When Indian athletes missed out on winning medals in Olympics
History of Indian Olympics: In the Olympics being played since the year 1900, India has managed to win a total of 35 medals so far. However, if we talk about after independence i.e. after the year 1947, then from then till now India has won 30 medals. During this period, a total of 19 Olympics have been played. This time it should be expected that the number of medals which is 35 will increase even more. We have been continuously telling you on India TV about those players who have won medals for India in the Olympics. But there are many athletes who narrowly missed winning a medal. That is, the medal was very close, but still it slipped out of hand. Let us tell you about them as well.
Generally, athletes who are in the top 3 in the Olympics win medals. Gold is the first, followed by silver and bronze medals. But the fourth ranked athlete gets nothing. Even though he misses his target by a little bit. The player who is in the fourth position feels the pang of missing out on a medal. Indian players have missed out on winning Olympic medals by a whisker many times.
melbourne olympics 1956
The Indian football team defeated Australia 4-2 in the quarter-finals to reach the semi-finals. In this match, Neville D’Souza became the first Asian to score a hat-trick in the Olympics. Neville tried to repeat his performance by giving the team a lead against Yugoslavia in the semi-finals, but Yugoslavia made a strong comeback in the second half and turned the match in their favour. In the bronze medal match, India lost to Bulgaria 0-3. India’s great player PK Banerjee often shared his pain.
Rome Olympics, 1960
The great Milkha Singh was a medal contender in the 400m final but missed out on a bronze medal by 1/10th of a second. This will be remembered as his worst memory after losing his parents after Partition. Milkha Singh almost quit the sport after this defeat. He then won two gold medals at the 1962 Asian Games but the pang of missing out on an Olympic medal remained forever.
Moscow Olympics, 1980
With hockey nations like the Netherlands, Australia and Great Britain boycotting the Moscow Games over the then Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, the Indian women’s hockey team had a great chance to win a medal in its first attempt. The team, however, had to face the disappointment of missing out on a medal. The team finished fourth after losing 1-3 to the Soviet Union in its last match.
Los Angeles Olympics, 1984
The Los Angeles Olympics brought back memories of Milkha Singh’s Rome Olympics when PT Usha missed out on a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles by 100th of a second, making it the closest miss ever for an Indian athlete in any event. Known as the Payyoli Express, Usha finished fourth behind Romania’s Cristina Cojocaru. She, however, became a household name after her valiant effort.
athens olympics 2004
India’s arguably greatest tennis pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi missed out on a podium finish in the men’s doubles at the Athens Games. Paes and Bhupathi lost to Croatia’s Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic in a marathon match 6-7, 6-4, 14-16 to miss out on the bronze medal and finish fourth. The pair had earlier lost to Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Shuttler in the semi-finals 2-6, 3-6 in straight sets. Kunjarani Devi finished fourth in the women’s 48kg weightlifting event at these Games, but she was not really in contention for a medal. She was disqualified in her final attempt of 112.5kg in the clean and jerk category. Kunjarani finished 10kg behind bronze medallist Aree Wirathaworn of Thailand with a total effort of 190kg.
London Olympics, 2012
Shooter Joydeep Karmakar experienced the disappointment of finishing one place behind the bronze medallist. Karmakar had finished seventh in the qualification round of the men’s 50m rifle prone event and in the final he finished just 1.9 points behind the bronze medallist.
Rio Olympics, 2016
Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian female gymnast to compete at the Olympic Games. After making it to the final of the women’s vault event, she missed the bronze medal by just 0.150 points. She finished fourth with a score of 15.066. At the same Olympics, Abhinav Bindra’s illustrious career was heading towards a fairytale ending, but he too missed out on a medal by a whisker. Bindra, who won gold at the Beijing Olympics, narrowly missed out on a bronze medal. Bopanna faced the disappointment of missing out on an Olympic medal for the first time since 2004 when the Indian mixed doubles tennis pair of him and Sania Mirza lost in the semifinals and then in the bronze medal match. The pair lost to Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek in the bronze medal match.
tokyo olympics, 2020
Four decades after the Moscow Games, the Indian women’s hockey team once again had to bear the pain of narrowly missing out on a medal. The Indian team reached the semi-finals by defeating three-time Olympic champions Australia, but lost 0-1 to Argentina in the last four match. The Rani Rampal-led team could not maintain a 3-2 lead against Great Britain in the bronze medal match and lost 3-4. In the same Olympics, Aditi Ashok missed out on winning a historic medal. This player, ranked 200th in the world rankings, gave tough competition to the best players in the world but could not win a medal by a very narrow margin.
(pti inputs)
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