The Rajya Sabha on Monday lauded the performance of the Indian contingent in the Tokyo Olympics with Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu hoping the country will break into the top 10 countries in terms of medal tally. India stood at 47th position in the recently concluded Olympics.
Hailing the feat of the Indian contingent, he said the Tokyo Games turned out to be the best Olympic moment for the country in the last 121 years of its Olympic journey. He termed the performance “the first moment of national awakening in sports”.
He said the achievements of the Indian athletes indicated ‘We too can do it’ erasing the memories of desperation, despondency, dejection and disbelief, compounded by poor medal performance every four years.
“Four Gold medals would have placed us at around 20 and another four among the top 10 in the medals tally,” he said. “It is to be much higher on the medals table given the feasibility as revealed from our Tokyo performances. Our mission shall be in the top 10 at the earliest possible.”
Naidu said the Tokyo Olympics not just gave the highest-ever number of seven medals but also in terms of grit demonstrated in quite a few close finishes and a large number of athletes entering medal-winning rounds of the competition.
On Neeraj Chopra’s Gold medal win in javelin throw, the chairman said he did the nation proud bringing down the curtains on “decades of despair and heralded a new era of confidence and hope.”
“His feat helps in healing the festering wound of recurrent despair and waning hope with every lost opportunity,” Naidu said and also lauded the performance of other medal winners including Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Mirabai Chanu, Lovelin Borgohain, P V Sindhu and Bajrang Punia.