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.

... contd.