Neeraj Chopra late on August 8 joined Sushil Kumar, PV Sindhu and Manu Bhaker in the elite sporting list of Indian athletes with two Olympic medals. He had just claimed the silver in the men’s javelin throw final in Paris to follow up on his Tokyo gold. (Medal Table | Schedule & Results | Full Coverage)
The achievement was enormous and yet a sense of disappointment loomed on his usually calm face. He had given his season’s best but was denied gold by a freak called Arshad Nadeem. This lack of luck and that disappointed face summed up India’s Paris Olympics campaign.
Team India has five medals at this point: Neeraj’s silver and four bronze. We had some beautiful stories of redemptions. We had some heartbreaks as well. And to top it off, we had the greatest sporting redemption by an Indian athlete ever turned into the greatest heartbreak within a night’s sleep.
The tally of five could have been bigger. Far bigger. But it is what it is now. An underwhelming haul with some exceptional performances, a bit of poor luck and a lot of hopes of expanding this tally.
As we enter the last few days of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, here is how it went for India.
The Pistol Prodigy
Manu Bhaker was tipped to be India’s next big thing in shooting. She was among the Indians to watch out for as she left for Tokyo as just a teenager. However, the promises were shattered as her pistol malfunctioned. The prodigy could not even get into the final.
It was followed by a fallout with her coach and the thought of quitting the sport as the failure took a big mental toll. But the dream of glory, as it turned out, was too big to give up on. She took up the pistol again, mended relations with her coach and focused on the dream that had ditched her in Tokyo - an Olympic medal. With the talent of Manu, it was only a matter of time.
And her time came in the Paris Olympics at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre. On July 28 and 30, Manu won two bronze medals, one in the 10m pistol women’s event and second in the mixed team event. Within 48 hours, Manu had done what no Indian had been able to do in a century - winning two medals at a single Olympic edition.
It took some time but the pistol prodigy had turned her promise into performance. The ghosts of Tokyo are now buried deep and Manu Bhaker is placed among the most decorated Indian Olympians. She could have won a third medal, but fans would hope that is in store for Los Angeles 2028.
Singh is King
Sarabjot Singh missed the qualification for the men’s 10m pistol final by the barest of margins. An extra inner ten would have given him a shot at the medal but all he got was disappointment.
Days later, however, he turned it around. Teaming up with Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot kept calm and kept finding the target. Sarabjot and Manu helped Team India get their second medal, another bronze. Sarabot travelled from agony to ecstasy within days to stretch India’s good run in shooting. He returned home to a hero’s welcome and a target: gold at Los Angeles 2028.
The Underdog
The Indian shooting contingent had landed in Paris with a lot of hopes. Medals were expected and there were some bright contenders too but Swapnil Kusale was a bit behind in the pecking order. Kusale’s event, 50m 3P rifle shooting, had never opened its doors for an Indian at Olympic level. No Indian had ever qualified for the final of this event, let alone go close to a medal. However, Kusale dared to dream.
He had suffered his fair share of heartbreaks. At Hangzhou Asian Games, Kusale led in the final for the majority of time before sliding out of the medal zone and finishing fourth. In Paris, he did it differently. Kusale remained out of the top three before soaring into medal contention in the final series. He finished third and became the first Indian to win an Olympic medal in the 50m 3P rifle shooting.
Hockey heroes
If in Tokyo, the Indian men’s hockey team established that they could rub shoulders with the top teams, in Paris, they showed that they were the top team.
Led by Harmanpreet Singh, the Indian team pushed defending champions Belgium to the limit in the group game. After that came the historic victory. India beat Australia 3-2 in a group game to get their first win against Kookaburras at the Olympics since 1972. That was as clear an announcement as there could be of ‘we are here for the gold’.
India beat Great Britain in the quarter-final with just 10 men for almost three quarters. That lack of one man who was suspended for the semi-final came to haunt them. Without their best man in defence, Amit Rohidas, India had to reshuffle in the all-important encounter against world champions Germany. India dominated the match, but Rohidas miss proved to be costly as the scoreline went 3-2 in favour of Germany. They would win the bronze medal match to give PR Sreejesh a fitting farewell but rest assured. Indian hockey is back to rule the world.
Neeraj vs Nadeem
It is the standard to which Neeraj Chopra puts himself that when he clinched silver, his face screamed disappointment. Although, he too knew he was just up against a superhuman who had his day. Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem broke the Olympic record and for the people who thought it was a fluke, he almost did the same again. Only Nadeem competed with himself for gold in the men’s javelin throw final, others fought for silver and bronze.
