The Tokyo Olympics is in full swing, and India has had some exhilarating moments to cherish this year. It also happens to be the 25th anniversary of one such iconic moment in India’s Olympic history—on August 3, 1996, Leander Paes brought home India's first and only Olympic medal in tennis. It was independent India’s second individual medal, ending a 44-year drought after K.D. Jadhav’s bronze in wrestling (Helsinki 1952).
Paes had his first rendezvous with the Games at Barcelona 1992 when he was 18. But he crashed out in the first round of the singles event. In 1996, at the Atlanta Olympics, he went in equipped with more training and experience. A wild card entry to the 1996 Olympics, the initial game pitted Paes against the then ATP world no. 1, Pete Sampras. However, Sampras was forced to withdraw due to injury. Paes then went on to face Richey Reneberg. After losing the first set, he bounced back to take the second before Reneberg was forced to withdraw due to an injury in the third, thus handing Paes his first win at the Olympic stage.
In the semi-final clash, he was up against another tennis legend - Andre Agassi. In his autobiography Open, Agassi remembers Paes as a 'flying jumping bean, a bundle of hyperkinetic energy, with the tour’s quickest hands'. In a tight match, Paes lost 6-7, 3-6. But there was more to the match—Paes was left with an injured wrist.
Recalling how he braved the injury to play in the bronze-medal playoff against Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni, Paes told THE WEEK earlier: “My right wrist was severely injured before coming into that match. Even the physiotherapist and doctors said I was taking a huge risk playing in that match, that I could jeopardise my entire career. I think as an athlete, the greatest thing for me was to win a medal for our people.” He lost the first set 3-6, but powered through the pain to take the next two sets 6-2, 6-4 to bring home the historic bronze.
He said that the reward was much larger than the risk he took that day. “Even if I did not get to play another match after winning my medal, I was OK with that. That is how much playing for India means to me,” he said, in a conversation as part of THE WEEK’s Namaste Tokyo series.
The risk was worth it—Paes scripted history, and revived a country’s hopes.