India's Hockey Heroes: 11 players from Paris squad join multiple Olympic medalists' club after 52 years

By Saurabh Duggal

After five decades, India has once again seen multiple Olympic medalists in hockey.

The Indian men’s hockey team secured back-to-back bronze medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Out of the 16-member squad, 11 players have now joined the club of multiple Olympic medalists. Skipper Harmanpreet Singh, goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Upadhyay, Sumit Walmiki, Shamsher Singh, Amit Rohidas, and Vivek Prasad each now proudly hold two Olympic bronze medals.

Five players from the Paris squad made their Olympic debut: Jarmanpreet Singh, Abhishek Nain, Sanjay Rana, Raj Kumar Pal, and Sukhjeet Singh.

Since India’s Olympic debut in hockey in 1928, the country has produced 50 multiple Olympic medalists in hockey, including the 11 from the Paris squad. Additionally, there are four multiple medalists in individual disciplines.

Of the 50 Indian hockey multiple-Olympic medalists, Udham Singh and Lesli Claudius each won four medals. There are 10 triple-Olympic medalists, including Dhyan Chand & Balbir Singh Sr. Additionally, there are 36 double-Olympic medalists

In individual disciplines, India has four multiple medalists: Norman Pritchard (athletics, two silver in 1900), Sushil Kumar (wrestling, bronze in 2008, silver in 2012), PV Sindhu (badminton, silver in 2016, bronze in 2020), and Manu Bhaker (shooting, two bronze in 2024). Tokyo Olympic gold medalist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is expected to join the multiple-medalist club after his event in Paris later today.

The last set of hockey players to win multiple Olympic medals were from the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, where the Indian men’s hockey team won bronze in both editions. The 1976 Olympics saw the introduction of artificial turf, and the Indian team missed the podium for the first time. In the 1980 Olympics, India won its last gold medal to date, but no player from the 1980 gold-medal squad was part of the 1972 bronze-medal team.

The 1972 bronze-medal squad included four multiple Olympic medalists: Harbinder Singh, Ajit Pal Singh, Harmik Singh, and Krishnamurthy Perumal. After a 52-year gap and 13 Summer Olympics, India now has 11 double-bronze medalists.