However, the coaches also play an important role to make these talented players reach their true potential. Here are the proud coaches of our medal-winning athletes who truly deserve our attention.

1. Vijay Sharma 

Vijay Sharma, who is originally from the Sohal Tanda village of Akhnoor in the Jammu district, is also a Dronacharya Award recipient.

He has also trained players like Poonam Yadav, Satish Shivlingama and Vikas Thakur.

Since 2012, he has been the national coach of the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF).

He was interested in sports from his school days and even participated in a number of sports events.

2. Sandhya Gurung 

Just like the entire nation, Lovlina Borgohain’s coach was extremely proud of her when she won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. 

Sandhya Gurung, who is also a former boxer herself, battled paralysis to become a national-level boxer. 

She originally hails from Burtuk, Gangtok.

According to a report, her last game was in 2008 where she bagged a gold medal.

From the year 2010 onwards, she has been a coach.

In the year 2000, she even competed in the 68 kg category.

3. Park Tae Sang 

After PV Sindhu bagged the bronze medal in the women’s singles badminton match, she credited her Korean coach, saying he motivated her to win this medal. According to a report, the 42-year-old coach said: 

This is an important moment in my coaching career because as a player and a coach I never won an Olympic medal before. This is a first for me.

He is a retired professional badminton player.

The 42-year-old coach is originally from South Korea.

He has been coaching PV Sindhu since late 2019.

He even went viral for speaking in Hindi in one of their interviews.

4. Satpal Singh 

Ravi Kumar Dahiya, who bagged a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, has been trained by Satpal Singh since the age of 10 at the Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi. 

Popularly known as Guru Satpal, he is a wrestling coach and former wrestler.

5. Graham Reid 

The Indian men’s hockey team created history as they qualified for the semi-finals at the Tokyo Olympics for the first time in 41 long years. The players definitely deserve the credit for their significant performance, but we cannot overlook the role of their coach. Graham Reid was a midfielder and defender for the Australian team during the time he played hockey. 

He was also a part of the team that won the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

The 57-year-old coach was appointed as the head coach of the Indian national team in  April 2019.

6. Sjoerd Marijne

There’s no doubt that Tokyo Olympics was a big turning point for Indian women’s hockey and the person behind this glory is coach Sjoerd Marijne. Although they diligently fought for bronze and unfortunately lost, they are still our champions.

He originally hails from the Dutch province of North Brabant.

In February 2017, he was appointed as the coach for the Indian women’s national team.  

7. Rakhi Tyagi

After discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur sealed her place at the Tokyo Olympics, her coach, Rakhi Tyagi has been getting quite a bit of recognition.

8. Murad Gaidarov

After defeating China’s Zushen Lin in the quarterfinal match, Deepak Punia lost his Bronze medal match against San Marino’s Myles Amine. However, the credit for his incredible performance has been given to his Belarusian coach Murad Gaidarov.

9. Klaus Bartonietz

Klaus Bartonietz is the coach of Neeraj Chopra, the first Indian to bag an Olympic Gold in athletics. 

After Chopra entered the finals with the best throw of 86.65m, his coach has been garnering praises from all across the world.

Originally from Germany, he has been training Chopra for the last two years.

10. Shako Bentinidis

He is the coach of Bajrang Punia, who bagged the Bronze medal after defeating Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov in the men’s freestyle 65kg category.

He is a three-time Olympian himself.

We are truly proud of our champions.