Abu Dhabi: For a country of billion people, India has never been able to make a significant impact at the world’s biggest sporting showpiece — the Olympics.

They have won only 26 medals in the quadrennial event so far and their best show has come in 2012 London Olympics, where they bagged six medals including two silvers and four bronze.

With a population of over 1.2 billion, there is no dearth of talent — but somehow the sports governing bodies in India have not been able to get Olympic sport attain a status that could help them reap rich dividends.

Olympic sports don’t come anywhere close to the popularity of cricket in the country and hence the recognition and inspiration for athletes to excel at the Games has been missing over the years.

The Dhyan Chand era, when a gold in field hockey was assured for India, is long lost.

The modern Olympics is about systematic planning for four years and while countries like China have mastered it, India is still hoping against hope.

This time around, the Indian Olympic Association (IOC) is fielding the nation’s largest ever delegation — 116 athletes; 33 more than their previous record of 83 delegates at the 2012 London Olympics.

The focus will be once again on the sport that has provided them most number of Olympic golds — hockey. And it has to do with India’s success at the Champions Trophy in London where they managed to clinch silver — losing only to the mighty Australians, that too in a controversial penalty shoot-out. It was India’s best ever performance in the 38-year history of the tournament.

Eight-time champions

With that success, Indians’ hopes have also been reignited. They believe that this resurgent side will restore the glory days of Indian hockey. Record eight-time Olympic Champions India — who dominated the sport from 1928 to 1964, have gone without a medal since the Moscow Olympics in 1980.

The women’s hockey team are also on the road to redemption and they will be making their appearance in the Games for the first time since Moscow, where they finished fourth. It will be interesting to see how far they can go at the Games.

India’s first-ever individual Olympic gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra, who won it at the 2008 Beijing Games, will be the flag-bearer and he wouldn’t need any more inspiration for a repeat performance in the 10m air rifle shooting.

Bindra, who will be taking part in his fifth Games, will have the company in the form of Gagan Narang, who returned with a bronze in the 10m air rifle at London 2012. Narang has qualified to compete at Rio in the 50m rifle prone and 50m three-position events after winning silver and bronze respectively, in these two disciplines at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

India suffered a huge setback in archery as their men’s team failed to qualify for Rio. Their chances of a medal in the men’s category now rest on the young shoulders of Atanu Das. The 24-year-old sealed his ticket for the Games after finishing fourth at the 2016 World Cup in Turkey.

India, however, have sent their best women archers for the recurve event at Brazil. There are a lot of expectations from the 21-year-old Deepika Kumari, who won two golds at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and won four silver medals at World Cups. Giving the team more stability is the presence of the experienced Bombayla Devi Laishram and Laxmirani Majhi.

Women lead archery hopes

India traditionally has very little to show when it comes to gymnastics hence to become the first Indian woman to qualify for the Olympic is no mean achievement for rising star Dipa Karmakar.

The 22-year-old from the northeastern state of Tripura won a bronze medal on the vault at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in 2014. Keep a close watch on her as she manoeuvres the tricky and difficult Produnova vault.

Yogeshwar Dutt will be leading India’s challenge in wrestling. Dutt, who will be competing in the 65kg class, won bronze at the 2012 London Games. With a gold medal at the Asian Games in Incheon in 2014, the freestyle wrestler is India’s best bet for a medal at Rio.

Narsingh Yadav is another freestyle wrestler to keep an eye on. He competes in the 74kg class and has a Commonwealth gold and world championships bronze to his name but has had to contend with an ugly doping scandal just before heading to Rio.