Paris 2024 will be remembered for the six medals which brought joy to the Indians as well as the six fourth place finishes that resulted in heartbreaks.
A medal less than what the country got in the previous edition may have restricted the celebrations in the Indian camp, but the mixed bouquet of hits and near misses paint a promising picture of Indian sports.
Neeraj Chopra, Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh, Swapnil Kusale, Aman Sehrawat and the Indian hockey team contributed the six medals, including a silver and five bronze, and gave reasons to celebrate. India managed the 71st place on the medals tally. Three years ago, in Tokyo, one gold, two silver and four bronze had placed the country at the 48th spot.
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Shooters Manu (25m sports pistol), Arjun Babuta (10m air rifle) and the mixed team pair of Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan (skeet), the archery mixed team pair of Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara, shuttler Lakshya Sen and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu missed out on a podium finish by a whisker.
The quarterfinal losses of boxers Nishant Dev and Lovlina Borgohain, just a step away from securing a medal, also add to the country’s so-near-yet-so-far moments.
The unexpected disqualification of wrestler Vinesh Phogat after reaching the women’s 50kg final was another huge blow to the country’s aspirations of securing a double-digit medal tally.
After wrestler Sushil Kumar and shuttler P.V. Sindhu, Chopra became the third Indian to claim two consecutive individual medals. Always a big event athlete, Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Chopra managed his workload well and gave his best despite some injury issues.
Neeraj Chopra during the finals of men’s Javelin throw in Stade de France stadium in Paris. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR/ The Hindu
The 26-year-old achieved his season best of 89.45m, close to his personal best 89.94m, to pick up a silver medal. The world champion needs to address his fitness concerns in order to raise his game and cross the much-awaited 90m mark.
Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem set a new Olympic record 92.97m to grab the gold medal.
After their flopshows in 2016 and 2020, the Indian shooters bounced back.
Following her disappointment in Tokyo, pistol shooter Manu, the first Indian woman medallist in shooting and the first to take two bronze medals in a single Games edition (in 10m air pistol individual and mixed team with Sarabjot), displayed a superb turnaround.
Manu Bhaker with her two shooting bronze medals in Paris Olympic 2024 in Chateauroux shooting range in France. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR/ The Hindu
Kusale added another bronze in the 50m rifle 3-position event.
Sehrawat, another product of Delhi’s famous Chhatrasal Stadium that produced wrestlers of the class of Sushil, Yogeshwar Dutt and Ravi Dahiya, gave a fine display of his grooming and skillset to land a solitary medal from wrestling.
Two-time World championship medallist Vinesh, dropping down to 50kg, gave the country reasons to celebrate by stunning World and Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan on her way to the final. But the joy was short-lived as the ace wrestler was overweight by a little more than 100gm during the weigh-in ahead of her title clash.
Vinesh Phogat reacts after the round of 16 of the women’s freestyle 50kg wrestling match against Japan’s Yui Susaki, at Champ-de-Mars Arena, in Paris. | Photo Credit: PTI
She appealed against her disqualification and claimed a silver in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Sports lovers will await the CAS decision, expected on Tuesday, to know whether the country manages to match its medal tally in Tokyo.
The Indian hockey team showed consistency, despite the change in coaching about a year back, to retain its bronze medal. It delighted the crores of Indians, who are emotionally attached to the sport for its rich history in the country.
It was also a fitting farewell to seasoned goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh.
The country recorded its second-best finish at the Summer Games, equalling the six medals from London 2012. The unimprovement in performance, for which the central government spent hundreds of crores through the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) and Mission Olympic Cell (MOC), providing all sorts of support to the athletes, may make the decision makers brainstorm.
To put the heart-breaking moments into perspective, these tell us the capability of the Indian athletes at the biggest stage. These also underscore the necessity to continue with the all-round support so that the near-misses can be transformed into medals as the country aspires to bid for the 2036 Olympics.
As Paris closed its third Games with a distinct picture of France being a sporting nation, strongly rooting for its athletes throughout the Olympics, including the last event (the host’s title clash with the USA in women’s basketball), India would do well to take a leaf out of France’s book to transform itself as a sporting nation while nurturing hopes of taking a pride of place in the medals tally.
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