India has sent a fair enough contingent to the Olympics this time around, with as many players and athletes as 129 members led by Neeraj Chopra, India’s Tokyo Olympics Gold medalist. India expected to increase their medal tally to double digits; however, now it seems they cannot even keep up their medal tally of 7 from the last Olympics in Tokyo.
After Manu Bhaker’s initial success with 2 bronze medals alongside Sarbajot Singh and Swapnil Kusale, also emerging medal holders, India missed on near medals in the following days. From previous Olympic champions PV Sindhu to Mirabai Chanu, who missed on medals, to 5 near-bronze medals that the team India missed on, including that of Lakshya Sen.
Lastly, India faced one of the most disappointing losses in a definite Olympic encounter that could have assured them a medal, that of Vinesh Phogat, who created history by going into the first-ever Olympic final. A controversial disqualification ruled Phogat out of the 50 kg women’s freestyle finals as her weight was measured to be 50.1 kg, and with an additional 100 grams, she was ruled out of contention.
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Mirabai Chanu was the silver medalist from Tokyo; she was another of India’s major medal contributors; however, she lost the 49 kg weightlifting finals by just a point. Some bunch of injuries caused trouble in her Olympic dream, as she missed the bronze by just a single point, scoring 199, a point less than Thailand’s S. Khambao’s 200 points for the Olympic bronze.
Just before Day 13, let’s take a look at India’s historic day at the Olympics
- One of the first major contributors to rise for medal contention will be India’s Tokyo Olympics pride, Neeraj Chopra. He entered the finals and will compete for gold; however, any medal will see him as India’s best-ever athlete with the best record in any individual event.
- Another significant medal match would be the Indian hockey team, who fought hard in the semis against Germany only to lose 3-2; however, now they will have a face-off against Spain for the bronze medal match.
- Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar will see India off in the Women’s Individual Stroke Play Round 2 of Golf.
- Aman Sehrawat vs. Vladimir Egorov in the Men’s 57kg Freestyle Round of 16. If he qualifies, he will play in the quarterfinal and semifinal games on the same day as well.
- Anshu Malik, on the other hand, will play against Helen Louise Maroulis in the Women’s 57kg Freestyle Round of 16 again, with the quarterfinals and semifinals placed on the same day.