Published By: Rohit Chatterjee

Year Ender 2024: India at the Olympics – a Cauldron of Success and Multiple Heartbreaks

While Indian athletes made the nation proud with six medals, a number of medals were lost as several Indian athletes finished in the fourth position

India, as a sporting nation, has witnessed several successes across sports and competitions in 2024, including the prestigious Olympic Games. With six medals won across verticals, India finished in the 71st position amongst the 206 NOCs that took part in the Games. Indeed, gold was India's biggest desire, but unfortunately, 2024 was not the year of gold for India.

Nonetheless, Indian athletes produced brilliant performances that helped the country win one silver and five bronze medals. On the other hand, the country also had some near misses, i.e., multiple fourth-place finishes, which left India with a sorrowful heart. Not to forget, Vinesh Phogat's disqualification also left India with a bitter taste.

As the year comes to an end, let us recall how India's 2024 Olympic campaign went.

The precious silver

India's only silver medal was conquered by star man Neeraj Chopra, who was expected to win a gold as he did in Tokyo 2020. Unfortunately, his counterpart Arshad Nadeem from PAK set a new Olympic record of 92.97 metres, and Neeraj Chopra had to settle for a silver. Not a gold, but Neeraj's only silver for India proved why he is one of the most crucial athletes in India's sporting history.

Bhaker's history

Manu Bhaker created history when she became the first Indian woman to win a medal in an Olympic shooting event. She further created another record when she and her partner, Sarabjot Singh, won another bronze medal in the Mixed team 10m air pistol, making Manu the only Indian to win two medals in a single Olympic edition.

Who's Kusale?

A lesser-known name, Swapil Kusale, shocked everyone when he clinched India's third overall bronze medal. His bronze was captured in the Men's 50m rifle 3 positions, which became India's biggest medal haul in a single sport.

Men's hockey at it again

If there's one vertical of sports that has performed consistently well in the Olympics for India, it is the men's hockey team. Repeating the feat of Tokyo 2020, the men's hockey team grabbed bronze again in the 2020 edition by defeating Spain.

Youngest medal for India

21-year-old Aman Sehrawat also shocked the world when he became the youngest Indian to grab a bronze medal in men's freestyle 57kg. Earlier, the youngest Olympic medal winner for India was PV Sindhu, who won a medal in 2016.

Near-misses

India had several near-misses, i.e., fourth-place finishes, which stopped the nation from reaching the double-digit medal tally figure.

Manu Bhaker missed a historic hat trick when she finished fourth in the women's 25m pistol event. Shooting also saw Arjun Babuta finishing fourth in the men's 10m air rifle shooting, whereas in archery, the duo of Dhiraj Bommadevara & Ankita Bhakat finished fourth in the mixed team archery event.

Even the mixed skeet team of Maheshwari Chauhan and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka finished fourth, as did Lakshya Sen in the men's singles badminton event and Mirabai Chanu in the women's 49kg category.

Apart from these near-misses, India's biggest heartbreak was Vinesh Phogat's disqualification due to a weight infraction, which prevented her from fighting for the gold medal.

As the year comes to an end, despite the heartbreaks and misses, we celebrate the success and efforts of all the Indian athletes in the Olympics, hoping that results will be significantly better in 2028.