A history of narrow misses and fourth position finishes, which was repeated by Indian athletes at the just concluded Paris Olympics 2024, cannot and should not be a consolation to the most populous country in the world, which is also one of the most ancient, and was once the most prosperous civilisation.
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For a contingent of 117, the strongest ever by numbers in any edition of the Olympics so far, the six medals with no gold and just one silver, Indian sports, instead of improving on its best ever performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the midst of the pandemic (seven medals, including one gold and two silver), slid from that tally, and finished a dismal 71st among 84 nations which won medals in Paris.
This is a stark reality in an era which is witnessing India’s rise as the world’s top five economies and a possible future status as an advanced country and global superpower.
However, there are eternal optimists who see a silver lining in Indian contingent’s performance at the Paris Games. The country’s first ever Olympic individual gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra, who etched his name in India sports history with his feat in the men’s 10m air rifle event at the 2012 Beijing Olympics, is one of them.
Abhinav Bindra happy with competitiveness
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Bindra, who happened to be in Paris as a part of the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes Commission, while reflecting on India’s performance at the games, has expressed his admiration for the contingent’s competitiveness across various disciplines.
After the 142nd IOC session, where he was presented with the prestigious Olympic Order, Bindra was quoted as saying in the media, “I think it’s been a spirited performance. All our athletes have performed at a high level. We have six medals to show on our tally, but if you really go in-depth into performances, we have never had a Games where our athletes have been so competitive across disciplines, many of them been close to medalling.”
Many bright spots
Of course, there were many bright spots in the overall performance of the contingent at the Games.
The Indian men’s hockey team won its second successive bronze medal at the Games. Through the course of their campaign at Paris, they scored a stunning victory over Australia (with a 3-2 scoreline), something which they had not been able to achieve in an Olympic for the last 52 years.
Young Manu Bhaker became the first ever Indian woman shooter to win a bronze medal (in 10m air pistol event) at the Games, which she capped with a second bronze (in the 10m air pistol mixed event) pairing with Sarabjot Singh to become the only Indian athlete postindependence to win twin medals in a single edition of the Olympics. She narrowly missed out on a hattrick of bronze medals, finishing fourth in the women’s 25m pistol final.
Swapnil Kusale added a third shooting bronze medal (in men’s 50m rifle three positions event) to make it India’s biggest haul in a single sports discipline in any one edition of the Olympics.
With his silver medal finish in javelin at the Paris Olympics, after his gold winning performance at the 2020 Tokyo Games, Neeraj Chopra became the most successful individual Indian Olympian ever.
In winning the bronze in the 57 kg men’s freestyle wrestling competition, the only medal in wrestling for the Indian contingent, Aman Sehrawat at age 21 years 24 days became India’s youngest ever Olympic medallist.
Heartbreaks aplenty
On the other hand, there were heartbreaks aplenty.
Apart from Manu Bhaker, who missed her third bronze medal, there were five other close fourth position finishers.
Among them was shooter Arjun Babuta in men’s 10m air rifle final; shooting pair Anantjeet Singh and Maheshwari Chauhan in the skeet mixed team event; and Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat in the mixed team archery event (though they made history by becoming the first Indian archers to reach the semi-finals in the Olympics).
Others to miss out with a fourth position finish were badminton wonderkid Lakshaya Sen in men’s singles (though he created history, becoming the first Indian male badminton player to advance to the Olympic semi-finals); and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, in the women’s 49 kg weight category.
Disastrous disqualification of Vinesh Phogat
And the greatest of the heartbreaks was the disastrous disqualification of wrestler Vinesh Phogat on grounds of being over the required weight of 50 kg by just 100 grams at the weigh-in on the morning of her gold medal bout in the women’s 50 kg weight category, when she was on the cusp of creating history by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler ever to enter an Olympic final.
There is, however, still hope as a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), on her appeal against her disqualification and for being presented a (shared) silver medal, following legal arguments having been heard, is expected to be announced any day.
Among the biggest disappointments was badminton ace and two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu (silver at Rio 2016 and bronze at Tokyo 2020), who could not advance beyond the pre-quarterfinal stage.
Time to reflect, prepare afresh for LA 2028
As always, it’s time for the government and the various sports bodies to get down to serious introspect on what worked well, what didn’t and reboot the training programme for a much-improved performance at the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Former Olympian Dipa Karmakar, the first Indian female gymnast to compete at the Olympics (she finished fourth at the 2016 Rio Games), has been quoted in the media as suggesting an increase in spending on sports from the grassroots up. “Athletes need to be provided the right resources over the long term, not just for the few months running up to major competitions,” she has opined.
On the issue of funding for success of sports in India, Abhinav Bindra has a different take. In a recent interview to The Indian Express, the country’s first Olympic individual gold medallist, said: “Resources being allocated is only a simple enabler, and you need it. I mean, how else do you do it? You need money for training, to compete, travel, for the larger performance support stuff. But that doesn’t mean that it’s a vending machine. You can spend more you can spend less. (By itself) It’s not going to guarantee you success.”
Debate on India’s Olympic bid
Which bring us to another debatable issue – should or should not the country bid for hosting the Olympics in 2036, or beyond? Will it really help give a big fillip to sports in the country? Do we have creditable wherewithal to host the Games? What are the economic implications of holding the most expensive sporting extravaganza in the world?
All these issues will have to be debated at length nationally in the coming months before deciding to formally put in a bid or not.
Till then, hoping for a miracle to help us as a nation to climb the road to becoming another sporting powerhouse!
