Perhaps India's greatest hopes in the Olympics lies with the nine person team representing her in Shooting.

Led by Athens silver medalist Lt. Col. RVS ‘Chilly' Rathore, the team is extremely talented and has the pedigree to excel at the greatest stage of them all. In a category where one missed shot could be the difference between a medal and none, India will be competing in six men's events and two women's events.

Men
Trap - Manavjit Singh Sandhu & Mansher Singh
Double Trap - ‘Chilly' Rathore
10 m Air Pistol - Samaresh Jung
10 m Air Rifle - Gagan Narang & Abhinav Bindra
50 m prone - Gagan Narang
50 m 3-pos - Gagan Narang & Sanjeev Rajput

Women
10 m Air Rifle -

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) selected a 99 member squad to lead the Indian charge for Olympic glory in Beijing. 57 of these members are athletes and they are accompanied by a small support staff of 42. When the final squad was released today, it threw up a few interesting points of view:

1. At 57, the squad is 16 less than the number of participants who represented India in the 2004 Athens Olympics and sadly even less than the participants in 2000.
2. The number of women athletes in the squad is 26, making this the highest number of women that India has ever sent to the Olympics (makes the men look even worse!). In fact, this is our smallest male contingent since 1976 (of course

Little known K.D Jadhav was the real India's first ever individual Olympic medalist when he won the wrestling Bronze Medal at the 1952 Helsinki Games. Unable to procure any grants from the national government, Jadhav's trip to Helsinki was financed by the Principal of Raja Ram College, Mr. Khardekar who mortgaged his house to get the funds needed for the trip.

Khashaba wrestling initiation began at a very tender age when he, accompanied by his father, used to watch wrestling bouts. Like many families in Maharashtra, Jadhav's too was swept into wrestling. His father Dadasaheb taught the game to his five sons, of whom Khashaba was the youngest. His physical fitness was ensured by a four mile brisk walk everyday from his residence to school. Gradually he began emerging as an

Born on June 1, 1975, Karnam Malleswari became the prefect epitome for women across India by being the first Indian woman to win an Olympics Medal. The event that she participated in is seldom seen as a "conventional" woman's sport. Malleswari's triumph was an acknowledgment to Indian women as she became the first woman in Indian history to win an Olympics medal in weightlifting. She won a bronze in the 69kg category, at the Sydney Summer Olympics in 2000, thus revolutionizing how Indian sports personalities with particular regard to women were seen at a global platform. Her achievement commissioned women all across the sub-continent to engage themselves in a rather male dominant sport, thus empowering their position in the male chauvinist society.

The "Iron girl of Andhra Pradesh" began weightlifting at the age of twelve in her village. Her career blossomed fruitfu