The competition at the Olympics is fierce, and even a minute slip-up can cost a medal. Several Indians have come close to winning a medal but finished in the heartbreaking fourth position. Here is a list of Indians who narrowly missed out on a podium finish at the Olympic Games.
Randhir Shinde – Antwerp 1920 Olympics, Men’s 54kg Freestyle Wrestling
At the Antwerp 1920 Olympics, wrestler Randhir Shinde lost the bronze medal playoff in the men’s featherweight freestyle division against Philip Bernard of Great Britain. He had defeated Henry Inman (Great Britain) in the quarter-finals and Sam Gerson (USA) in the semis. A fourth-place finish today could have fetched him a medal since two bronze medals are awarded in wrestling.
Keshav Mangave – Helsinki 1952 Olympics, Men’s 62kg Freestyle Wrestling
Freestyle wrestler Keshav Mangave advanced to Round 5 of the men’s freestyle 62kg (featherweight) event but lost to Josiah Henson of the USA. A win would have put him in the top three that competed for the medals. Keshav Mangave finished fourth.
Team India – Melbourne 1956 Olympics, Men’s Football
The Indian men’s football team had its best outing in the Olympics when it featured in the bronze medal contest at Melbourne 1956. Earlier, India beat hosts Australia in the quarter-finals. In the match, Neville D’Souza became the first Asian to record a hat-trick at the Olympics. In the semi-finals, India lost to Yugoslavia and then went down 3-0 to Bulgaria in the bronze medal match to finish fourth.
Milkha Singh – Rome 1960 Olympics, Men’s 400m Athletics
Legendary sprinter Milkha Singh missed the medal by a whisker in the men’s 400m sprint at the Rome 1960 Olympics. He finished in fourth position in the final, just 0.1 seconds slower than the bronze medallist.
Prem Nath – Munich 1972 Olympics, Men’s 57kg Freestyle Wrestling
Freestyle wrestler Prem Nath fought till the seventh round and accumulated nine penalty points in all, finishing just shy of a medal. Earlier, scores were calculated by handing penalties for losses. At the end of all preliminary rounds, the three wrestlers with the fewest penalties won medals.
Sudesh Kumar – Munich 1972 Olympics, Men’s 52kg Freestyle Wrestling
Like Prem Nath, Sudesh Kumar also came agonizingly close to a medal at the Munich 1972 Olympics in the men’s 52kg freestyle wrestling event. Sudesh finished fourth with seven penalty points.
PT Usha – Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, Women’s 400m Hurdles Athletics
After Milkha Singh’s heartbreak in 1960, PT Usha came close to winning a medal in the women’s 400m athletics event. Payyoli Express, as Usha was popularly called, missed the bronze medal by one-hundredth of a second at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics.
At the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, PT Usha was in remarkable form. She finished second in her morning heats and secured her spot in the final by defeating Judy Brown for the second time in the semi-finals. However, the final was marred by a restart after Australian Debbie Flintoff prematurely began her race.
Running in lane 5, Usha was initially slow off the blocks but quickly caught up, joining the leading pack. With five runners in contention, Usha matched Cristieana Cojocaru stride for stride until the Romanian edged out with a decisive photo finish. Morocco’s Nawal El Moutawakel led most of the race to win gold, while Judy Brown surged in the final stretch to take silver.
Usha later revealed that the restart threw her off and she struggled to maintain her energy due to an unfamiliar diet of porridge and pickles, as she couldn’t adapt to American food. Despite the heartbreak of finishing fourth, PT Usha, known as the Payyoli Express, took immense pride in her performance at just 20 years old, marking a significant moment in her career.
Rajinder Singh – Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, Men’s 74kg Freestyle Wrestling
The story of Indian wrestlers coming close to an Olympic medal continued at the LA 1984 Games. Rajinder Singh, who was placed second till the penultimate round in the men’s 74kg freestyle wrestling event, lost the bronze medal to Saban Sejdi in the final round.
Leander Paes/Mahesh Bhupati – Athens 2004 Olympics, Men’s Doubles Tennis
At the Athens 2004 Olympics, the legendary Indian tennis duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi went down in the men’s doubles semi-finals after going past pairs that included Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. The Indians lost 7(7)-6(5), 4-6, 16-14 to Croatia’s Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic in the bronze medal match.
