Basking in afterglow
Rohit Mahajan in Paris
“I request that we all be kind to our athletes,” said Gagan Narang, the chef-de-mission of the Indian contingent, after India finished with six medals at the Paris Olympics. “The ones who have missed, they are the ones who have the fire burning brighter than ever to get us medals in the future. They need to be encouraged.”
Reetika Hooda lost to Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy in the quarterfinals of the women’s 76kg wrestling event, and was knocked out of the event when Kyzy later lost her semifinal bout on Saturday.
Thus ended India’s campaign at the Paris Olympics: Six medals, with Neeraj Chopra’s silver being the best performance. India finished 71st on the medal table, which doesn’t sound very good for a country of 1.5 billion, but we also remember the times when there were zero medals for India, from 1984 to 1992.
Narang’s appeal to be kind to the athletes was the context of several near-misses — there were as many as six events in which India came close to winning a bronze.
Three of them were in shooting: Arjun Babuta and Manu ended up fourth in the men’s 10m air rifle and women’s 25m pistol events, respectively; the team of Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan came close, too, in the mixed skeet event — they lost the bronze to China by an agonising one point.
The most heartbreaking fourth was scored by Lakshya Sen in badminton — he played brilliantly to give himself two fantastic chances to win a medal. Unbeaten after the group stage, he gave defending champion Viktor Axelsen a massive fright in the semifinals — victory would have won him at least a silver, but Sen faltered after earning three game points in the first game. In the bronze medal playoff, Sen won the first game against Lee Zii Jia — and then lost the next two. Axelsen said he won the match in the mind — conversely, Sen lost two matches, and two opportunities, in the mind.
Doubles specialists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were considered almost a certainty for a medal — and they won the first game in the quarterfinals, as expected; but Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik then turned the screws, winning the next two games and knocking the Indians out.
Among the Indian medallists, the greatest certainty was Neeraj Chopra, of course; he did deliver, taking a historic silver, which made him possibly the greatest living Indian sportsperson — two medals in two Olympic Games in track and field used to be a feat beyond the imagination of the Indian sports fan.
The hockey team retained the bronze it won in Tokyo three years later; the build-up had not been great, but India did very, very well in Paris — the defeat of Australia, the brilliant fight against Belgium and Great Britain, the overpowering of Spain in the bronze medal playoff after a heartbreaking defeat to Germany in the semifinals.
But the player of the Olympics for India was Manu Bhaker, who won two medals, becoming the first Indian shooter to win two medals at one Games.
The 22-year-old ended shooting’s sinking reputation — they had come back empty-handed at the last two Olympics — winning bronze in the 10m air pistol, and in the mixed team 10m air pistol with Sarabjot Singh. Swapnil Kusale’s unexpected medal in men’s 50m rifle 3 positions completed the haul.
The young Aman Sehrawat then ensured that wrestling’s Olympics streak continued — his bronze in the 57kg category made him the youngest Indian medallist ever at the Olympics.
The disqualification of Vinesh Phogat from the women’s 50kg field for being 100g overweight, after her brilliant show on Day 1, broke hearts in the Indian contingent.
Narang said Vinesh, awaiting the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) verdict about her disqualification, is still all right. “She’s perfectly fine physically, and has been going around in the village as well,” he said. “I’m sure she’ll be back at her peak in the next few days.”
A medal could aid in that, but as of now, it seems unlikely that the CAS verdict would be in her favour.
