India has been participating in the Olympic Games in an organised manner since 1928 and has done reasonably well so far. However, the Indian Athletics appeared in the Olympics or the first time in the year 1948, when a team of 8 Indian Athletes took part in various track and field events. Among the 8 Athletes, 6 were men and 2 were women. Though, the Indian Athletes have participated in all the Olympics after that, their journey was not that successful. However, the Indian Athletes in Olympics have earned success in different track and field events, so far.

Six Indian Athletes in Olympic have so far become successful to reach the finals of their respective events. Apart from them, the Indian 4x400 Women`s relay team has also reached the finals of their event in Olympics. Among the individual players, the first one to win an Olympic medal for India was Norman Pritchard, who went to the Olympics in 1900, when India was under British rule. He won two silver medals in sprint and hurdles in the 1900 Olympic Games. In 1948 London Olympics, Henry Rebello went to the finals of Triple Jump. After him, Milkha Singh got the fourth place in 400 metres, in the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. In the next Olympic Games, in Tokyo in 1964, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa was place in the fifth position 100 m hurdles. After a gap of two Olympic Games, Sriram Singh got the seventh place in 800m in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

After Sriram Singh`s performance in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, the famous Indian women sprinter, P. T Usha excelled in the in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and got the fourth position in 400m hurdles. Though she tried her best, she unfortunately lost her bronze by 1/100th of a second. The 4 member Indian Women`s relay team for 400m, comprising P. T. Usha, M. D. Valsamma, Vandana Rao, and Shiny Abraham got the seventh place, in the same year. However, after that, no other Indian Athletes in Olympics could get into the finals of their events, so far.