Kunjarani Devi – Athens 2004 Olympics, Women’s 48kg Weightlifting
Kunjarani Devi also came close at the Athens 2004 Olympics in the women’s 48kg weightlifting event. She lifted 82.5kg in snatch and 107.5kg in clean and jerk to total 190kg and finish just outside the medal zone. The bronze medallist lifted 200kg.
Joydeep Karmakar – London 2012 Olympics, Men’s 50m Rifle Prone Shooting
After qualifying for the final round on the seventh spot at the London 2012 Olympics, Indian shooter Joydeep Karmakar shot brilliantly to move up the ranking in the men’s 50m rifle prone shooting event. However, a final score of 699.1 meant he could only finish behind third-placed Rajmond Debevec, who scored 701.0.
Abhinav Bindra – Rio 2016 Olympics, Men’s 10m Air Rifle Shooting
Ace shooter Abhinav Bindra qualified for the men’s 10m air rifle shooting final at the Rio 2016 Olympics but could not repeat his gold-winning performance from Beijing 2008. The rifle marksman ended fourth on the leaderboard after a shoot-off where he shot 10 and rival Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine shot 10.5.
Sania Mirza/Rohan Bopanna – Rio 2016 Olympics, Mixed Doubles Tennis
The fourth-seeded Indian tennis pair of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna lost in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles at Rio 2016. The Sania-Rohan duo went down to Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka 6-1, 7-5 and missed out on a bronze.
Dipa Karmakar – Rio 2016 Olympics, Women’s Vault Gymnastics
Dipa Karmakar was the first female gymnast from India to make it to the final of the Olympics vault event at Rio 2016. The gymnast landed the difficult Produnova Vault but missed the bronze by 0.150 points.
Aditi Ashok – Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Women’s Golf
Making her second Olympic appearance at Tokyo 2020, Aditi Ashok was on the money from Round 1 of the women’s golf event. She consistently held her spot in the top three after three rounds but slipped to fourth in the final round. Aditi missed the bronze by a stroke, the slenderest of margins!
Team India – Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Women’s Hockey
A fairytale campaign that saw the Indian women’s hockey team reach the semi-finals of an Olympics for the first time at Tokyo 2020, ended without a medal. The Indian eves lost the bronze medal match 4-3 to Great Britain.
Arjun Babuta – Paris 2024 Olympics, Men’s 10m Air Rifle Shooting
Indian shooter Arjun Babuta finished fourth in the men’s 10m air rifle final at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Babuta finished fourth in the final with a total of 208.4. Croatia’s Miran Maricic made the medal cutoff with a score of 209.8. The Indian shooter was just 1.4 short of assuring himself a medal.
Manu Bhaker misses hat-trick, finishes 4th in 25m pistol final Paris 2024
Indian shooting sensation Manu Bhaker narrowly missed out on creating history at the Paris Olympics.
The 22-year-old finished fourth in the women’s 25m pistol final, agonisingly close to clinching her third medal of the Games. Despite a strong showing, Bhaker lost out to Hungary’s Veronika Major in a shoot-off for the bronze medal. While she couldn’t complete the hat-trick, Bhaker’s two bronze medals already secured her place in Indian Olympic history.
Lakshya Sen devastated after crushing defeat in Paris Olympics 2024 bronze-medal match
Lakshya Sen’s Olympic dream shattered. The Indian badminton star was on the brink of a historic bronze medal but succumbed to a heartbreaking defeat against Lee Zii Jia. Leading 1-0, Sen couldn’t recover from a second-game collapse, losing the decider 21-11. The loss ends India’s 12-year Olympic medal streak in badminton, leaving the nation in disbelief.
Mirabai Chanu- Paris Olympics 2024
𝗠𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗮𝗶 𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗹! Despite a very strong performance from Mirabai Chanu, she narrowly misses out on a medal, finishing in 4th place.
She attempted a lift of 114kg in her final clean and jerk attempt but was unsuccessful in doing so, confirming 4th place for her.
Also read- Paris 2024 Olympics: All the Action Featuring India – Schedule & IST Timings
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