My Science School

It isn’t often that India has had a gymnast of repute to boast about. That changed in the last decade with Dipa Karmakar making her mark.

Karmakar rose to prominence when she won bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, becoming the first Indian female gymnast to do so in the history of the games.

She also became India’s first female gymnast to participate at the Olympics when she did so at Rio 2016. She finished a commendable fourth in the Women’s Vault Gymnastics event at Rio. Karmakar is one among five women who have successfully landed the Produnova, considered one of the most difficult vaults in women’s artistic gymnastics.

Speaking of women gymnasts, American Simone Biles went where no one else has as she took her tally to 25 World medals, including 19 World gold medals, at the 2019 World Championships. She won four gold medals and a bronze at Rio 2016 as well and would be eager to add to her tally at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

 

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For a country of over a billion, getting on the medals tally at the Olympics has been a constant dream every four years.

While there was some success in that regard in the two Olympics that were held on the last decade, there is still a long way to go.

India’s contingent had 83 members for the 2012 London Olympics, the most for India at the games. That number was bettered for the 2016 Rio Olympics, when India’s contingent was 118-members strong.

We had six medals – two silvers and four bronze – to show for our efforts in 2012 and two medals – one silver and one bronze – in 2016. While Vijay Kumar (shooting) and Sushil Kumar (wrestling) won silver medals in 2012, Saina Nehwal (badminton), Mary Kom (boxing), Gagan Narang (shooting) and Yogeshwar Dutt (wrestling) won bronze medals. PV Sindhu’s silver in badminton and Sakshi Malik’s bronze in wrestling completed our haul in 2016.

Having won a bronze in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Sushil Kumar became India’s first multiple individual Olympics medalist when he won his silver in 2012.

 

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Eliud Kipchoge is a long-distance runner from Kenya. In the first decade of this century, he used to compete in the 5000 m event. He had decent success in it, winning bronze at 2004 Athens Olympics, silver in 2008 Beijing Olympics, apart from his gold and silver at the 2003 and 2007 World Championships.

In 2012, he switched to road running and took to the marathons. Since then, he has won 12 of the 13 marathons that he has competed in, coming second to Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang when he set the world record at the 2013 Berlin marathon.

Kipchoge won the 2016 Rio Olympics gold in the marathon and made the world record his own when he won the 2018 Berlin marathon in a time of 2 hours, 1 minute and 39 seconds.

He has also been involved in experimental runs over marathon distances without standard competition rules. While he clocked 2:00:25 at Monza in 2017 during one such attempt, he broke the mythical two-hour barrier in 2019, when he ran the distance in 1:59:40 at Vienna.

 

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It isn’t often that we are graced with an athlete like Usain Bolt. One of the greatest sprinters of all time, Bolt was the poster boy of athletics until his retirement in 2017. A showman and an endearing hero, the void left by his departure from the sport is difficult to fill.

Even though his world records in both the 100 m and 200 m sprints came in 2009, Bolt still had plenty to offer in the previous decade as well. He added the 100m, 200 m and 4x100 m gold medals from the 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio Olympics to the 100 m and 200 m golds he won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is therefore the only sprinter to have won the Olympics 100 m and 200 m titles at three Olympics, and it isn’t going to be an easy feat to replicate.

Apart from the Olympics, Bolt also dominated the scene at the World Championships that are held every two years, winning a record 11 gold medals, including eight in the last decade.

He chose the 2017 World Championships at London as his final event, but alas, it didn’t turn out to be a fairytale ending. He had to be content with a bronze in his last individual 100 m race. He opted out of the 200 m event and pulled up with a hamstring injury while running the anchor leg for Jamaica in the 4x100 m relay final, bringing the curtains down on a glorious career.

 

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Even though the previous decade wasn’t as good as the one before it for Mary Kom, she was still able to earn a lot of plaudits for women’s boxing in India. Mary was crowned World Amateur Boxing Championship in her weight category on four occasions in the first decade of this century – in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2008. She added two more World Championships gold medals in the last decade, the first in 2010 and the most recent at New Delhi in 2018. In the process, she became the only woman to be crowned champion for a record six times.

Women’s boxing was included for the first time in Olympics in 2012 and Mary ensured she competed in London. She ended up with a bronze medal, losing out to eventual gold medalist Nicola Adams in the semi-final.

India’s only other boxer who has won a medal at the Olympics, Vijender Singh (won bronze in the 2008 Beijing Games) turned professional in 2015. He’s got an unbeaten 12-0 record with eight knockouts so far and it would be interesting to see how his career pans out.

