[2] For the first time since 1928, the men's national field hockey team was unable to take part in the Summer Olympics due to its failure to qualify.

The previous highest individual achievements for India were two silver medals won by Norman Pritchard, an Englishman born in India, at the 1900 Paris Olympics and one silver medal won by the 2008 flagbearer Rajyavardhan Rathore at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Sushil Kumar won the second ever wrestling medal for India, the first being the bronze earned by Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics saw the best ever performance by an Indian contingent, in terms of the number of medals (this record was later surpassed in 2012).

* The athlete who finished in second place, Lyudmila Blonska of Ukraine, tested positive for a banned substance.