2024-07-22 18:42:06
New Delhi: It is often said that finishing fourth in the Olympics is the biggest disappointment for a player. If a player finishing last in a competition has to face embarrassment, then a player finishing fourth has the pain of missing out on a medal. Indian players have missed out on winning Olympic medals very closely many times on the biggest global stage of sports. It started in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and continued till the last Olympics held in Tokyo.Melbourne Olympics, 1956
The Indian football team made it to the semi-finals by defeating hosts Australia 4-2 in the quarter-finals. In this match itself, Neville D’Souza became the first Asian to score a hat-trick in the Olympics.
Neville tried to repeat his performance by leading the team 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 0-3 to Bulgaria. India’s great player PK Banerjee often shared his pain.
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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. The ‘Flying Sikh’ 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 with him forever.
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Moscow Olympics, 1980
With top 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.
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Los Angeles Olympics, 1984
The Los Angeles Olympics brought back Milkha’s memories of the Rome Olympics when PT Usha missed the bronze medal in the 400m hurdles by 100th of a second, making it the closest ever miss 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.
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athens olympics 2004
Arguably India’s greatest doubles pair of tennis legends 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 a bronze medal and finish fourth. The pair had earlier lost to Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Shutler in the semi-finals in straight sets 2-6, 3-6.
Kunjarani Devi finished fourth in the women’s 48 kg weightlifting competition at these games, but she was not really in the race for a medal. She was disqualified in her final attempt of lifting 112.5 kg in the clean and jerk category. Kunjarani finished 10 kg behind bronze medalist Aree Wirathaworn of Thailand with a total effort of 190 kg.
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London Olympics, 2012
Shooter Joydeep Karmakar experienced the disappointment of finishing one place behind the bronze medallist this season. Karmakar finished seventh in the qualification round of the men’s 50m rifle prone event and finished just 1.9 points behind the bronze medallist in the final.
Rio Olympics, 2016
Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian woman gymnast to compete at the Olympic Games. After making it to the finals of the women’s vault event, she missed out on 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 the bronze medal.
Bopanna faced the disappointment of missing out on an Olympic medal for the first time since 2004 when his and Sania Mirza’s Indian mixed doubles tennis pair 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.
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Tokyo Olympics, 2020
Four decades after the Moscow Games, the Indian women’s hockey team once again had to suffer the pain of narrowly missing out on a medal. The Indian team reached the semi-finals by defeating three-time Olympic champion 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.