Khashaba Jadhav(wrestling bronze, 1952 Helsinki)Amidst the celebrations that followed independent India’s first individual Olympic medal, perhaps the gesture that touched KD Jadhav’s heart the most was the procession of 151 bullock carts that carried him to his home in Goleshswar, a village in Maharashtra. All these paeans to his greatness, though, proved to be extremely short-lived. Even after the Olympics, this officer in the state police continued to live in poverty, and got no national recognition or cash awards for his achievement. It was no mean feat he had pulled off despite being a home-schooled wrestler, taught by his father. The effort in reaching Helsinki itself was of Olympic proportions, and after no help was forthcoming from the state government, it was Jadhav’s college principal KR Khardikar who had to mortgage his house for Rs 7,000. Jadhav’s cousin Sampat Rao Jadhav, who assisted him with preparations, believes the wrestler could have won gold, but for the problems in adjusting to the mat surface. Leander Paes (tennis singles bronze, 1996 Atlanta)After the rust had firmly taken hold of India’s individual medal ambitions at the Olympics for 44 years, along came Leander Paes to polish these with a touch of bronze. He had trodden silently through a field that contained the likes of Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist, South Africa’s Wayne Ferreira and Canada’s Daniel Nestor in his own quarter — defeating the third-seeded Enqvist to make the quarters — before finally falling to eventual gold medallist Andre Agassi in the semi-finals. His form prior to the Atlanta Games was nothing much to write about, and he had only made it to the Olympics tennis singles event as a wildcard with a lowly ATP singles ranking of 127. Such details, however, proved insignificant as he beat Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni to ensure a precious medal.Karnam Malleswari(weightlifting bronze, 2000 Sydney)All the accusations of being overweight and unfit in the run-up to the Olympics at Sydney only appeared to fuel Karnam Malleswari’s desire to prove the detractors wrong. Officials had been saying the fight for a berth was between Malleswari and Kunjarani Devi, with Sanamacha Chanu being the certainty, but this lady from Andhra Pradesh justified her selection, and how. The criticism swiftly turned into overflowing tributes as the then-25-year-old won India the bronze medal in the 69kg category with an overall lift of 240kg, all the more impressive and unexpected since this was her first competition since she switched from her previous category of 63kg. This was to be India’s only medal in that year’s Olympics, and it came in a sport that was making its debut at the sporting extravaganza.Rajyavardhan Rathore(double trap silver, 2004 Athens)For someone who took up competitive shooting only in 1998, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore had to wait just six years before notching up a first in Indian Olympic history. The Army marksman won the first individual silver medal for the country in the double trap event, and with it, renewed hope for the future. Even though he gave a below-par performance in the preliminary phases of the competition in Athens, he came right back to assert the fact that he really did belong on the podium. Rathore admitted an abundance of nerves as the contest entered the final stages, but considering the meticulous preparations he undertook for the Games — he trained for four months in Europe — the medal was really not a surprise
