An edition of unfulfilled potential: Hits and misses from India’s campaign at Paris 2024 Olympics

New Delhi: When the dust settles on the Paris 2024 Olympics, India will need a rethink. After a decent display at the Tokyo 2020 Games, hopes were high for a better outing in the French capital. On the contrary, the Indian contingent could only muster six medals and finished in 71st place on the medals tally. In Tokyo, thanks to gold, two silver and four bronze medals, India finished at the 48th spot three years ago.

In Paris, no Indian athlete managed to stand on the top of the podium with a silver medal being the country’s best performance. It was a game of missed opportunities for the Indian contingent, which would rue the glorious chances they missed to stand on the podium.

India missed as many as seven medals by a whisker by finishing in fourth place. From shooting star Arjun Babuta to ace weightlifter Mirabai Chanu to badminton superstar Lakshya Sen, athletes from various disciplines were disappointed after failing to cross the final hurdle. Then there were those who failed to meet the expectations.

But amidst the multiple heartbreaks, some also brought joy to the nation

Here are the hits and misses from India’s campaign in Paris.

Hits

Shooting contingent

India’s shooting contingent led by an inspired Manu Bhaker brought the most number of medals home with four podium finishes. The colour of the medals might be bronze, but it nonetheless, brightened the gloomy campaign. Bhaker, in particular, emerged as India’s brightest star from Paris with two medals and missed out on a third by a whisker. Regardless, she became the second Indian woman after PV Sindhu to win two Olympic medals.

Punjab shooter Sarabjot Singh also shone brightly, winning the 10M Air Pistol Mixed Team Event with Bhaker. Maharashtra’s Swapnil Kusale wrapped up a prolific campaign for the Indian shooters with a bronze in the men’s 50-metre rifle three positions event.

Neeraj Chopra

Though Neeraj missed out on a second successive gold medal, he still managed to stand on the podium to become the first track and field Indian athlete to win two successive medals. The fact that Neeraj’s silver is seen as a massive underachievement speaks a lot about the calibre of the Indian javelin thrower.

Neeraj’s throw of 89.45 on his second attempt in the finals was better than the one that obliterated the field in the qualifiers and much better than his Tokyo gold-winning throw. But despite hurling the second-best throw of his career, the champion athlete finished second-best behind Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who claimed the gold with an Olympic record throw of 92.97.

Indian hockey team

While the Indian hockey team would be disappointed to not be able to change the colour of the medal from Tokyo, they would be satisfied by winning back-to-back medals for the first time in 52 years. Despite losing a hard-fought semi-final to Germany, India bounced back brilliantly to defeat Spain in the third-place playoff and claimed the country’s 13th medal in Olympic men’s hockey.

Aman Sehrawat

India unearthed another wrestling gem as Aman Sehrawat became India’s youngest medal winner at the Summer Games with a bronze in the men’s freestyle 57kg event. At the age of 21 years and 24 days, Aman surpassed PV Sindhu’s record of 21 years, one month and 14 days when she clinched the silver medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

On his Olympic debut, Aman, an Asian champion, defeated Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz, a Pan American Games bronze medallist, with a comfortable 13-5 scoreline.

Misses

Badminton contingent

There were high hopes from the badminton contingent, especially after some momentous victories such as the Thomas Cup win in 2022 and the Badminton Asia Team Championships in 2023. But to everyone’s disappointment, India, for the first time since 2008, returned from the Olympics without a badminton medal.

Lakshya Sen lost two golden opportunities to win a medal – the first against his nemesis Viktor Axelsen in the semifinal and then in the bronze medal match against Zii Jia. In both matches, Lakshya had the upper hand but he failed to capitalise on the momentum and buckled under pressure when it mattered the most.

Meanwhile, PV Sindhu failed to add to her Olympic and World Championship medals haul losing the pre-quarterfinal match in 56 minutes to China’s He Bingjiao.

In the men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, third seeds and one of the top gold medal contenders, left empty-handed after losing to Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the quarterfinals.

Boxing contingent

India’s boxing contingent also returned empty-handed, with none of the pugilists managing to claim a spot on the podium. Reigning world champions Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina Borgohain – also a bronze medallist at Tokyo 2020 – both faltered, while India’s lone male pugilist Nishant Dev was knocked out in the quarterfinal bout.

The Big Miss

While there were plenty of big disappointments for the Indian contingent, none was bigger than Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification. The ace Indian wrestler scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to enter the Olympics final only to be disqualified on the morning of her gold medal bout. After being found a little over 100gm overweight, Vinesh not only missed out on a chance to fight for a gold but also lost the silver medal.

Following the heartbreak, Vinesh retired from wrestling and appealed for a join-silver in the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS), which will announce the verdict on August 13.

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 India missed as many as seven medals by a whisker by finishing in fourth place in multiple sporting disciplines. There were also those who failed to meet the expectations.  Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today