Abhinav Bindra gave India its first individual Olympic gold medal, and ninth overall, when he won the 10 metres air rifle event at the Beijing Olympics on Monday morning.
Before his feat India had won eight gold medals in hockey, six of them at successive Games, three silver medals (two in athletics and one in hockey) and five bronze medals from the Olympics.
On Monday, Bindra was fourth after qualifying but had a brilliant final round and even hit a near perfect 10.8 on his last visit to pull in front of Henri Hakkinen of Finland, who dropped to bronze with a poor final shot of 9.7.
A look at India's medal winners at the Olympics:
| Medal | Name | Olympics | Sport | Event |
| Silver | Norman Pritchard | 1900 Paris | Athletics | Men's 200 metres |
| Silver | Norman Pritchard | 1900 Paris | Athletics | Men's 200 metres hurdles |
| Gold | National team | 1928 Amsterdam | Field hockey | Men's competition |
| Gold | National team | 1932 Los Angeles | Field hockey | Men's competition |
| Gold | National team | 1936 Berlin | Field hockey | Men's competition |
| Gold | National team | 1948 London | Field hockey | Men's competition |
| Gold | National team | 1952 Helsinki | Field hockey | Men's competition |
| Bronze | Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav | 1952 Helsinki | Wrestling | Men's freestyle bantamweight |
| Gold | National team | 1956 Melbourne | Field hockey | Men's competition |
| Silver | National team | 1960 Rome | Field hockey | Men's competition |
| Gold | National team | 1964 Tokyo | Field hockey | Men's competition |
| Bronze | National team | 1968 Mexico | Field hockey | Men's competition |
| Bronze | National team | 1972 Munich | Field hockey | Men's competition |
| Gold | National team | 1980 Moscow | Field hockey | Men's competition |
| Bronze | Leander Paes | 1996 Atlanta | Tennis | Men's singles |
| Bronze | Karnam Malleswari | 2000 Sydney | Weightlifting | Women's 69 kg |
| Silver | Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore | 2004 Athens | Shooting | Men's double trap |
| Gold | Abhinav Bindra | 2008 Beijing | Shooting | Men's 10m Air Rifle |