SSC
Who became the first Indian woman sailor to qualify for the Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020)?
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Answer: Option A — Nethra Kumanan
Detailed Solution
Nethra Kumanan, a sailor from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, became the first Indian woman sailor to qualify for the Olympic Games. She earned her place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (held in 2021) in the women's Laser Radial class by finishing well at the Mussanah Open Championship in Oman in April 2021.
More about Nethra Kumanan:
- She took up sailing through a summer camp in Chennai and trained with the Tamil Nadu Sailing Association.
- In 2020, she won a bronze medal at the Hempel Sailing World Cup series in Miami, USA, becoming the first Indian to win a medal at a Sailing World Cup event.
- She has also represented India at the Asian Games.
- At the 2024 Paris Olympics, she again represented India in the women's one-person dinghy (ILCA 6) class.
India at Olympic sailing in Tokyo 2020:
For the first time, India qualified in four sailing events, sending four sailors:
- Nethra Kumanan: Laser Radial (women).
- Vishnu Saravanan: Laser Standard (men).
- C. Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar: 49er (men's two-person skiff).
About the Laser class:
The Laser is a single-person dinghy. The Laser Radial (now ILCA 6) uses a smaller sail and is used for women; the Laser Standard (now ILCA 7) is used for men.
Other Indian women sailors:
- Varsha Gautham and Shweta Shervegar won silver in the 49erFX class at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.
- In 2023, Neha Thakur won silver in the girls' dinghy (ILCA 4) at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Varsha Gautham and Shweta Shervegar won Asian Games silver in 2018 but did not qualify for the Olympics.
- ✗Neha Thakur won silver in the girls' ILCA 4 dinghy at the 2022 Asian Games (held in 2023), not an Olympic place in 2020.
Quick tip
Remember: Nethra Kumanan = first Indian woman sailor at the Olympics (Laser Radial, Tokyo 2020); first Indian Sailing World Cup medal (Miami 2020); Vishnu Saravanan = Laser Standard.
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Sports — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Sports, 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 sports GK: major tournaments and their venues, trophies and cups associated with each sport, sports terms, the number of players in a team, sports awards in India, Olympic and Asian Games facts, and famous sportspersons and their achievements. Common questions ask which sport a trophy belongs to (such as the Durand Cup for football or the Ranji Trophy for cricket), which term is used in which sport, and where a tournament was held. Records and results change after every season, so pair static facts such as team sizes and terms with recent results from current affairs. Practise the sports 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.