SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 5 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

In which sport did India win its first individual Olympic medal?

(a)Judo
(b)Wrestling
(c)Swimming
(d)Shooting

Answer

Why

Correct — B. India's first individual Olympic medal was K D Jadhav's bronze in wrestling, won in the men's freestyle bantamweight at the Helsinki Games of 1952.

India's earlier Olympic medals are the hockey team's — gold at Amsterdam in 1928 and at every Games from then to Helsinki. Jadhav's bronze is the first that Indian sports records credit to an individual.

So the question turns on the word "individual", not on the word "first".

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Judo — India has won no Olympic medal in judo, in 1952 or since, so it cannot be the source of a first.
(c)
Swimming — India has no Olympic medal in swimming either. Indian swimmers have reached the Games, but not the podium.
(d)
Shooting — Shooting did produce individual medals — Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore's silver at Athens 2004 and Abhinav Bindra's gold at Beijing 2008 — but both came half a century after 1952.

Concept

Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav came from Goleshwar in Satara district of Maharashtra and wrestled in the freestyle bantamweight class at Helsinki.

His medal matters in Indian sport history because it separates two eras: an Olympic record built by a team sport, and one in which individuals could place. He was honoured with the Arjuna Award posthumously.

India's individual medal count stayed at that single bronze for decades before shooting, boxing, wrestling and badminton began adding to it.

Read the qualifier carefully. "First Olympic medal" points to hockey in 1928; "first individual Olympic medal" points to 1952.

One complication is worth knowing: Norman Pritchard's two athletics silvers at Paris 1900 are counted in India's tally by some records and under Great Britain by others. SSC and Indian sports bodies date the first individual medal to Jadhav.

Key facts

K D Jadhav won bronze in men's freestyle bantamweight wrestling at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.
India's Olympic medals from 1928 to 1952 came from the hockey team, which won gold at every Games in that span.
India's first Olympic gold came from the hockey team at Amsterdam in 1928.
India's first individual Olympic gold was Abhinav Bindra's in the 10 m air rifle at Beijing 2008.

Study next

India's Olympic hockey golds between 1928 and 1980Indian individual Olympic medallists and the events they wonThe Indian Olympic Association and India's Olympic debut

Common traps

Reading "first individual medal" as "first medal", which sends you to hockey in 1928.
Naming shooting because it produced India's first individual gold, which is a different question.

SSC keeps returning to Olympic firsts and to wrestlers by name — Abhinav Bindra's gold on 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.21, and Geeta Phogat at the 2012 London Games on 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.24.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.