The Olympics offer athletes an opportunity to etch their name in history books and stand as an example for budding athletes to try and emulate in their quest for sporting glory.
Rich with history and tradition, a place on the coveted Olympic podium certainly serves as the ultimate dream of for athlete who has taken the penance to acquire sporting immortality.
Years of dedication and hard work culminate at the quadrennial games, serving up moments of brilliance and agony in equal measure.
As the adage goes, to the victor, go the spoils. And while the gold, silver and bronze medallists are celebrated, the world often forgets those who missed out on a celebrated podium finish by fine margins.
Here is a look at the Indian athletes and teams, who were on the brink of securing a medal, but unfortunately missed out and fell just shy.
Antwerp 1920: Randhir Shine – Men’s 54 kg Freestyle Wrestling
Shinde lost out to Great Britain’s Philip Bernard in the men’s featherweight freestyle bronze medal match to miss out on a podium finish.
Helsinki 1952: Keshav Mangave – Men’s 62 kg Freestyle Wrestling
After wrestling his way to Round 5, Mangave suffered a loss to USA’s Josiah Henson.
Melbourne 1956: Team India – Men’s Football
The Indian football team, which got the better of hosts Australia to make their way to the bronze medal clash, ended up suffering a 3-0 defeat to Bulgaria to finish fourth.
Rome 1960: Milkha Singh – Men’s 400m Athletics
The legendary sprinter was just 0.1 seconds away from the bronze medalist in the final event resulting in a heartbreaking fourth-place finish.
Rome 1972: Prem Nath – Men’s 57kg Freestyle Wrestling
In what was a different scoring system at the time, Prem was able to make his way to the seventh round but since he accumulated nine penalty points, he had to take fourth place. At the time the top three competitors with the fewest penalty points would take the medals.
Munich 1972: Sudesh Kumar – Men’s 52kg Freestyle Wrestling
Sudesh was also just a whisker away from claiming a bronze medal in the Munich Games but ended at fourth as he accumulated seven penalty points.
Los Angeles 1984: PT Usha – Women’s 400m Hurdles Athletics
The Payyoli Express, a popular nickname for the Indian runner, narrowly missed out on a bronze medal as she was behind the third-place winner by 1/100th of a second.
Los Angeles 1984: Rajinder Singh – Men’s 74 kg Freestyle Wrestling
The repetitive theme of wrestlers narrowly missing out on a bronze medal continued. Rajinder was in second place till the penultimate round where he suffered a defeat to the Albanian Saban Sejdi in the final.
Athens 2004: Leander Paes/ Mahesh Bhupati – Men’s Doubles, Tennis
The legendary Indian pair were defeated in the semi-final despite going past the likes of Switzerland who had Roger Federer and USA’s Andy Roddick but the duo suffered a defeat in the bronze medal match against Croatia’s Marco Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic.
Athens 2004: Kunjarani Devi – Women’s 48kg Weightlifting
The weightlifter was really close to a medal in 2004. She had lifted 82.5 kgs in the snatch and 107.5 kgs for the clean and jerk but the total was not enough for a medal finish.
London 2012: Joydeep Karmakar – Men’s 50m Rifle Prone Shooting
Joydeep was able to take up a final score of 699.1 which was 0.9 points short of the eventual bronze medalist, Rajmond Debevec from Slovenia.
Rio 2016: Abhinav Bindra – Men’s 10m Air Rifle Shooting
Eight years after claiming the historic gold medal, Bindra finished fourth after a shoot-off against Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish where the former hit a 10 but the latter was able to do better with 10.5.
Rio 2016: Sania Mirza/ Rohan Bopanna – Mixed Doubles Tennis
Mirza and Bopanna were pipped to the bronze medal by Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka in straight sets.
Rio 2016: Dipa Karmakar – Women’s Vault Gymnastics
Karmakar, the first Indian female gymnast to make it to the final of the event, missed out on third place by just 0.15 points despite landing the Produnova Vault.
Tokyo 2020: Aditi Ashok – Women’s Golf
Aditi was unfortunate to drop down to fourth in the final round, where she was just behind by one stroke, after enjoying a brilliant run up until the crucial juncture.
Tokyo 2020: Team India – Women’s Hockey
After making it to the semi-final for the first time in their history, the women’s hockey unit finished on a heartbreaking note as they were beaten by Great Britain 3-4.
Paris 2024: Arjun Babuta – Men’s 10m Air Rifle Shooting
The Indian shooter was a mere 1.4 points away from clinching a medal as Babuta finished with a score of 208.4 while Croatia’s Miran Maricic did better with a score of 209.8.
Paris 2024: Dhiraj Bommadevara/ Ankita Bhakat – Mixed Team Archery
Despite a valiant effort from both the Indian archers, the Indian duo went down to USA’s Brady Ellison and Casey Kaufhold 6-2 to miss out on a medal and end their campaign on a disappointing note.
Paris 2024: Manu Bhaker – Women’s 25m Air Pistol
A hat-trick of medals was on the cards after Bhaker had claimed two bronzes earlier. But despite taking second place in the qualifiers, she was not able to replicate her performance as she finished fourth after a shoot-off against Hungary’s Veronika Major.
Paris 2024: Lakshya Sen- Badminton Men’s Singles
The Indian badminton ace was on song heading into the semifinal of the event against Viktor Axelsen but succumbed to the experienced Dane to face off against Lee Zii Jia in the playoff for the bronze medal. Sen started well as he clinched the opening game against the Malaysian, but Jia demonstrated his resilience to rally back from a game down to close out the fixture in his favour by taking the second and third games to secure the bronze and leave the young sensation just short of a historic bronze at the quadrennial.
Paris 2024: Maheshwari Chauhan, Anantjeet Naruka – Mixed Team Skeet Shooting
The Indian mixed team skeet shooting pair did extremely well to challenge for the podium, but their valiant thrust ended up just shy of the coveted bronze medal as the went down to the Chinese duo of Jiang Yiting and Lyu Jianlin.
Yiting and Jianlin pipped the Indian duo as the Chinese pair posted a score of 44 out of a possible 48, with Chauhan and Naruka a mere point behind at 43 points.
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