The father of Indian Cycling<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nApart from being an actor, production designer, writer, Jankidas Mehra is also a champion cyclist who broke eight world records between 1934 and 1942.<\/span><\/p>\nHe was the first Indian to have hoisted India\u2019s national flag (pre-independence) at the World Sports Congress. He was also the founder of the Cycling Federation of India.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n6) Olympic Pioneers<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nNilima Ghose, Mary D\u2019Souza, Dolly Nazir, and Arati Saha were independent India\u2019s first women representatives at the Olympics.<\/span><\/p>\nThe quartet represented India at the 1952 Helsinki Games.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n7) Queen of the court<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nPV Sindhu is the first and only Indian to become the Badminton World Champion and only the second individual athlete from India to win two consecutive medals at the Olympic Games.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n8) Lionhearted cricketer<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nKapil Dev, who is inarguable, India’s greatest ever all-rounder has never missed a cricket match due to an injury. He, of course, has missed matches and also was dropped once but has not missed a single match owing to an injury.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
9) Mecca of Indian Hockey<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nSansarpur, a village with a population of 4600 in Jalandhar, Punjab has produced 14 Olympians who went on to win 27 medals for India in Field Hockey. In one particular Olympics, 7 players were from this village alone.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n10) First Indian to play for Tottenham Hotspur<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nThe 20-year-old footballer Dilan Markanday is the first British-Asian \u2013 as well as the first player of Indian descent to play for the English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspurs.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n11) Almighty!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nShilaroo Hockey Stadium located in Himachal Pradesh is the world\u2019s highest-altitude hockey stadium at around 8,000 feet (almost 2,500 meters above sea level) and is surrounded by Narkanda and Hatu Peaks.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n12) The man with the ‘golden arm’<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nNeeraj Chopra became the household name when he clinched India\u2019s first-ever gold medal in athletics at the Olympics, but did you know the youngster also holds other accolades such as \u2013 first-and-only Indian to win World Junior Championships gold, Asian Games gold, Commonwealth Games gold, Asian Championships gold and South Asian Games gold medals.<\/span><\/p>\nNeeraj is truly a different beast with a javelin spear in his hand.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n13) The golden age of Indian Hockey<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nIn 1926, the India Hockey team toured New Zealand and played 21 matches of which India scored 192 goals and conceded only 25.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n14) Quickfire<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nIndian football legend IM Vijayan holds the record of scoring the sixth-fastest goal (12 sec) in the history of international football. It was against Bhutan in the 1999 SAF Games.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n15) A pioneer in Indian badminton<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nPrakash Padukone was the first Indian to win a hat-trick of Grand Prix titles including the Swedish Open, Danish, and All England crowns \u2013 all in quick succession.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n16) Singh is King<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nSingh is the most common surname among Indian Hockey Players. Once during a match, a foreign journalist in his dispatch wrote, \u201cSingh initiated the move. After dodging past a defender, Singh passed the ball to Singh, who centered it to Singh and Singh scored the goal with a reverse flick\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n17) India’s first-ever Olympic medal winner<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nNorman Pritchard who was the only Indian who participated in the Olympics of 1900 and bagged 2 silver medals was the first Asian-born to win an Olympic medal. Later, he went on to become an actor in LA in the name Norman Trevor.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n18) Flying Sikh<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nThe title of \u2018Flying Sikh\u2019 was bestowed upon Captain Milkha Singh by General Ayyub Khan of Pakistan after he beat Pakistan’s star athlete Abdul Khaliq in the 200m dash in Lahore.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n19) Dravid spent 735 hrs 52 mins at the crease<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nRahul Dravid has faced more deliveries; spent more time at the crease while batting than any other batsman in the history of Test cricket. Throughout his Test career, Dravid has faced 31,258 deliveries (5209 overs and roughly 735 hours 52 minutes) \u2013 a world record.<\/span><\/p>\nNo other batsman has faced 30,000 deliveries.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
20) India’s first female Winter Olympian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nShailaja Kumar was India\u2019s first female Olympian. She participated in Alpine Skiing at the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics, finishing 28th in the women\u2019s slalom event.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
21) The mercurial Hockey legend<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nDhanraj Pillay, one of the greatest hockey players India ever had, is unsurprisingly also the only Indian to have played 4 World Cups, 4 Olympics, 4 Champions Trophies, and 4 Asian games.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n22) Abhinav Bindra’s career almost ended before he won the Olympic gold<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nIn 2006, after the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Abhinav Bindra had a career-threatening spinal injury but went through vigorous rehabilitation to change his posture. He won gold in the Beijing Olympics in 2008 after overcoming this injury.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n23) Openers at the Lords honors board <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nOnly 3 Indian openers have scored a century at the Home of Cricket \u2013 Lord\u2019s: Vinoo Mankad, Ravi Shastri, and KL Rahul.<\/span><\/p>\nVinoo Mankad was also the first non-English player to grace the Lord\u2019s honor board.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n24) The game of snooker was born in India<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nThe game of snooker was accidentally invented in Jabalpur, India by a lieutenant of the British Army, Neville Chamberlain, in 1875. But it took more than 100 years before India had its first professional in the sport.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n25) Blazing his own trail <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nPankaj Advani is the only player in the world to win world titles in both long and short formats of snooker (15 red standard and 6 red) and both formats of English Billiards (Time and Point).<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n26) Conceding goals while signing autographs is not for everyone <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAs crazy as it may sound, Indian Hockey goalkeeper Richard Allen has the record of conceding just two goals in three Olympic Games. Apparently, he conceded one goal while signing autographs; in which the India men\u2019s team won 24-1 and another was a rebounded effort in the finals of 1936, India won 8-1.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n27) World’s third oldest and Asia’s oldest football tournament<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nDurand Cup is the third oldest football competition in the world. The prestigious Indian football tournament was first held in 1888, is also the oldest in Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n28) Indian Boxing queen<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nMary Kom is the only woman to become a world amateur boxing champion for a record six times. And the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each of the seven world championships.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n29) An untainted legacy<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAtanu Bhattacharya is the only Indian to win a place in the Asian All-Stars XI. He was part of the Asian All-Stars in 1984. Interestingly, he played for our Indian team and then got a call for the Bengal team that later won the Santhosh Trophy.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n30) Paving the way<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nNikki Pradhan is the first woman hockey player from Jharkhand to represent India at the Olympics.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n