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Past editions of the modern Olympics have been witness to several heartbreaks with athletes missing out on a podium finish narrowly, more so from an Indian perspective. read more
 "When India suffered heartbreak at Olympic Games")
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the India women's hockey team narrowly missed out on bronze after a 4-3 loss to Great Britain. Reuters
Finishing a competition in fourth place at the Olympic Games can be agonising. Sure finishing last in a competition can be demotivating, but in fourth place finishes, It’s a case of an athlete or a team being so close, yet so far, as it results in athletes and teams in narrowly missing out on medals.
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Past editions of the modern Olympics have been witness to several such heartbreaks, more so from an Indian perspective, and the upcoming Paris Olympics, that begins from 26 July, could see even more of those. Let’s now take a quick look at some occasions where Indian teams and athletes fel short of a podium finish at the Olympics:
1956 Melbourne Olympics
At the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, the Indian men’s football team had qualified for the semi-finals following a 4-2 win over Australia in the quarter-finals. Neville D’ Souza had scored a hat-trick in that game and had become the first Asian to do so in the Olympics.
In the semi-final against Yugoslavia, Neville gave India the lead, but Yugoslavia produced a spirited fightback in the second half to beat India 4-1. India then faced Bulgaria in the bronze medal match, but would go onto lose that match by a 3-0 margin. The legendary PK Banerjee was part of that Indian football team in the 1956 Olympics.
1960 Rome Olympics
Legendary athlete Milkha Singh, who was popularly called as the “Flying Sikh”, narrowly missed out on a bronze medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Milkha Singh was competing in the 400m men’s final and lost out on a podium finish by just one tenth of a second when he briefly stopped to take a quick look at his fellow competitors. Milkha Singh would later regret that for the rest of his life.
For Milkha Singh, who lost both his parents during partition, this would become a nightmare he would have to endure for a long time. Milkha Singh was on the verge of quitting athletics, but after much convincing, he returned to the track and won two gold medals at the 1962 Asian Games.
1980 Moscow Olympics
With USSR invading Afghanistan, a lot of top hockey countries like Australia, Netherlands and even Great Britain boycotted the 1960 Games in Moscow. This was a perfect chance for the India women’s hockey team to secure a podium finish in their maiden appearance at the Games.
India had beaten Austria, Poland and Czhechoslovakia while drawing 1-1 against Zimbabwe and had a good chance of a top three finish going into the match against USSR. However, a 3-1 loss to the USSR in their final match meant India had to settle for fourth place.
1984 Los Angeles Olympics
PT Usha’s fourth place finish at the LA Olympics in 1984 was reminiscent of Milkha Singh’s heartbreak from a few years ago. Usha missed the 400m hurdles bronze by 1/100th of a second, which was the narrowest loss for any Indian athlete in the Olympics. The Payyoli Express finished behind Christina Cojocaru of Romania.
2004 Athens Olympics
Twenty years since PT Usha’s miss, a podium heartbreak returned to haunt India at the 2004 Athens Games. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, one of the most reputed doubles pairs in Indian tennis, had reached the semi-finals in 2004. However, they went down to Germany’s Nicholas Kiefer and Rainer Schuttler in straight sets, which meant they had to play a bronze medal match.
The Indian pair fought hard in the bronze medal match, but went down to Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia with a 6-7, 6-4, 14-16 scoreline.
Kunjarani Devi finished in fourth place of the women’s weightlifting 48kg competition, despite the fact that she wasn’t in contention for a medal. She failed to lift 112.5 kg in her final attempt and was disqualified. Kunjarani finished with an overall weightlift of 190 kg, which was 10 kg less than Aree Wiratthaworn of Thailand, who won the bronze medal.
2012 London Olympics
Shooter Joydeep Karmakar finished the men’s 50m rifle prone event of the 2012 London Olympics in fourth place . Karmakar finished the qualification round in seventh place, but ended up being just 1.9 points behind the bronze medallist.
2016 Rio Olympics
Dipa Karmakar had become the first India woman gymnast to compete at the Olympics. In Brazil, she made the final of the women’s vault event and finished in fourth place with 15.066 points, missing the bronze medal by 0.150 points.
At the same Games, shooter Abhinav Bindra, a gold medallist in 2008, narrowly missed out on bronze after finishing fourth in 2016.
2020 Tokyo Olympics
Ghosts of Olympics past returned to haunt the India women’s hockey team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics three years back. India women’s hockey team had caused an upset against Australia as they reached the semi-finals in 2020, but lost to Argentina 0-1 in the last-four clash.
In the bronze medal match against Great Britain, Rani Rampal and Co had taken a 3-2 lead, but the Brits produced a comeback to beat India 4-3.
In women’s golf at the same Olympics, Aditi Ashok, ranked 200 in the world, finished in fourth place after agonisingly missing out on bronze.
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