The consistency of Neeraj again shone through, he again inspired millions watching him but the gold did not come. Neeraj would have liked a gold, we all would have liked a gold, but it was not to be. One of the shockers of the Paris campaign. However, the fact that well past midnight, crores of Indians were awake to follow the javelin throw, is a gold in itself for Indian sports.
So close, yet so far
With history and happiness, came a lot of heartbreaks too. Eight Indian athletes/teams fell just a win short of a medal. Some big medal hopes were ousted early giving the hopes of winning 10 medals a rude shock.
It all started with Arjun Babuta who finished fourth in the 10m men’s rifle final. The heartbreaking part was that for a long period he was challenging the eventual champion China’s Lihao Shang for the gold. One poor shot late in the match and his hopes of a medal were crushed. And from here rolled India’s bandwagon of near misses.
The mixed archery team of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat was next. The duo fought tooth and nail in the semi-final against the eventual champions South Korea but could not keep the intensity up in the bronze medal face-off against the United States.
Manu Bhaker’s third medal hopes were quashed when she finished fourth in the 25m pistol event. Another shooting heartbreak came in the mixed team skeet event. The unheralded pairing of Maheshwari Chauhan and Ananjteet Naruka gave China a run for their money in the bronze medal match but lost by just a single point.
It seemed for a moment that the fourth medal was coming. The moment soon fizzled away as Lakshya Sen, after winning the first game against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, lost the next two convincingly to miss the podium.
The boxers too had a poor outing but Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain and Nishant Dev came close to a medal. Both of them lost in the quarterfinal, where a win would have confirmed them a medal.
Mirabai Chanu was also among India’s fourth place finishers. Had she lifted an extro kilo, she would have been on the podium. But it was that kind of Olympics for us.
Apart from these big misses, there were also some shock exits. One of India’s biggest medal hopes Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shettty were ousted in the quarter-finals, the same stage where another bright podium hope, Nikhat Zareen faced exit to the top seed Wu Yu.
Also, Paris 2024 became the first time PV Sindhu came back from Olympics without a medal as she fell down to He Bing Jiao of China in the Round of 16. Shooter Sift Kaur Samra, the world record holder for Women's 50 metre rifle three positions final, could not even make it to the final of her event.
The men’s and women’s archery teams had a horror time as both of them faced a Round of 16 exit despite coming into the Olympics on the back of some really strong performances.
The mother of all heartbreaks
Never would have Indian sports fans slept with a mind full of happiness thinking of a gold medal and woken up to the rude shock of losing it all. Vinesh Phogat was called a “khota sikka” by the former Wrestling Federation of India chief after she spearheaded protests against him. She was trolled on social media by many for not focussing on wrestling and “doing politics”. However, she showed in Paris what she was focussing on: A first wrestling gold for India.
Vinesh had an enormous challenge even before coming to Paris. She had to cut weight to fight in the 50kg category instead of her usual 53kg. And she had to adjust to this within some six months. Moreover, she had a knee surgery done just before returning to competitive wrestling. Things were tough, but they were about to get tougher in Paris.
Her very first opponent was Yui Susaki of Japan. The women who had not lost a single point when she won the gold in Tokyo. The woman who had not lost a single match in her 82 match international career. The woman who was a world champion. It was tough, but Vinesh refused to break.
She stunned Susaki first in one of the biggest upsets of Olympic history and then followed it up with two more powerful performances to reach the final, a first for an Indian female wrestler. The final was to be held a day later. Everyone wanted gold. Instead came one of the most heartnumbing pieces of news Indian sports fans have ever got.
Vinesh Phogat was disqualified! Found 100 grams overweight, she would not just be barred from competing in the final but will be stripped of the silver and finish last in the category. Vinesh was shaken and so was India. She almost risked her life to lose weight but ultimately could not fight what would have been the most important bout of her career. Such was the Paris Olympics for India.
The Lesson
It looks likely that India’s medal tally might at best match its Tokyo tally of seven. Although, they are likely to fall short. The bigger picture, however, is that the range of sports where Indians are doing well is rising. Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula made it to the Round of 16 of the women’s table tennis singles. The women’s table tennis team also qualified for the quarterfinal. Both of these had never happened. Indian shooters are expanding their footprint and doing well in so many events. The future looks bright.
Some young wrestlers are coming through and all of them look world class. While so many fourth-place finishes might hurt at this point, it also shows how Indians are more competitive at this level than ever before and are really among the top medal contenders.
Even though, in terms of medals, Team India will have only a handful of them to take back, in terms of experience and the future, the Paris Olympics have been a massive success.
And then there is the inclusion of cricket at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics which is likely to be there at Brisbane 2032 as well. Expect things to get better and better for Indian sports.