 

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Winning a medal for the country at the Olympics is the covered prize many sportsmen dream of. Doing it once is great. Doing it again is even better. Doing it again and again over four different Olympics is almost unthinkable.

American Michael Phelps did the unthinkable by collecting medal after medal over four Olympics – 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, 2012 London and 2016 Rio. He finished with 28 medals in his Olympics swimming career – 23 gold, three silver and two bronze. That is more than what most countries have won through their Olympics history!

While the bulk of his victories did come in the first two editions that he participated in, he did win nine gold medals and three silver medals in the last decade. Considered by many as the greatest swimmer of all time, Phelps retired – for a second time – in 2016.

 

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If the men’s game has been dominated by the Big Three, Serena Williams has for decades now been the flag bearer for women’s single tennis. She’s 38-years-old and a mother now, but that hasn’t stopped her from winning titles.

Having won her first singles Grand Slam title at the 1999 US Open, she won her most recent major at the 2017 Australian Open, while she was pregnant! If you combine singles, doubles and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles that she has won, then her current tally is 39.

Twenty three of these are singles titles, as she continues her pursuit of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slams.

When she won the Wimbledon title in 2015, she held all four majors at the same time for the second time in her career, becoming only the third player – after Rod Laver and Steffi Graf – to achieve the feat.

 

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If you have to name one team that truly owned the NBA in the last decade, then the question can be answered without any hesitation. For the Golden State Warriors truly had a golden era, dominating the sport and notching up titles.

They have reached the NBA Finals in each of the last five years, winning the title in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Along the way, they notched up the best regular season in NBA history, most wins (regular and postseason combined) in a season and the best postseason run as well.

Four of the five NBA Finals that Warriors competed in the last decade was against the Cleveland Cavaliers. In fact, the two franchises faced off in the final for four consecutive years a record in the NBA.

While Warriors hold the upper hand with respect to the results, having won three of those four finals, the Cavaliers too had something to cheer. The manner in which they won the 2016 title made it all the more remarkable. After trailing 3-1 in the seven-match NBA Finals series, the Cavs won the last three in a row, lifting the title in the process. It capped a remarkable comeback as the Cavaliers became the first team in NBA history to win the NBA Finals after trailing 3-1 after four games.

 

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For some time now in men’s tennis, there has been speculation about when the next generation of players will usurp the current crop. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – referred to as the Big Three – ensured that it didn’t happen last decade as they won 33 of the 40 Grand Slam events that took place.

Federer took his majors tally to 20 by the end of the last decade, the most by any man in singles history. At 38, he is certainly not getting any younger, but continues to be at the top of the game.

Nadal, who is second in the all-time list of singles Grand Slam titles for men with 19, is not called the King of Clay without reason. Twelve of his 19 majors have come in the French Open, including eight in the last decade. Apart from 2015 and 2016, Nadal has won the French Open every year in last 10 years.

Djokovic has 16 Grand Slam singles title in his kitty. With a record seven Australian Open titles, including six in the previous decade, Djokovic became only the third man – and the first since Rod Laver in 1969 – to hold all four majors at the same time, when he won the French Open for the first time in 2016. Djokovic is also the only male player to have won all nine Masters 1000 tournaments – a feat he achieved in 2018.

 

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The decade was marked by some good news for India on the badminton court. While the men had middling and intermittent success, the women have been consistent in their excellence.

Saina Nehwal was India’s poster girl at the start of the decade and she won herself and the country a bronze at the 2012 London Olympics. She also became the first Indian female – and only the second after Prakash Padukone – to hold the world number one ranking, when she achieved the feat in 2015. Silver and bronze medals at the 2015 and 2017 World Championship have further swelled her reputation and she still remains a force to reckon.

PV Sindhu, however, has become the top female badminton player in the country by the end of the decade. Apart from her unforgettable silver from the 2016 Rio Olympics, Sindhu also became only the second woman to claim five or more World Championship medal. Following bronze medals in 2013 and 2014, silver medals in 2017 and 2018, she finally won gold at the 2019 event in Basel, becoming the first Indian World Championship winner.

Among the men, Kidambi Srikanth became only the fourth player to win four Super Series titles on a year in 2017. He also briefly held the world number one ranking in 2018.

B Sai Praneeth, meanwhile, did himself proud with a bronze at the 2019 World Championships.

 

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In 2010, Spanish racer Marc Marquez won the 125cc World Championship. In 2012, he captured the Moto2 World Championship. Participating in the premier MotoGP class for the first time in 2013, he won the title in his debut season itself! With that, Marquez became one of four riders to have won world championship titles in three different categories.

