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Who was the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal?
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Answer: Option C — Karnam Malleswari
Detailed Solution
Karnam Malleswari, born on 1 June 1975 in Voosavanipeta, in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, is a weightlifter. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she won a bronze medal in the women's 69 kg weightlifting category, lifting a total of 240 kilograms (110 kg in snatch and 130 kg in clean and jerk). This made her the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Olympic Games. Women's weightlifting was introduced at the Olympics for the first time at Sydney 2000. She was nicknamed "The Iron Lady".
Before her Olympic success, she had won gold medals at the World Weightlifting Championships in 1994 and 1995. She received the Arjuna Award (1994), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (now Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna) Award (1995-96) and the Padma Shri (1999). In 2021, she was appointed the first Vice-Chancellor of Delhi Sports University.
After her, many Indian women have won Olympic medals:
- Saina Nehwal: bronze in badminton, London 2012.
- Mary Kom: bronze in boxing, London 2012.
P.V. Sindhu: silver in badminton at Rio 2016 and bronze at Tokyo 2020, the first Indian woman to win two individual Olympic medals.
Sakshi Malik: bronze in wrestling, Rio 2016.
Mirabai Chanu: silver in weightlifting, Tokyo 2020.
Lovlina Borgohain: bronze in boxing, Tokyo 2020.
Manu Bhaker: two bronze medals in shooting at Paris 2024 (women's 10 m air pistol and mixed team with Sarabjot Singh), the first Indian athlete to win two medals at a single Olympics after Independence.
Why not the other options?
P.T. Usha finished fourth in the 400 m hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, missing a medal by one-hundredth of a second.
Saina Nehwal won a bronze medal in 2012, after Malleswari.
Mary Kom won a bronze medal in 2012.
Quick tip
Remember: First Indian woman Olympic medallist = Karnam Malleswari (weightlifting bronze, Sydney 2000); P.V. Sindhu = first woman with two individual medals; Manu Bhaker = two medals at Paris 2024.
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Firsts in India & World — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Firsts in India & World, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers the first persons and events in India and the world: the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize, the first woman to hold major offices, the first to climb Everest or reach space, and India's first institutions, newspapers, railways and satellites. It also covers the largest, longest, highest and smallest records in India and the world. These are pure memory questions, so revise them as short lists by theme: first women, first in sports, first in science and space, and first in governance. Be careful with the exact wording, such as 'first Indian' versus 'first person of Indian origin', or 'first woman President' versus 'first woman Prime Minister', since options are often designed to exploit this. Practise the firsts in India and the world questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.