Neeraj Chopra, Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh, Swapnil Kusale, Aman Sehrawat, and the Indian hockey team contributed to the six medals, including a silver and five bronze, that India won in the Paris 2024 Olympics, ranking the country in the 71st place on the medals tally.
While the six medals gave many reasons to celebrate, India’s campaign at the Olympics was also filled with many near misses including that of Lakshya Sen in Badminton, Saikhom Mirabhai Chanu in Weightlifting, and Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification from the wrestling final.
Neeraj Chopra
Neeraj Chopra placed second in the Men’s Javelin Throw at the Paris Olympics 2024.
| Photo Credit:
ANI
While India rested its hope of a gold medal on reigning Olympic and Javelin Throw world champion Neeraj Chopra, it was ultimately not to be as he lost to Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem who bettered an Olympic record that had stood for 16 years, not once but twice.
Nadeem’s first — a throw of 92.97m in his second throw of the competition secured his gold medal. The second of 91.79m in his final attempt put the final exclamation mark on a near-flawless performance. Chopra produced his biggest throw of the season in the qualification throw with 89.34m. He improved on that in his second throw of the final with 89.45m which netted him a silver medal.
Also read: No matter how big a champion someone is, he does not always win, says Neeraj Chopra
During his performances, Chopra has been careful about the injury he has been carrying for some time. He agreed that it affected his focus. “Despite that I performed well and got my season best throw.”
Following his performance, Chopra became the second male athlete post-independence to win two Olympic medals in an individual event.
Chopra, who is yet to cross the 90m mark, wanted to improve the technical side of the game. “Javelin is a technical sport. You always have some scope for improvement.”
Manu Bhaker
Manu Bhaker celebrates after winning bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol in Paris Olympic 2024.
| Photo Credit:
Ritu Raj Konwar
Manu Bhaker registered several firsts for Indian shooting, but most importantly, became the first Indian ever to win twin medals in a single edition of the Games.
Manu Bhaker won her first bronze medal at the women’s 10m air pistol event, becoming the first Indian woman shooter to be on the Olympic podium.
After qualifying for the final in third place, Manu hit the ground running. Of the 22 shots she took, just 7 were in the ‘9’ ring .She was never out of medal contention and was in silver medal place until her final shot of the competition where she was pipped by the narrowest of margins — 0.1 — by South Korea’s Kim Yeji.
She next won another bronze medal in the mixed 10m air pistol event with Sarabjot Singh, having beaten South Korea 16-10.
“I feel great. This medal was long due for India. It feels surreal,” said Manu Bhaker. The triumph opened the country’s account in the Paris Games and ended a 12-year wait for its much-hyped shooters.
Men’s Hockey Team
P.R. Sreejesh celebrates after India won the Men’s Bronze Medal Match between India and Spain in Field Hockey in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
| Photo Credit:
EPA-EFE via PTI
In the last half a century, the Indian hockey team had not secured two consecutive medals in the Olympics. When it retained its bronze medal in Paris on August 8, 2024, it was time for celebrations and overflow of emotions in the stands of the Yves du Manoir Stadium in Paris.
India’s fourth bronze and 13th Olympic medal was a fitting farewell for goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh, who closed his glorious two-decade long international career and served India with distinction, and deserved every bit of the dream swansong.
In captivating action under the hot afternoon sun, India, which switched to coach Craig Fulton only three months prior to the Asian Games last year and adapted quickly to a defence-first style, rallied to pip a never-say-die Spain 2-1 in the bronze medal match. It last won back-to-back Olympic medals way back in 1972 in Munich.
The committed Indian fans broke into celebrations as the players stacked over a grounded Sreejesh paid their tribute to the legendary ‘God of Indian hockey.”
Also read | Paris Olympics 2024: Know the rules of hockey
“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 the Olympic qualifier, as well,” said Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey.
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.
| Photo Credit:
Ritu Raj Konwar
World No. 14 Sarabjot Singh has added a bronze Olympics medal into his kitty when he, along with Manu Bhaker, defeated South Korea in the 10m air pistol mixed team Bronze Medal Match.
After seven series, Manu had scored higher than Sarabjot in five and equal to him in the sixth. Largely thanks to her efforts, India had won five series to South Korea’s two — leading 10 to 4. Towards the end when Manu started to feel nervous, it was Sarabjot who raised his game.
