Close but no medal: Indian athletes' near-misses at Paris Olympics 2024

After the Tokyo 2020 Olympics saw seven Indian athletes win medals, expectations were high for the Paris 2024 Olympics, with hopes of surpassing the 10-medal mark. However, the Indian contingent has faced numerous setbacks, with many athletes finishing in fourth place. To date, eight athletes have secured fourth place across six events, falling short in the finals or semi-finals.

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The Indian team has experienced several near-misses at the 2024 Summer Olympics. With only three days remaining, India has won one silver and four bronze medals, making it unlikely that they will break the previous record. The squad has struggled, placing fourth on multiple occasions.

Let's examine the "curse of the fourth place" for Indian athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games:

Lakshya Sen:

The 22-year-old shuttler was not even on anyone's list of medal contenders, but he proved everyone wrong and quickly captured the badminton world's attention. Hailed as India's rising star, he became the first male Indian badminton player to reach the semi-finals. He shone throughout his campaign and had a genuine chance at Gold, Silver, and Bronze, but ultimately missed out.

Mirabai Chanu:

Tokyo Olympics silver medallist and two-time Commonwealth gold medallist narrowly missed out on a medal by just 1 kg. On the eve of her 30th birthday, she lifted 88kgs in the snatch and 111kgs in the clean and jerk, totalling 199 kg, slightly below her previous Olympic total of 202 kg.

Manu Bhaker:

While she clinched two bronze medals in the mixed 10m air pistol and women's 10m air pistol events, the 22-year-old narrowly missed becoming the first Indian Olympian to win three medals in a single Games. She finished just one point behind her Hungarian competitor in a shoot-off and ended up in fourth place, falling short of the podium.

Maheshwari Chauhan and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka:

India had high hopes for another medal in shooting, but the mixed skeet team fell just short, finishing in fourth place. The Indian pair scored 43, narrowly missing out to China's Yiting Jiang and Jianlin Lyu, who took bronze with a score of 44.

Arjun Babuta:

The 25-year-old came agonizingly close to winning a medal in the men's 10m air rifle event but finished fourth with 208.4 points. Despite maintaining third place for a while, a 9.9 on his 13th and a 9.5 on his final shot dropped him just 1.4 points behind Croatia's Miran Maricic, who claimed bronze with 209.8 points.

Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara:

India's archery team faced a tough competition, with Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara advancing to the semi-finals in the mixed team event but missed out on a medal. They were defeated by the USA's Brady Ellison and Casey Kaufhold in the bronze medal match.

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