The year 2024 that will be coming to an end in a matter of a week was packed to the brim with sporting action. The biggest of them all ¬being the 33rd Summer Olympics in Paris, with the French capital hosting the world’s largest multi-sporting event for an unprecedented third time.
The Indian contingent had lofty expectations upon arriving in the ‘City of Light’. It was only three years ago, after all, that the country had won seven medals, their biggest haul in Olympic history. And among those seven medals was a historic gold for javelin star Neeraj Chopra, who won India their first ever Olympic medal in athletics and became only the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal after legendary shooter Abhinav Bindra.
India’s Olympic campaign in Paris, however, did not turn out quite as expected. The Indian contingent comprising 117 athletes was expected to finally breach the double-digit mark in terms of medal count, but could only equal the six medals they had won in the 2012 London Olympics.
To make matters even more disappointing, India’s medal haul in London 2012 (2 silver and 4 bronze) was actually better than that in Paris 2024 (1 silver and 5 bronze) due to an additional silver medal.
Indian Paralympians shine brighter than ever in Paris
The Paris Games, however, weren’t a complete disappointment for India despite multiple heartbreaks and the failure to reach the 10-medal mark in the Olympics. The Indians had finished with 19 medals in the Tokyo Paralympic Games including five gold, and finishing 24th on the table.
Three years later, the Indian para-athletes would go further than ever; while the country was yet to collect more than seven medals in a single edition of the Olympics, they finished just one short of 30 in the Paris Paralympics in September, securing a top-20 (18th) finish on the medal table for the first time ever.
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