners of Inaugural Olympic Sport Events:
Surfing –
• Men’s Gold Medal – Italo Ferreira (Brazil)
• Women’s Gold Medal – Carissa Moore (USA)
Skateboarding – The inaugural Gold medal was won by Yuto Horigome (Japan)
Sports Climbing –
• Men’s Gold Medal – Alberto Ginés López (Spain)
• Women’s Gold Medal – Janja Garnbret (Slovenia)
Podium Sweep: Podium Sweep is where teams from the same country win all the Top 3 positions (Gold, Silver & Bronze) in a medal
event. There were 2 such occurrences in the 2020 Games.
• Athletics: Women’s 100 meters – Jamaica
• Cycling: Women’s Cross Country Mountain Biking – Switzerland
India Contingent
The Indian side participated with 126 athletes (70 Men & 56 Women) in 18 Sporting events for 85 medal events, in
the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, its highest ever participation in an Olympic game.
Indian Flag Bearers:
• Opening Ceremony – Mary Kom (Boxing) & Manpreet Singh (Hockey)
• Closing Ceremony – Bajrang Punia (Wrestling)
Official Sponsors of Team India – JSW Sports, MPL Sports, Amul, Adani Group, Herbalife
1st Indian Judge in Olympic:
• Judge – Deepak Kabra, Event – Men’s Artistic Gymnastic
Notable Indian Participation in 2020 Olympics:
Discus Throw:
Kamalpreet Kaur (Punjab) finished 6th in the Women’s Discus Throw finals.
• Valarie Allman (USA) won the Gold Medal
• Discus weight – 1 kg for women & 2 kg for men
Equestrian:
Fouaad Mirza with horse ‘Seigneur’ represented India in the Equestrian individual event in the 2020 Olympics.
India’s participation in the Sport comes after a gap of 2 decades.
3 disciplines in Equestrian – Dressage, Eventing & Jumping
Fencing:
C.A.Bhavani Devi (Tamil Nadu) became the 1st Indian Fencer to participate in an Olympic game.
• Lee Kiefer (USA) won the Gold medal in Women’s fencing
In the International Fencing Federation (FIE) ranking, Bavani Devi is ranked 50th under the ‘Sabre’ category.
Golf:
Aditi Ashok (Karnataka) finished 4th in the individual women’s Golf event in the 2020 Summer Olympics. Notably,
Aditi was ranked 200th in the World ranking prior to the Olympics.
• Gold Medal – Nelly Korda (USA), Silver Medal – Mone Inami (Japan) & Bronze Medal – Lydia Ko (New Zealand)
Table Tennis:
Four athletes represented India in the 2020 Olympic games in 3 Table Tennis events.
• Men’s Singles – Sharath Kamal Achanta & Sathiyan Gnanasekaran
• Women’s Singles – Manika Batra & Sutirtha Mukherjee
• Mixed Doubles – Sharath Kamal Achanta & Manik