Interestingly, while there are athletes who were simply victims of a cruel twist of fate, there are also those who have no one to blame but themselves for losing their nerve and missing what could have been the defining moment of their career. Here is the list of all the Indian athletes who failed to make it to the podium at the last minute.

Chirag and Satwik

In the case of badminton duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, it was actually not a narrow miss but a classic case of losing concentration at the crucial moment. The duo were favourites to make a podium finish in the badminton men's doubles and played all their group matches flawlessly, securing their place in the quarterfinals. They even started the quarterfinals on a high after winning the first game 21-13. However, at that moment, they lost concentration and started making a series of unforced errors in a row, giving their opponents Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia a chance to mount a comeback, which they took full advantage of and won the next two games, knocking Satwik and Chirag out of the medal race.

Nisha Dahiya

Wrestler Nisha Dahiya kicked off India's wrestling campaign at the 2024 Paris Olympics, battling her way into the quarterfinals of the women's freestyle wrestling -68kg. Nisha was even leading her quarterfinal bout 8-1 with less than 60 seconds left on the clock. She suffered two quick injuries to her fingers and arm on her right hand in the final seconds, allowing her opponent to take advantage of the battered Indian and claim a 10-8 win, shattering Nisha's dream of an Olympic medal.

Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat

The Indian mixed archery team of Dhiraj and Ankita were on the verge of creating history by winning India's first medal in archery at the Olympics after they were scheduled to play the bronze medal match against USA's Braddy Ellison and Casey Khaulold. However, the Indians lost the match 2-6 and ended up in 4th place in the overall standings.

Ananatjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan

Anant and Maheshwari qualified for the bronze medal match in the skeet mixed team shooting and came close to giving India its fourth shooting medal at the 2024 Olympics. However, the misses in the early stages of the match took their toll and they ended up losing the match by just one point to the Chinese pair of Yiting Jiang and Jialin Lyu and had to settle for fourth place.

Arjun Babuta

Indian shooter Arjun Babuta fell victim to yet another cruel fate at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Babauta missed out on a podium finish after finishing fourth in the men's 10m air rifle event with a final score of 208.4 in the final, just 1.4 points behind third-placed Croatian Miran Maricis, who scored 209.4 at the time of Arjun's elimination.

Manu Bhaker

Manu Bhaker's inclusion may come as a surprise to everyone. However, the shooter, who made history with two bronze medals in Paris, narrowly missed out on a chance to score her third podium finish in 2024. Manu finished fourth in the women's 25m rapid fire pistol event after losing the third place shoot-out to Hungary's Major Veronika, giving the Indian team another “so close yet so far” moment at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Lakshya Sen

Star Indian badminton player Lakshya Sen, who became the first Indian male badminton player to reach the semifinals of the Olympics, had to settle for fourth place in the men's badminton singles. Although Lakshya won the first game in his bronze medal match against Malaysia's Lee Jia Zii, he lost the next two games and eventually lost his chance of making the podium.

Nishant Dev

Indian boxer Nishant Dev's loss to Mexican Marco Verde in the quarterfinals of the men's 71 kg category was a hotly debated topic. Nishant won the first round and continued to do well in the next two rounds. However, the officials saw things differently and awarded the victory to Verde in the last two rounds, thus dashing Nishant's hopes of at least a bronze medal.

Mirabai Chanu

One of the biggest surprises of the 2024 Paris Olympics occurred on August 8, when star weightlifter Mirabai Chanu failed to win a medal in her second consecutive Olympics after winning silver at the 2024 Tokyo Olympics by just one kilogram. With a final score of 199 kg (88 kg in the snatch and 111 kg in the clean and jerk), Mirabai finished her women's 49 kg weightlifting competition in fourth place.

Vinesh Phogat

The case of Vinesh Phogat will go down as the biggest heartbreak in Indian sports history. Vinesh became the first female wrestler to reach the final at the Olympics, securing at least a silver medal for herself and India. Then she was disqualified from her gold medal bout in the women's freestyle 50kg after she was found to be 100 grams over the permissible weight hours before her final bout. Despite all efforts by Vinesh and the Indian team to get her under the weight limit, she failed the weigh-in and missed out on a podium place in her final Olympics. Vinesh announced her retirement from the sport a day later.

First published: August 11, 2024 | 12:18 p.m. IS