A Akhter / Sport Desk
Indian Olympians and Medalists today got rousing welcome on returning home from Tokyo. They were felicitated at a ceremony attended by ministers and and top sports officials.
Neeraj Chopra, India’s first athletics gold medalist at the Olympics, silver medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya and bronze medalists Bajrang Punia, Lovlina Borgohain and the Indian men’s hockey team were all felicitated by Sports Minister Anurag Thakur and Law Minister and former Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju at the Ashoka Hotel today.
PV Sindhu and Mirabai Chanu, the other two medallists in Tokyo, had been welcomed back home way back and were not present at the ceremony.
At New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport people flocked to catch a glimpse of their Olympic heroes. Neeraj, Bajrang, Ravi and Lovlina were helped as they navigated through the crowd to enter their cars and make their way to the Ashoka Hotel in Chanakyapuri.
All the athletes – India’s athletics, wrestling, boxing contingent and the Indian women’s hockey team – along from the medallists, all received a grand reception at the hotel, following which the medallists were felicitated in a function.
The Sports Minister congratulated all the medallists and athletes and called it an Olympics of “many firsts for India”. He talked about the pride every Indian felt as the national anthem was playing in an Olympic stadium because of Neeraj. He thanked the men’s hockey team for ending the country’s 41-year wait for an Olympics medal. He saluted the women’s hockey team for their mammoth effort, lauded Aditi Ashok’s golf achievement, Bhavani Devi’s fencing effort, Nethra Kumanan’s sailing achievement, the men’s 4x400m relay team’s new Asian record, Avinash Sable’s new national record in steeplechase and more.
He said, “The IOA did all to provide you support, you worked as hard as you could to make India proud.”
He also talked about the effort and support provided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and revealed how involved he was in the entire process. “PM used to ask her how all athletes were training, if the parents were all happy, if the vaccination was done for them all. He spoke to athletes even after they lost and gave them confidence. If a PM of a country can do that, the youth is not going to stay behind.”
Even Kiren Rijiju spoke about how PM Modi had asked for massive preparation in Tokyo for the athletes but the coronavirus pandemic spoilt all those plans.
All the medallists present at the ceremony were given momentos and bouquets. Bajrang thanked everyone and talked about why he chose to fight his bronze medal bout with a brace on his injured knee. Lovlina expressed her happiness over the love and support she has got and hoped to continue winning medals for the country.
Indian men’s hockey team captain Manpreet Singh spoke about how his team was his family and they would get together again soon to begin practicing for the next tournament. Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh said they have all won because of their families support and lauded women’s hockey team goalkeeper Savita for her massive effort in the historic campaign of the team.
PM Modi congratulates Indian Olympians
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated the Indian contingent for their stupendous performance at the Tokyo Olympic games.
In a series of tweets, Mr Modi said, that every athlete who represented India is a champion.
He said that the medals India has won, have certainly made the country proud and elated.
The Prime Minister said, at the same time, this is the time to keep working to further popularise sports at the grassroots so that new talent emerges and gets the opportunity to represent India in the times to come.
He also thanked Government and people of Japan for hosting a well organised games.
Mr Modi said, hosting games so successfully, in such times, gave out a strong message of resilience. He said, it also demonstrated how sports is a great unifier.