But new faces, such as world champion 10m air rifle shooter Rudrankksh Patil, Esha Singh (10m air pistol), Sift Kaur Samra and Ashi Chouksey (50m rifle 3-positions) are some of the brightest prospects in the team with a potential to aim for gold, notwithstanding the extremely tough challenge the Chinese will pose in the coming fortnight.
This year a whopping 74 winners were picked for the national honours, including an unprecedented five Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratnas and 27 Arjuna awardees.
Pravin Sawant now hopes his archery training academy, built on one-acre sugarcane farmland, will finally get due recognition, after producing India's two world champions Aditi Swami and Ojas Deotale.
A country can win a maximum of two quota places in a particular shooting event.
The official confirmed that one of the senior officials accompanying the contingent had submitted a report to the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) and "everyone, including the coaching staff will be called for questioning soon".
Pournima Zanane had been suffering from cancer for the past two years and also underwent extensive treatment for the same.
'How was it possible for Singh to have got a government job, and that too one involving the handling of guns, had he been insane?'
Jaspal Rana says 'too much' is being expected from teenage prodigies like Manu Bhaker and Anish Bhanwala
Criticised for lack of planning, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) decided to accept the recommendations of Abhinav Bindra-led review committee, which looked into Indian shooters' flop show in Rio Olympics, in 'toto' and said it will form a separate panel to ensure the implementation of the suggestions.
Team India will compete in 15 sporting disciplines as well as four disciplines in the para sports category.
Abhinav Bindra announced his retirement from the sport that had brought him world-wide attention and fame after he won the gold in the same event in Beijing in 2008, saying he's 'done' and will now convert his shooting range into a garden.
Harendra Singh has a penchant for delivering results whenever entrusted with an assignment and has now set his sights at bigger goals after guiding the Indian women's team to Asia Cup triumph
'Graham Reid's resignation is his personal decision but at the end of the day somebody has to take the blame for this awful show.'
Scheduling of the big events such as Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in quick succession may have a bearing on the form of India's top shooters, according to national shooting coach Sunny Thomas.
Former Indian wrestling coach P R Sondhi has conveyed his 'displeasure' to film star Aamir Khan for allegedly demeaning the character of wrestling coach in the recently-released Bollywood movie Dangal.
'The law is neither able nor willing to function the way the legal machinery is envisaged.'
"The first contingent will leave for Tokyo on July 17. It will have 90 athletes and officials in total."
Wrestler Sushil Kumar opined that athletes will suffer if India boycotts Commonwealth Games (CWG).
Vijayveer Sidhu, 16, shot a gold in the 25m standard pistol event for junior men after combining with Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu and Adarsh Singh to claim the team gold on the last day of the ISSF World Championships.
A call-up for the West Indies tour for two Tests was inevitable for Yashasvi Jaiswal after proving himself across formats.
The Indian Olympic Association presented cash rewards worth Rs 20 lakh, 10 lakh, and 7.5 lakh to the gold, silver and bronze medallists respectively.
Yashasvi Jaiswal's childhood coach Jwala Singh said the focus should be on the hardwork put in by the youngster and not his 'panipuri selling' story.
Woman shooter Heena Sidhu created history by becoming the first pistol exponent from India to win a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup finals in Munich, Germany.
Verma wins compound individual gold, opens tally for India.
'I never expected it, because my personal best in a competition was 710. And this is my best score.'
'It's everyone's dream to have their pictures show up on Google.' 'In the beginning, you're not used to it.' 'It's a bit weird and even now it's weird.'
Top pistol shooter Ankait Tomar was removed from the Indian contingent bound for the ISSF World Championships in Baku a week before its departure because of a "minor scuffle with a fellow shooter", said his father on Sunday.
Indian pistol ace Manu Bhaker says she will continue to shoot in three events, including the 25m, despite enduring a hat-trick of heartbreaks in her Olympics campaign in Tokyo.
In the second of a special series on second generation Indian Americans giving back to India, Shaun Jayachandran tells Arthur J Pais how he is using basketball to get the young in India to build their educational skills and career goals.
'Instead of making this a four-year phenomenon, when you look at us and get thrilled, do it more regularly.'
Shooting ace Bindra, who claimed a historic gold medal in the men's 10m air rifle competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, runs the Abhinav Bindra Sports Medicine and Research Institute (ABSMARI) -- a one-of-a-kind institute for physiotherapy in the country with a world-class biomechanical and sports science laboratory set up for academic purposes -- in Bhubaneswar.
With a rape case going on against him, he happens to be jobless, having being sacked as assistant coach from the Sports Authority of India last year.
Indians will enter the upcoming Olympics with heightened expectations
Olympic bronze-winning Indian men's hockey team captain Manpreet Singh was on Tuesday added to the list of Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna awardees, taking the total number of this year's winners to an unparalleled 12.
The participation of Indian athletes in Friday's Tokyo Olympic Games opening ceremony will be kept to a 'bare minimum' in view of the COVID-19 threat, while only six officials from the contingent will be allowed to take part in the event.
Avani broke her own world record of 249.6 to secure her a spot at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
The selected shooters would be mentored by top international coaches and receive training at state-of-the-art facilities, including sports science support, for a full year.
Tennis legend Sania Mirza doesn't know much about cricket but as an elite athlete for the last two decades, she feels she can help Royal Challengers Bangalore women cricketers to deal with the mental aspect of things.
In awe of the sensational Saurabh Chaudhary, former World championship silver-medallist shooter Jitu Rai feels the reticent youngster has it in him to humble one of the sport's all-time greats, South Korean Jin Jong-Oh, at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Paralympic gold-winners Avani Lekhara, Sumit Antil, Pramod Bhagat, Krishna Nagar, Manish Narwal were also given the Khel Ratna at a dazzling awards ceremony on Saturday.
