With the biggest contingent ever, 117 athletes, India went to Paris with the expectation of touching the double-digit medal tally for the first time.It was a long shot, but there was hope.
India started well, with shooter Manu Bhaker winning a bronze in women’s 10m air pistol on Day 2 of the competition on July 28. Two days later, Bhaker created history by becoming first Indian to win multiple medals at an Olympic edition, post independence, when she partnered with Sarabjot Singh for a bronze in mixed team 10m air pistol event on July 30.
The hope for a double-digit medal tally was further ignited when Swapnil Kusale won India’s first medal in rifle 3P event. Kusale struck bronze in men’s 50m rifle three position on August 1. Three shooting medals was a great start after the sport drew blank in the last two editions in Rio and Tokyo.
(L-R): Top – Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh, Aman Sehrawat and Neeraj Chopra; Bottom – Indian hockey team and Swapnil Kusale. (ANI Photo)
But India endured a long medal drought in the next seven days, which left India’s hope of touching double digit figures in tatters. From there on, the race was to match the Tokyo success if not bettering it.
It has a few medal prospects line-up for the last five days of action. Neeraj Chopra was there, the hockey team was still in, weightlifter Mirabai Chanu and wrestlers were also in contention too.
On the 11th day of the competition,
Vinesh Phogat secured India a medal by becoming the first female Indian wrestler to enter the final. But it was followed by devastating news the very next day, when the grappler was disqualified due to being 100g overweight for her 50 kg freestyle final. It was a big jolt for the country as a sure shot medal was wiped out. The IOA and the wrestler have filed an appeal for a silver medal at the Court for Arbitration for Sport (CAS), whose verdict is now expected by August 13.
A day before the Vinesh fiasco, the Indian hockey team lost its semi-final against Germany, leaving them to compete for bronze again. And to add more misery, India’s lone weightlifter in Paris, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, a Tokyo Olympic silver medallist, missed out on a medal by finishing fourth in the 49kg event.
The next day, August 8, was a very important day for India as its biggest gold-medal prospect, defending champion Neeraj Chopra, was competing in the javelin throw final.
The day started well for India. Before the big javelin final, the Indian hockey team beat Spain 2-1 to win successive bronze medals at the Games. It was the first back-to-back medals for the hockey team in 52 years.
In the big javelin final, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem outclassed the entire field with an Olympic record throw of 92.97m in his second attempt. Tokyo gold medalist Neeraj Chopra responded with a season best throw of 89.45m soon after Nadeem’s monstrous attempt. But Neeraj failed to improve his mark and had to settle with silver in the end.
The two medals on August 8 took India’s tally to five – one silver and four bronze.
On the same day, young wrestler Aman Sehrawat lost his semifinal bout and his bronze match the next day was one of the few medal prospects left for the country at the Games. Sehrawat did not disappoint and won an emphatic bout to become the youngest Indian medalist at 21 on August 9.
India’s campaign ended on the penultimate day of the Paris Olympics, after wrestler Reetika Hooda went out of medal contention.
So the final count for India is six medals – one silver and five bronze. Quite short from their initial ambition of a double-digit figure and a bit behind their best outing ever in Tokyo.
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So, was it a flop show for India or is there progress despite not improving the medal tally?
Abhinav Bindra, India’s first individual Olympic gold medallist, praised the Indian contingent for their commendable performance.
“I think it’s been a spirited performance. All our athletes have performed at a high level,” Bindra had said, emphasizing the significance of their efforts. “We may 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 have been close to medaling.”
It’s true India has quite a few near misses in Paris. It has as many as six fourth place finishes in addition to Vinesh’s disqualification. So, seven more medals were in touching distance for Indian athletes this time around. If only two of them had converted into medals, India would have their best haul ever.
So, Bindra is not wrong. Indian athletes have competed at a very high level across disciplines and were very close to medalling too. Hence, we can’t call it a total disaster as there are quite a few improvements. But being the world’s most populous country and with ever improving facilities for various sports, the number of medals expected and won by the Indian athletes at the Games are still far behind the world standard.
