Every Olympics-bound athlete comes with a dream to win a medal for their nation and we have witnessed every player putting all their efforts in the multinational event to win a medal but few athletes manage to win an Olympic medal and thousands of players return with broken hearts, disappointed minds and empty hands. Among those who return empty-handed, some players came close to the medal but lost it and they returned from the Olympics with a different kind of pain. The player who finishes fourth has the pang of missing out on the medal. Indian athletes have also suffered this pain in 8 Olympics. Here is all you need to know.
Melbourne Olympics, 1956: The Indian football team made it to the semi-finals by defeating hosts Australia 4-2 in the quarter-finals. In that match, Neville D'Souza became the first Asian to score a hat-trick in the Olympics. Neville tried to repeat his performance by giving the team a lead against Yugoslavia in the semi-finals, but Yugoslavia made a strong comeback in the second half and turned the match in their favour. In the bronze medal match, India lost to Bulgaria 0-3. India's great player PK Banerjee often shared this pain of that match.
Rome Olympics, 1960: Great runner Milkha Singh was a medal contender in the 400-meter final, but he missed out on winning the bronze medal by 1/10th of a second. After this defeat, the 'Flying Sikh' almost quit the sport. He then won two gold medals in the 1962 Asian Games, but the pain of missing out on an Olympic medal always remained.
Moscow Olympics, 1980: With top hockey nations like the Netherlands, Australia and Great Britain boycotting the Moscow Games over the then Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, the Indian women's hockey team had a great chance of winning a medal in its first attempt. The team, however, had to face the disappointment of missing out on a medal. The team finished fourth after losing 1-3 to the Soviet Union in their last match.
Los Angeles Olympics, 1984: At the Los Angeles Olympics, PT Usha missed the bronze in the 400m hurdles by 100th of a second. This made it the closest miss ever for an Indian athlete in any competition. PT Usha finished fourth behind Romania's Cristina Cojocaru.
Kunjarani Devi had finished fourth in women's 48 kg weightlifting at the same Athens Olympics. Kunjarani was 10 kg behind bronze medalist Arie Wirathaworn of Thailand with a total effort of 190 kg.
London Olympics, 2012: Shooter Joydeep Karmakar missed out on a bronze medal at the London Olympics. He finished 7th in the qualification round of the 50m rifle prone event and finished just 1.9 points behind the bronze medallist in the final.
Rio Olympics, 2016: Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian female gymnast to participate in the Olympic Games. After making it to the final of the women's vault event, she missed out on a bronze medal by just 0.150 points. She finished fourth with a score of 15.066.
In the same Olympics, Abhinav Bindra also missed out on winning a medal by a narrow margin. Beijing Olympics gold medalist Bindra missed the bronze by a narrow margin in Rio.
Bopanna once again faced the disappointment of being away from winning an Olympic medal after 2004, when his and Sania Mirza's Indian mixed doubles tennis pair lost in the semi-finals and then in the bronze medal match. The pair lost to Lucie Hradek and Radek Stepanek in the bronze medal match.
Tokyo Olympics, 2020: After four decades of the Moscow Games, the Indian women's hockey team once again had to bear the pain of narrowly missing a medal. The Indian team reached the semi-finals by defeating three-time Olympic champion Australia but lost 0-1 to Argentina in the last four matches. The team led by Rani Rampal could not maintain the 3-2 lead against Great Britain in the bronze medal match and lost 3-4.
In the same Olympics, Aditi Ashok missed out on winning a historic medal. This player ranked 200th in the world rankings, and competed with the best players in the world but could not win a medal by a very small margin.
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