OLYMPIC MEDALS: Desire, Criticism, Reality & the Way Forward

OUR CONTINGENT — of 117 athletes and 118 support staff — to the Paris 2024 Olympics has admittedly come back with a haul little lower than what we had bagged at Tokyo and drastically below our expectations of ‘at least double digits’.

- Krishan Kalra

There were moments of joy and glory when Manu Bhaker was awarded two bronzes on successive days and many heartbreaks like the same brilliant girl getting fourth place in another event (actually her favourite) or weightlifter Mira Bai Chanu ending up at the same unfortunate spot or our fancied shuttler Lakshya Sen’s near miss in the singles; also fourth places in mixed team archery, mixed team skeet and men’s 10-metre air rifle.

I can’t forget Manu’s response when a reporter asked her, “despite having won two medals, why do you look so crestfallen?” Poor girl, in tears, responded with a forced half smile, “because fourth place is never good”.

Biggest disappointment was of course the exceptionally brave wrestler Vinesh Phogat getting disqualified for being 100 grams over the 50 kg class she was competing in. Then, there was the ecstasy of beating England in men’s hockey and agony when the same wonderful team lost to Germany. Our men later got their due by winning the bronze against Spain — a precious back-to-back bronze after Tokyo.

Also disappointing to see our valiant Neeraj Chopra surrendering the gold to his Pakistani rival Nadeem who threw a literal monster full 3-1/2 metres ahead of our man’s best. Such is life, and, we also know that Neeraj had several injuries – so getting the silver is actually a victory.

Throughout two weeks of the competition, in addition to the excruciating hard work and training of the competitors and help of their support staff, there were also the prayers of 1.4 billion Indians but life and sports competition can be cruel.