The Tokyo 2020 Olympics was the most tweeted about sports event in India in 2021, according to social media giant Twitter.

India performed splendidly at the Games - winning seven medals, the biggest haul in a single edition by the country.

Between January 1 to November 15, 2021, the #Tokyo2020 hashtag pipped #IPL2021 and the #T20WorldCup. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is arguably India’s biggest annual sporting event.

“The Tokyo Olympics had created a dramatic prelude to its 2021 resumption, after being postponed last year,” Twitter said in a statement. “Fans could barely contain their excitement and as the biggest global event finally unfurled, the service was abuzz with surround-sound cheers that echoed the names of Indian athletes loudly against the Tokyo stands and stadiums.”

It was helped by history-making achievements like Neeraj Chopra winning the javelin throw gold - India’s first Olympic medal in athletics and the first individual Olympic gold since Abhinav Bindra at Beijing 2008.

However, PV Sindhu emerged as the most tweeted about Indian Olympic athlete in 2021 and with good reason. She became the first Indian woman and only the second Indian, after Sushil Kumar, to win two Olympic medals.

Neeraj Chopra was the second-most tweeted about Indian Olympic athlete.

Tokyo 2020 bronze-medallists Bajrang Punia and Lovlina Borgohain came in third and fourth while weightlifter Mirabai Chanu was fifth owing to her silver medal - India’s first medal at Tokyo 2020.

Barely a month after the summer Olympics, India also hit a peak at the Tokyo Paralympics, where the country won 19 medals - more than all medals at previous Paralympics combined.

Para-shooter Avani Lekhara became the first Indian woman to win a Paralympics gold and also the first Indian woman to win two Paralympics medals while javelin thrower Sumit Antil thrice broke his own world record to win gold.

The #Paralympics was thus the fourth-most tweeted about sports event in India.

Most Tweeted about sporting events in 2021

Tokyo 2020

IPL 2021

T20 World Cup 

Paralympics

Euro 2020

Top 5 most Tweeted about Indian Olympic athletes in 2021

PV Sindhu

Neeraj Chopra

Bajrang Punia

Lovlina Borgohain

Mirabai Chanu