Hailing from Haryana, Sarabjot is an individual and mixed team World junior champion in 2021. He has won three World Cup gold medals in 2023 and 2024 (including one in Munich in June) apart from two Asian Games medals last year.
Swapnil Kusale
Swapnil Kusale won the bronze medal in 50m rifle three positions at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
| Photo Credit:
Ritu Raj Konwar
Swapnil Kusale clinched his first Olympic bronze and third medal for India in the 50m rifle 3 positions event, a highly demanding category that requires shooters to compete in three different positions across three stages — 20 shots each in kneeling, prone and standing positions.
Chateauroux was Kusale’s first ever Olympics. He had secured his Olympic quota by coming fourth in the World Championships held in Cairo.
The last time a 50m rifle shooter made it to the Olympic finals was in 2012 London when Joydeep Karmakar finished fourth in 50m rifle prone event, a discipline which has been discontinued at the Olympics.
Aman Sehrawat
Aman Sehrawat celebrates after the men’s freestyle 57kg bronze medal wrestling match at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
| Photo Credit:
PTI
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 shaking off a loss in the semifinals, he went through the rigmarole of making the weight by losing 1.5kg before dominating Cruz for the bronze
Aman, who is the U-23 world champion, was India’s lone male wrestler to qualify for the Paris Games. Indians have won medals in the wrestling competition at the Olympics since 2008 and the streak remains unbroken.
Aman has eyes set on the Olympic gold medal. “I would like to say to the people of India that I will definitely win a gold for you in 2028.Sushil pehlawan ji won two medals, I will win in 2028 and then in 2032 also,” he said.
Medals that were missed by a whisker
There’s a difference between finishing seventh and fourth. Any athlete will tell you which is worse. When you are seventh, you really were not in contention for a medal. A fourth-place finish is a reminder that you are just the first of the guys outside the podium. For India, there were six such medals that were missed.
Arjun Babuta – Men’s 10m Air Rifle Shooting
Arjun Babuta had to swallow a bitter defeat in the 10m air rifle individual final when he flirted with the chance to make Indian sporting history before eventually finishing fourth, missing the bronze medal by just 1.4 points.
Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat – Mixed Team Archery
Indian archers Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat made a bit of history by making it to the mixed team bronze medal match, but fell short of cornering Olympic glory by placing fourth. However, they have given Indian archery a big morale-boosting push.
Manu Bhakar – Women’s 25m Pistol Shooting
Manu Bhaker narrowly missed out on a 3rd shooting medal, finishing 4th in the women’s 25m pistol final. “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,” Bhaker said.
Lakshya Sen – Men’s Badminton Singles
Hopes for India’s first-ever Olympic gold in badminton will were dashed after Lakshya Sen suffered a straight-game defeat to reigning champion Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles semifinals. Lakshya 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 and Maheshwari Chauhan – Skeet mixed team shooting
India’s skeet mixed team of Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan lost the bronze medal match to China 44-43. The Indian team struck a total of 43 targets out of the possible 48. China managed one better, hitting 44 of the 48 pellets to finish third.
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu – Women’s Weightlifting 49kg
Trying to replicate her heroics from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Saikhom Mirabhai Chanu needed a cumulative total of over 200kg going into her final clean and jerk attempt to secure her medal. Unfortunately, she failed to complete the 114kg lift and fulfilled a cumulative total of 199kg, missing the medal bracket by 1kg.
Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification
Vinesh Phogat after winning her Women’s Freestyle 50kg semi-final wrestling match against Cuba’s Yusneylys Guzman Lopez at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
| Photo Credit:
PTI
On the cusp of glory, wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s campaign in her third Olympics ended amid drama as the seasoned wrestler, who stunned Japan’s World and Olympic champion Yui Susaki on her way to the women’s 50kg final, was disqualified after weighing 100 grams more than the permissible limit in the morning weigh-in ahead of the final.
She managed to cut down her weight to the stipulated limit on day one of the competition but struggled to do so for the second consecutive day prior to her final against USA’s Sarah Ann Hildebrandt.
While there is an ongoing trial as Vinesh has appealed against her disqualification in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), demanding that she be awarded a joint silver medal, she has also announced her retirement from the sport.
