Ifs and buts have no place in sporting outcomes, but they shape event narratives all the time. The travesty of India's Paris Olympics 2024 journey was this: rather than what was, it ended up being defined by what could have been. (Year-Ender | More Sports News)
While there were six podium finishes, the nation witnessed as many fourth-place 'near-misses'. And the sucker punch landed in the form of Vinesh Phogat's utterly dramatic disqualification, which snatched what appeared to be a certain silver medal, if not gold.
Let us relive the bittersweet moments of India's Paris Games campaign:
Manu Bhaker's Double Delight
The 22-year-old Manu Bhaker's remarkable turnaround from a pistol malfunction in Tokyo to two medals in Paris typified the redemption for Indian shooting. After no medals in the past 12 years, the contingent this time had three — half of the country's six-strong tally. Sarabjot Singh joined forces with Bhaker in the air pistol mixed team event, while Swapnil Kusale claimed bronze in the 50 metre rifle three positions to complete the shooting success story.
Badminton Draws Blank
The discipline whose contingent perhaps bore the highest expectations, ended up without a medal for the first time since 2008. Gold contenders Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty crashed out in the quarter-finals, double medallist PV Sindhu fell in the round of 16 and Lakshya Sen repeatedly squandered handy leads to narrowly miss out on bronze.
Silver Lining For Golden Spearhead Neeraj Chopra
After a bunch of disappointments across sports, the nation turned with bated breath to Neeraj Chopra's javelin throw final. And as fate would have it, it was the turn of his friendly adversary Arshad Nadeem to conjure an otherworldly performance by way of a monster 92.97m throw that left Chopra with no shot at gold.
The man from Khandra grunted and screamed, goading himself on, but his body had reached its limit. The unhappy defending champion had to be content with silver, which was historic in itself, but not enough to sate the nation's golden spearhead.
Back-To-Back Bronze For Indian Hockey; Fitting Farewell For PR Sreejesh
Much has changed in Indian hockey over the last couple of years, and a feeling of despondency has given way to hope among faithfuls. It reflected in Paris, when a second consecutive bronze for the men's team seemed short of what the team promised to deliver.
Harmanpreet's men appeared primed for gold in the latter stages of their campaign, and though they did not get there, they ensured back-to-back Olympic hockey medals for India for the first time in 52 years. Indian hockey's grand old custodian PR Sreejesh thus had a career finale befitting his yeoman service, and he is now coaching the national under-21 team which won the Junior Asia Cup title in Oman recently.
Mirabai Chanu Falls Just Short
Returning from injury, Indian weightlifting superstar Saikhom Mirabai Chanu gave it her all and matched her personal best of 88kg to raise hopes of a medal, if not the title. But reigning champion Hou Zhihui had other ideas, and Chanu fell short in her preferred clean and jerk discipline to finish excruciatingly close, yet far from a medal.
Sensational Start For Aman Sehrawat; Despairing End For Vinesh Phogat
The 21-year-old Aman Sehrawat brushed aside nerves and inexperience at the grandest stage to become the country's youngest individual Olympic medallist, clinching bronze in the freestyle 57kg category.
His senior compatriot Vinesh Phogat delivered a once-in-a-lifetime performance, taking down the formidable and then undefeated Yui Susaki en route qualifying for the final. But hours before her gold-medal face-off against Sarah Hildebrandt, Phogat was denied glory, all for 100 grams more on the weighing scale.
She appealed vehemently against the provisions that not just disqualified her from the final but also from the event, however, the Court of Arbitration for Sport eventually ruled against her, and a dejected Phogat chose to retire and join politics soon after.
