Coaches behind winners: 7 Foreigners 1 Indian
India has won seven medals at Tokyo Olympics. Read our coverage about the coaches of winners.
On stage India has won seven medals at Tokyo Olympics. The guiding hands who have shown the right path to our players owe a lot from us. Along with players they too have worked hard behind the scenes.
Uwe Hohn (Head Coach) & Dr Klaus Bartonietz (Biomechanical Expert)
Country: Germany
Athlete: Neeraj Chopra
Event: Javelin Throw
Medal: Gold
The immense knowledge about the intricacies of the event that Dr. Klaus Bartoneitz has provided to Neeraj made him stronger. He was part of the core team which developed javelin-specific work-out machines German throwers swear by.
Uwe Hohn, the only man to throw the spear over 100 metres. He has coached Chopra when he won the Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medals in 2018.
Vijay Sharma (Chief National Coach)
Country: India
Athlete: Mirabai Chanu
Discipline: Weightlifting 49kg
Medal: Silver
He is a former national champion in 2014. In 2014 he took charge of the men’s team for the Commonwealth Games. Sharma’s own career as a weightlifter wasn't successful because of a wrist injury. In 2016 Rio Olympics, Mirabai failed to produce one legal lift. Along with her mother, it was her coach Vijay who motivated her out of thoughts about retirement.
Kamal Malikov
Country: Russia
Athlete: Ravi Dahiya
Event: 57kg freestyle wrestling
Medal: Silver
Malikov was employed from April 2021 under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) to prepare Dahiya for the Tokyo Olympics. Malikov was able to procure prime sparring partners in Vladikavkaz (Russia). Dahiya is a trained by wrestling coach Satpal Singh and the set-up at Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium.
Shako Bentinidis
Country: Georgia
Athlete: Bajrang Punia
Event: 65kg freestyle wrestling
Medal: Bronze
An animated coach, Bentinidis has facilitated sparring partners for Bajrang from the United States and Russia. The wrestler from Haryana has travelled across the world looking for wrestlers who can attack him with speed. While still not perfect, the influence of Bentinidis has led to improvements in Bajrang’s wrestling style and helped him to win an Olympic bronze medal.
Raffaele Bergamasco (High Performance Director)
Country: Italy
Athlete: Lovlina Borgohain
Event: Women’s welterweight boxing
Medal: Bronze
Bergamasco was a five-time national champion. He has taken part in the Beijing, London and Rio Olympics as a coach. He has guided the Italian women’s team from 2001 to 2007. Later, he took over their senior and junior men’s sides and helped them to win six Olympic medals. He found his way to India in 2017 at Youth Boxing Championships (five gold, two bronze). A month later, he was promoted to high performance director for senior women.
Park Tae-Sang
Country: South Korea
Athlete: PV Sindhu
Event: Women’s singles badminton
Medal: bronze
Sindhu’s needed more variety and dimensions to win consistently against the best players in the world. Park gave Sindhu assurance in her stride, He has worked for long quality hours on her defence. He injected confidence in Sindhu’s game at the net. Park was also an animated from whom Sindhu draws great energy.
Graham Reid
Country: Australia
Team: Men’s hockey
Medal: Bronze
After the loss in the semifinal match against Belgium, it was Reid’s duty to prepare the team for the bronze-medal playoff against Germany. Under his guidance, India gave one of their most rousing performances in a long time. Reid has toughened the team and history has recorded that he was in charge when India won the Olympic Bronze in hockey after a gap of 41 years.
