Mumbai: One never returns empty-handed from Olympics, even if that means coming back without a podium finish.
It’s not just the medals that you win, but many other hidden rewards which come complimentary like the government awards and accolades, the many sponsors vying for your attention and hearts of millions of new fans (in certain cases, marriage proposals too). Now since we live in the 21st century, one gets to top the list of Google search engine as the most searched athlete too.
Badminton sensation Pusarla Venkata Sindhu became the top searched athlete in Google India, followed by bronze medalist wrestler Sakshi Malik.
Other top searched Indian athletes in the last three days are Kidambi Srikanth (badminton), Dipa Karmakar (gymnastics) who secured fourth position, Sania Mirza (tennis), Saina Nehwal (badminton), Vinesh Phogat (wrestling), Lalita Babar (long distance running), Vikas Krishan Yadav (boxing) and Narsingh Pancham Yadav (wrestling).
In a statement released by Google, “India is currently ranked 11th in the global trends in terms of searches for the ‘Olympics’ over the last seven days”.
Jamaican sprinter and the greatest showman of athletics Usain Bolt, got Indian fans hooked onto him as he remained the most searched foreign athlete on Google India.
Apart from Bolt, other top searched foreign players being searched by Indians in the last three days include Chinese badminton player Lin Dan who defeated Kidambi Srikanth, Nozomi Okuhara of Japan who lost to P V Sindhu, swimming great from the US Michael Phelps and Chinese badminton player Wang Yihan.
A study by Google on the geographic trend of Internet users in India revealed that people of the North Eastern states showed great deal of interest in the Rio Olympics compared to other developed states. Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura amongst others emerged as the top Indian states from where people have shown immense excitement considering Olympics. This is followed by Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim and Nagaland.
The remaining four positions in the Top 10 list have been occupied by Goa, Puducherry, Haryana and Uttarakhand.