India at Olympics: Norman Pritchard won country's first-ever medal in 1900

THE Tokyo Olympics are set to kick off on July 23, a year after it was scheduled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The event remains sports’ biggest show on earth and like their counterparts from elsewhere on the planet, Indian athletes will also compete in a bid to make the country’s medal kitty heavier.

India’s medal success at the Olympics has been a moderate one. It has won only 16 individual medals so far while the team game of hockey has been the most successful one with eight medals. However, India have done better in the individual events better in the last few editions and recorded their best tally of six medals at the 2012 edition. In team sports, the last time India won an Olympic medal was in 1980 when the last medal, a gold, had come in hockey.

ALSO READ: India at Olympics: KD Jadhav won first medal for independent India in 1952

India Weekly looks back at those individuals who made India proud by winning a medal at the highest stage – the Olympics. The first-ever individual who won a medal for India at the quadrennial event was Norman Gilbert Pritchard, an athlete who won two silver medals in athletics in the 1900 Olympics held in Paris.

Leander Paes ended India's 44-year-old drought at Olympics in 1996

Pritchard won silver medals in two 200-metres athletic events

Pritchard, who was born in British Calcutta (now Kolkata) in June 1875 to George Petersen Pritchard and Helen Maynard Pritchard, was a British-Indian athlete and actor who was also known by his stage name of Norman Trevor. Pritchard, who was the first Asia-born athlete to win an Olympic medal, bagged the silver medals in 200-metre dash and 200-metre hurdles run. He finished after gold winner Walter Tewksbury of the United States in the first event and also after the legendary Alvin Kraenzlein, also of the US, in the other event.

Pritchard also reached the final of the 110 metres hurdles but did not finish. He also took part in the 60-metres and 100-metres sprint but failed to qualify for the finals.

The athlete’s feats in Bengal province were huge. He had won the province’s 100 yards sprint title for seven consecutive years – between 1894 and 1900 and even set a meet record in 1898-99.

Pritchard studied at Calcutta’s St. Xavier’s College and also scored the first hat-trick in an open football tournament for his institute in 1897. He had also served as the secretary of the Indian Football Association between 1900 and 1902.

IOC confirms Pritchard won medals for India

While historical records suggest that Pritchard was listed as having run for Britain in the 1900 Olympics and Olympic researchers say that it was indeed the case after the man competed in the British AAA championship the same year, the International Olympic Committee considers Pritchard as having won the two medals for India. The IOC also called Pritchard “a solid sprinter and hurdler”.

Pritchard moved to Great Britain permanently in 1905 where he became a successful stage actor and then shifted to the United States to work in Hollywood. He had acted in silent films there.

Pritchard, however, died poor in California, the US, in October 1929 at 54 perhaps from a chronic brain ailment.

India had to wait for more than 50 years to see their second medallist at the Olympics when KD Jadhav won a bronze in wrestling in Helsinki in 1952.