Racing for Honda’s factory team since his MotoGP debut, Marquez has moved from strength to strength through the decade. He won the MotoGP title in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 as well, losing out only in 2015, when Jorge Lorenze won the title.

At the age of 26, Marquez is already a six-time world champion, the youngest to win the title (when he won in 2013) and holds the record for most points and podiums ever for a rider in a single season (420 points and 18 podium finishes from 19 races in 2019).

 

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The decade started with a FIFA World Cup in 2010. Spain’s winning streak post Euro 2008 continued and they went on to win their first ever World Cup in 2010. Their dominance continued for a few more years as they defended their Euro title in 2012.

Spain, however, were knocked out of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil in the group stages itself. Germany became the first European nation to win a World Cup in South American soil and they did it in style. Their 7-1 victory over hosts Brazil and 1-0 extra-time win over another South American powerhouse Argentina in the final gave them the title for a fourth time.

However, Germany was knocked out in the group stages in the 2018 World Cup IN Russia. France, who had entered the tournament as one of the favourites, went on to win the title, defeating a determined Croatia side 4-2 in the final.

The previous decade also witnessed unprecedented growth in the women’s game. While U.S. finished runners up to Japan in the 2011 World Cup, they won back to back titles in 2015 and 2019. All this when more people than ever before were thronging the stadiums to support their stars.

 

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Juventus have an ongoing winning streak of eight in a row in the Italian Series A. Bayern Munich has won the German Bundesliga on eight out of 10 occasions in last decade, including an active streak of seven in a row. Barcelona has been dominant in the La Liga (despite the presence of Real Madrid and the growth of Atletico Madrid), winning the title seven times in the last decade. Paris Saint Germain, meanwhile, has won the French Ligue 1 six times in the last 10 completed seasons.

However, the big five European leagues were not predominantly one-horse races. The English Premier League witnessed a grand fairytale that saw rank outsiders Leicester City being crowned champions of the 2015-16 season. Add to it Sergio Aguero’s stoppage-time goal that completed a remarkable comeback win on the final day of the 2012-13 season and gave Manchester City the title. It was one of the most dramatic season finishes ever, and Premier League has surely seen good competition through the decade.

India, meanwhile, saw the birth of another premier football league in the country along with I-League. The Indian Super League’s first season took place in 2014 with eight teams and the tournament has grown to include 10 teams in its current season. The ISL has also been successful in bringing a large amount of people to the stadiums.

 

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Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have arguably been the best footballers of their generation. The Ballon d’Or, which is awarded to the best male football player each year, has more or less been shared by the two over the last ten years. With Messi winning it on five occasions and Ronaldo four times, Luka Modric, in 2018, is the only other player to win it in the previous decade.

With 522 goals for Barcelona and 23 trophies – including seven La Liga titles and two Champions League titles – over the last decade, Messi has certainly had the better club record. Ronaldo is not far off though, with 478 club goals and 17 club trophies in the last 10 years, which includes four Champions League titles, two La Liga titles and a Serie A title.

When it comes to Internationals, however, Ronaldo has been ahead. He’s scored 77 international goals for Portugal in the last 10 years as opposed to Messi’s 57 for Argentina. And while Messi has slipped at the final hurdle with Argentina in a number of international tournaments, Ronaldo’s Portugal won the Euro 2016 and the UEFA Nations League in 2019.

 

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For a few hours on November 14 and November 15 in 2013, the crowed at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai were up on their feet throughout and chanting a single world: “Sachin, Sachin!”. As Sachin Tendulkar batted for India for one last time, those who had gathered to celebrate the occasion went berserk. India won the Test match against West Indies by an innings and 126 runs, but all that people remember are Tendulkar’s 74 in his final innings and his retirement speech on November 16.

Having started his international career on November 15, 1989, Tendulkar played cricket at the highest level for 24 years. In a career that spanned decades, Tendulkar was often at the pinnacle of his sport and considered one of the greatest batsmen to have ever graced the game.

With 15,921 Test runs and 18,426 runs in ODIs to go with his 100 international hundreds, Tendulkar holds innumerable records, some of them seemingly insurmountable. An era in cricket, and Indian cricket in particular, came to an end with Tendulkar’s retirement, but those he passed the baton onto have been carrying the burden admirably.

While Mahendra Singh Dhoni took the mantle initially – as a batsman, captain and the crowd’s hero – Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma too dominated as batsmen as the years went on. We have often had a batting department to boast about while our bowling fails us, but that has changed in the last few years. With a dream pace attack led by Jasprit Bumrah and skilled spinners in every format, India are now as good in their bowling, as they are in batting as well.

 

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