India at Olympics: List of athletes who missed out on medal by a whisker

India did manage to secure a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics after athlete Neeraj Chopra‘s historic win on Saturday, however, the country has faced plenty of near-miss experiences, where sportspersons finished on the fourth position, narrowly missing out on an Olympic medal.

Hours before India’s gold medal win, golfer Aditi Ashok, who was participating in the women’s individual stroke play event at Tokyo Olympics, finished at the fourth position. The 23-year-old was left behind Japan’s Mone Inami and Lydia Ko of New Zealand, respectively.

Tokyo Olympics saw another fourth-place finish for India on Friday when the women’s hockey team lost to Great Britain in the bronze medal match. The game ended with a score of 3-4 in favour of Great Britain.

Legendary Indian athlete Milkha Singh, who passed away earlier this year, was considered one of the top contenders for the gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics. However, ‘the flying Sikh’ finished in the fourth position in a six-man 400m final race.

India had hopes tied to athlete PT Usha, who represented the country at the 1984 Olympics held in United States’ Los Angeles. Usha presented an impressive performance in the qualifying rounds of the 400m hurdles but suffered an unfortunate defeat in the finals. Usha finished fourth and missed out on the bronze medal by just one-hundredth of a second, according to reports from NDTV.

The 2004 Athens Olympics saw multiple fourth-place finishes for Indian sportspersons. Kunjarani Devi, who is often considered to be India’s first weightlifting legend, finished fourth in the 48kg category after lifting 190 kg. 

Also Read: From 1900 to 2021: Brief history of India’s Olympic medal victories

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, who represented India in the men’s doubles tennis games in the 2004 Summer Games, were defeated by the Croatian duo of Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic after locking horns for a bronze medal.

Rio Olympics, which were held in 2016, ended up being the Olympic games where India faced three close calls to bronze medals. Indian sharpshooter Abhinav Bindra, who secured gold for India in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, lost in the 10m air rifle final and ended up on the fourth spot.

Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna, who contested in the mixed doubles tennis event at Rio Olympics, lost to Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in a tussle for the bronze medal.

Dipa Karmakar ended up in the eighth position in the qualifying round in the Gymnastics event at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Karmakar is also the first female gymnast from India to qualify for the Olympics, according to reports from NDTV.

Joydeep Karmakar, who was considered an underdog shooter at the 2012 Olympic Games, made his way up on the lead table from the seventh spot, however, narrowly missed out on the bronze medal.