So Near Yet So Far! Indian Athletes Who Narrowly Missed Olympic Medals

Several Indian athletes, including Milkha Singh and PT Usha narrowly missed Olympic medals by the smallest of margins, highlighting the fine line between victory and heartbreak.

New Delhi: Every athlete views the Olympic Games as the ultimate pinnacle of their career. They endure gruelling training sessions and adhere to strict diets, all in preparation for this toughest of events. Despite the immense effort, they know that a single moment’s slip-up can shatter their dreams of winning an Olympic medal. These high-stakes situations require athletes to balance their peak physical fitness with exceptional mental resilience.

In the history of the Olympic Games, India has experienced several unfortunate occasions where it narrowly missed out on winning an Olympic medal. Here are five instances of athletes who came close to winning an Olympic medal but just missed it by a whisker.

Milkha Singh (1960 Rome)

‘The Flying Sikh,’ who set a record by winning gold in the 400m category at the Commonwealth Games, entered the 1960 Rome Olympics as the clear favourite to secure a medal for India. In the six-man 400m final, Singh started strong, taking the lead in the early stages. However, about 250 meters into the race, Singh made the critical error of slowing down, believing he couldn’t sustain his pace, and glanced at his competitors. This hesitation allowed Otis Davis, Carl Kaufmann, and Malcolm Spence to overtake him, resulting in a nail-biting photo-finish. Singh narrowly missed the bronze medal by just just 0.1 seconds.

PT Usha (1984 Los Angeles)

PT Usha, famously known as the Payyoli Express, entered the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles riding high on excellent form. She held the Asian record and had secured silver medals in both the 100m and 200m events at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi. However, her Olympic journey ended in heartbreak in the 400m hurdles event. Despite an impressive performance in the qualifiers, Usha narrowly missed out on a medal in the final by a mere 0.01 seconds. Morocco’s Nawal El Moutawakel took gold, USA’s Judy Brown won silver, and Romania’s Cristieana Cojocaru claimed bronze with a timing of 55.41s, just edging out Usha (55.42s) in a dramatic photo-finish.

Leander Paes & Mahesh Bhupati (2004 Athens)

The legendary duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati came very close to securing a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. In the first round, the Indian duo, seeded fifth, defeated America’s Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish. Their one of the best performances came in the second round when they overcame Switzerland’s Yves Allegro and Roger Federer. In the quarterfinals they handed a defeat to Zimbabwe’s Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett. The Indian pair’s dream run for an Olympic medal suffered a major setback in the semifinals as they blundered against German pair of Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuttler. Up against Croatia’s Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic in the bronze medal match, the Indian duo fought very hard in what ended up being a thriller of match. In a test of extreme mental fitness, the Indian pair broke first and ended up losing the match 7-6(5), 4-6, 16-14.

Joydeep Karmakar (2012 London)

India could have made it seven medals at the 2012 London Olympics had Joydeep Karmakar not missed on a well-deserved medal in the men’s 50m rifle prone event by just 1.9 points. He shot 595 out of 600 to qualify for the finals. Karmakar shot sequence of 10.1, 10.6, 10.7, 10.5, 10.7, 10.2, 10.0, 10.2, 10.7, 10.4 for a total of 104.1, while Rajmond Debevec of Slovenia fired a 105.0, a difference of less than one. In the end, Karmakar had a final score of 699.1, while Debevec had a score 701.0 to take the bronze. The gold medal went to Sergei Martynov of Belarus, with a then-new world record score of 705.5 and the silver was picked by Belgian Lionel Cox (701.2).

Dipa Karmakar (2016 Rio)

Dipa Karmakar became India’s first female gymnast to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. Despite an impressive campaign, the gymnast from Tripura narrowly missed securing an Olympic medal. The Indian athlete achieved a score of 14.833 to qualify for the vault event finals. However, she fell just short of the bronze medal by 0.15 points, finishing in fourth place. Karmakar is notably only the fifth woman in gymnastics history to successfully land the Produnova vault, one of the most challenging moves in women’s artistic gymnastics.

Abhinav Bindra (2016 Rio)

Abhinav Bindra wrote history by winning the top prize at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in men’s 10m Air Pistol event. It was also India’s first-ever individual Olympic gold. He came close of clinching another medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Bindra, had a rough start as he finished seventh in the qualifying rounds out of eight available slots. In the final, Bindra delivered an outstanding performance in a fiercely contested match. However, he finished fourth with a score of 163.8, after losing a shoot-off with Ukraine’s Serihy Kulish following a tie in the seventh round. Bindra missed the bronze medal by just a tenth of a point. Despite this heart-breaking loss, Bindra has expressed that Rio 2016 was the Olympics where he felt most satisfied with his performance.

India are sending a 117-member strong contingent at the Paris Olympics 2024 which starts on July 26 officially. However, India will start their campaign a day earlier with the archers competing in the ranking round.