Last minute preparations, exposure camps abroad, TOPs funding, overlooking administrative mess-ups to pick the crème de la crème of Indian sports for the biggest show on earth that unfolded in Paris three years after COVID-19 pushed the Tokyo edition of the Olympics by a year.

It turned out a hectic year for the Indian athletes dreaming of a podium finish in the French capital but only a handful, to be precise six, went all the way to script history. In fact, the number could have swelled to double digits for the first time in Indian Olympic history, if only the six fourth-place ‘near-misses’ were converted but only “ifs and buts” had a place in sporting outcomes!

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Among those six heartbreaks, the one that would take some time to sink in was wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s utterly dramatic disqualification, which snatched what appeared to be a certain silver medal, if not gold.

The Paris Games gave India more than one reason to cheer as the shooting contingent broke a 12-year medal drought, with a rare double from shooter Manu Bhaker, making up for the missed opportunity in Tokyo.

The 22-year-old came up with a remarkable show to pick a bronze in women’s 10m air pistol before teaming up with Sarabjot Singh to take the 10m air pistol mixed team bronze. Swapnil Kusale claimed another bronze in the 50 metre rifle three positions to complete the shooting success story.

Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra went into the Paris Games as the defending champion, and the only sure-shot medal contender from the Indian track and field contingent. The Panipat lad didn’t disappoint his millions of fans worldwide even though he had to settle for a silver after his friendly adversary Arshad Nadeem conjured an otherworldly performance with a monster 92.97m throw for the gold.

The rest of India’s track and field contingent were reminded that they were hardly any match to the top athletes from across the globe.

The Indian men’s hockey team brought back days of glory with a second consecutive Olympic bronze, for the first time in 52 years. Placed in the ‘pool of death’, Harmanpreet Singh’s men displayed resilience by breaking the Australia jinx with a statement win and went on to punch above their weight against the other opponents to achieve back-to-back Olympic podium finishes for the first time since 1972, and mark a perfect send-off for their grand old custodian PR Sreejesh.

Wrestler Aman Sehrawat displayed perfect grit and determination to become the country’s youngest individual Olympic medallist, when he clinched a bronze in the freestyle 57kg category.

However, the euphoria faded away once his senior compatriot Vinesh Phogat was denied glory, all for 100 grams more on the weighing scale. With support from the Indian Olympic Association, which she had denied later on, Vinesh’s appeal against the provisions that not just disqualified her from the final but also from the event, did not satisfy the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and eventually a dejected Vinesh chose to retire and join politics.

For India, the major heartbeats came from the boxing ring and the badminton court as none of the pugilists and shuttlers managed to land on the Paris podium. World champions Lovlina Borgohain and Nikhat Zareen failed to recreate their magic when it mattered the most, and similarly the likes of two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu fell in the round of 16 and Lakshya Sen repeatedly squandered handy leads to narrowly miss out on bronze.

Considered a pre-tournament medal prospect, the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also returned empty-handed.

Tokyo silver medallist Mirabai Chanu was expected to do an encore but the star weightlifter finished excruciatingly close, yet far from a medal. Returning from an injury lay-off, Mirabai raised hopes by matching her personal best of 88kg in Snatch but fell short in her preferred clean and jerk discipline.

Paralympics 2024: India’s unprecedented success

India delivered its best-ever performance at the 2024 Paralympic Games, winning 29 medals, including 17 in athletics, 5 in badminton, 4 in shooting, 2 in archery and one in judo. Shooter Avani Lekhara’s twin golds ignited the spirit for the Indian contingent before Sumit Antil defended his javelin crown and Mariyappan Thangavelu continued a historic streak, along with Harvinder Singh’s groundbreaking archery gold were some of the magic moments that will find mention whenever Indian Paralympics history is discussed.