It’s Olympic Day today

June 23 is celebrated as Olympic Day, a day to get active and encourage others to take part in activities, which promote Olympic values. To commemorate the day, an exhibition hockey match will be played at Jarkhar village in Ludhiana between Jarkhar Academy and Kila Raipur Academy on Friday. The day highlights the message of move, learn and discover through sports, besides promoting benefits of physical exercise, inspiring people to get active and enabling them to learn new sports while embracing Olympic ideals

India first participated in the Olympic Games in 1900 with a lone athlete, Norman Pritchard. India first sent a team to the Summer Olympic Games in 1920 and has participated in every Summer Games since then 

26 medals in 30 Olympic Games for India (9 gold, 6 silver and 11 bronze) till now. From 1928 to 1980, India dominated in  hockey by winning 8 gold medals (1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964, 1980). Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav was the first Indian to win an individual medal (bronze in men’s  freestyle wrestling) in 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Abhinav Bindra is the first Indian to win an individual gold at the Olympic Games. It was also India’s first gold medal since 1980, when the men’s field hockey team won the gold. He is the only Indian to have held World and Olympic titles at the same time

The International Olympic Day was initiated in 1948 for commemorating the commencement of modern Olympic Games on June 23, 1894 in Sorbonne in Paris

Michael Phelps 

has won the most Olympic medals — 23 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze. He is also the most decorated Olympian in individual events, with 16 medals — 13 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze