Six medals including one silver and five bronzes were won by Indian athletes led by Neeraj Chopra, Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh, Swapnil Kusale, Aman Sehrawat, and the Indian hockey team at the Paris 2024 Olympic placing it in 71st place on the medals tally.
India’s campaign was laden with near-misses too despite the six podium finishes such as Lakshya Sen in Badminton, Saikhom Mirabhai Chanu in Weightlifting and Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification from the wrestling final.
Neeraj Chopra
Neeraj Chopra finished second in Men’s Javelin Throw at Paris Olympics 2024.
India relied on reigning Olympic and Javelin Throw world champion Neeraj Chopra for a gold medal but that was not to happen since he lost to Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem who surpassed an Olympic record that had been there for 16 years in a row twice.
The first throw of Nadeem which came in his second attempt at 92.97m clinched him the gold. The second throw of 91.79m may have been less impressive but it ended up being more important because it ended with an exclamation mark at the end of a near-perfect day. On his first throw ever, Chopra registered his biggest distance with 89.34m during qualification throws or warm-ups. He improved on this and got to launch an 89.45m throw to win himself a silver medal during finals.
During his performance time, Chopra has always been cautious about his long-term injury; it hampered my concentration. ”Despite this I did well enough to get my season-best throw.”
Chopra became only the second male athlete post-independence to secure two medals at Olympics in an individual event after his strong showing.
Chopra, who is yet to cross the 90m mark, wanted to improve the technical side of the game. “Javelin is a technical sport. There is always room for some improvement.”
Manu Bhaker
Bronze medalist Manu Bhaker celebrates after winning bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol in Paris Olympic 2024.
She recorded several firsts in Indian shooting but most importantly she became India’s first double medallist in a single edition of the Games.
Manu Bhaker won her first-ever bronze medal at the event for women’s 10 metres air pistol and became the maiden Indian woman shooter to grace an Olympic podium.
The third best qualifier then came out ablazing and never looked back till her last shot that sipped away silver by just 0.1 to Kim Yeji of South Korea. “Out of my 22 shots only seven landed outside ring” with “maximum nine points,” she said.
She then won another bronze medal in mixed 10m air pistol with Sarabjot Singh as they beat South Korea 16-10.
“I feel great. This medal was long due for India. It feels surreal,” said Manu Bhaker. The victory also meant that India would open its account at Paris games and end a twelve-year wait for its hyped shooters.
Men’s Hockey Team
P.R.Sreejesh celebrating after India won Men’s Bronze Medal Match between Spain and India Field Hockey at Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
In no time, the Indian hockey team had not retained two medals in a row in the Olympics over the last 50 years. This day of jubilation and overflow of emotions for fans in the Yves du Manoir Stadium Paris was on August 8, 2024.
This is what India’s fourth bronze and 13th Olympic medal was for goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh; who retired from international hockey after two decades of service to his nation with distinction and deserved every bit of this dream farewell.
Rallying from behind, India – which switched to coach Craig Fulton only three months before last year’s Asian Games, quickly adapting its game to play more defensively first – squeezed past Spain in a thrilling encounter under scorching afternoon heat at Merdeka Stadium to take home the bronze medal as it looks forward to Tokyo Olympics. It has been almost five decades since their last back-to-back Olympic medals came at Munich 72.
As soon as Sreejesh slumped on the ground with his teammates piled on top of him, fans went ecstatic knowing that they have just won a bronze.
The President of Hockey India, Dilip Tirkey said “Our preparations for Los Angeles 2028 begins now. We will sit down and decide the course of action. We have to do well in the World Cup and Asian Games, which is our Olympic qualifying tournament too.”
Sarabjot Singh
Sarabjot Singh and Manu Bhaker celebrate after winning bronze medal in the 10m air pistol mix doubles team event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
World No.14 Sarabjot Singh has added another feather into his cap by winning a bronze medal from Tokyo Olympics when he along with Manu Bhaker beat South Korea in Bronze Medal Match of 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event.
Manu was higher than Sarabjot in five out of seven series and leveled with him in the sixth one. Through large contributions from her, they had won five series out of seven against South Korea’s two — leading 10 to 4. Towards the end Manu got a bit nervous and Sarabjot played his best.
Sarabjot hails from Haryana and was the World Junior Champion both in individual and mixed team events in 2021. Apart from last year’s Asian Games where he grabbed two medals (they were silver), after his gold at Munich in June this year, he has also won three World Cup titles in 2023 and 2024.
Swapnil Kusale
Swapnil Kusale won the bronze medal in 50m rifle three positions at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
In one of the most demanding categories that require shooters to shoot from kneeling, prone and standing positions over three stages –20 shots each, Swapnil Kusale claimed a bronze medal which is his first ever at Olympic Games (the third for India) today during his debut appearance at this level of competition.
The Chateauroux game was his first ever Olympics while he made it by finishing fourth at Cairo world championship.
The last time an Olympic final featured a 50 meters gunner occurred way back when Joydeep Karmakar came fourth during London ’12 Olympics taking part in rifle prone, which is now not recognized by IOC anymore.
Aman Sehrawat
Aman Sehrawat celebrates after the men’s freestyle 57kg bronze medal wrestling match at the Paris 2024
Just shy of turning twenty-one years old Aman became the youngest Indian wrestler ever to win an Olympic medal when he secured a win by decision over Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz with scores reading thirteen to five.
Grappler Aman Sehrawat has become India’s youngest-ever Olympic medallist after winning the bronze medal in the 57kg freestyle wrestling category less than a month after his 21st birthday. Aman notched up a commanding 13-5 win over Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz in a high-intensity third-place contest.
After being beaten in the semi-finals, he had to go through a harrowing process of shedding 1.5 kg so that he would outclass Cruz and bag bronze.
Aman was India’s only male wrestler to qualify for the Paris Games having been crowned U-23 world champion. Since 2008, Indian wrestlers have won medals at the Olympics while the trend continues.
Aman has his eyes on Olympic gold. “I would like to let the people of India know that I am certainly going to get a gold for you in 2028. Sushil pehlawan ji won two medals, I will win in 2028 and then in 2032 also,” he said.
Narrow Missed Medals
Finishing seventh is not fourth: any athlete can tell you which one is worse. You were not really fighting for a medal when you finished seventh and became seventh. Fourth place is just an indication that you are one step from being on the podium with your mates as it always reminds us about our first among also-rans position For India, there were six such medals that were missed.
Arjun Babuta – Men’s Air Rifle Shooting -10m
Innocently enough Arjun Babuta shot himself down at the extreme end of sporting history during trial rounds before finishing fourth and missing out on bronze by less than two points.
Dhiraj Bommadevara & Ankita Bhakat – Mixed Team Archery
It remains an achievement for Indian archers Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat making it to mixed team’s bronze medal match yet they came short of cornering Olympic glory when finished fourth. It however offers a huge boost for Indian archery.
Manu Bhakar – Ladies Pistol Shooting – 25 Meters
Manu Bhaker narrowly missed out on her third shooting medal after she finished fourth in women’s 25m pistol. Bhaker says, “The fourth position definitely does not feel amazing but there is always a next time and certainly it is going to be there for me.”
Lakshya Sen – Men’s Singles Badminton
Lakshya Sen fell short of becoming the first-ever Indian badminton Olympic champion as he lost in straight games to reigning titular winner Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles semis. He fought gallantly against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the bronze medal match but missed out on securing a medal there as well.
Anantjeet Singh Naruka & Maheshwari Chauhan – Skeet Mixed Team Shooting
China defeated India 44-43 in the bronze medal match of skeet mixed team event. The Indians hit total 43 targets out of possible 48. China did one better and hit 44 pellet out of 48 to take third place.
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu – Women’s Weightlifting 49KG
Seeking to repeat her 2020 Tokyo Olympics heroics Saikhom Mirabhai Chanu needed over 200kg combined weight prior her final clean and jerk attempt to secure her podium finish. On this occasion, she couldn’t make the lift with a cumulative total of 199 kg after she failed on completing a lift at 114 kg putting her outside the medals bracket by just one kilogram.
Vinesh Phogat Disqualified
Vinesh Phogat, the wrestler on the verge of glory, ended her third Olympics campaign in a dramatic manner as she was disqualified from the final after earlier beating Japan’s World and Olympic champion Yui Susaki to reach the women’s 50kg final for weighing 100g above the weigh-in limit on the morning of the finals session.
She had managed to lose weight until she reached her target weight on day one of competition but struggled to do so again before facing off against Sarah Ann Hildebrandt from USA.
As Vinesh contests her disqualification in CAS with an appeal that she be handed a joint silver medal, there is actually a pending trial. Furthermore, she has announced her retirement from wrestling.
