Why athletics was a no-show for India in Paris Olympics 2024?

When Asian Games concluded in October 2023, with the Indian athletics contingent winning a whopping 29 medals, there was hope that in 10 months time we would be putting up our strongest performance ever in Olympics 2024. That, unfortunately remained an unfulfilled dream. Apart from Neeraj Chopra, Avinash Sable and the men's relay team to some extent there was no fight offered by any of our athletes which made them look like serious medal contenders. So, where did it all go wrong?

Annu Rani at Paris Olympics <Courtesy: Olympics>

I pointed this out in a tweet of mine but I believe a majority of our athletes peaked for the Asian Games with almost everything going downhill from there either due to lack of prep, focus or injuries.

Harmilan Bains, Ancy Sojan Edappilly, Tajinderpal Singh Toor and Kishore Jena all suffered injuries post Asian Games with Harmilan and Ancy missing out on Olympic qualification

Jyothi Yarraji was posting a string of sub 13 second times prior to her injury in the 110 metres hurdles event. She recovered in time to qualify for Olympics but she could neither recover her pace nor her form bowing out before the semifinals

Vithya Ramraj promised great things when she equaled P.T. Usha's 40 year old national record in 400m hurdles at the Asian Games where she romped home with three medals. With the Olympic qualification in hurdles still very much in sight, Vithya surprisingly decided to focus on the women's relay event but her season's timing in 400m was not where it should have been if she wanted to help the relay team turn a corner. In fact in all of the women relay team members, only Jyothika Sri Dandi was world class. How I wish she qualified in the individual 400m event too!
Poovamma did marginally better in the June Inter-State meet than at the Olympics

The same is the case with Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan who was hovering near the qualification mark for 400m hurdles but dropped it in favor of a relay spot which once again didn't help anyone's cause. I would like to make a point here based on my observation of relay teams. Each of the top three men's relay teams had members who were serious contenders in the other sprint events. USA had Rai Benjamin who won gold in 400m hurdles, Botswana was anchored by Letsile Tebogo who triumphed in 200m and made the 100m final, Great Britain was powered by Matthew Hudson-Smith who aced the silver in 400m sprint. Even Japan, who broke our continental record in the relay final, had Yuki Joseph Nakajima and Fuga Sato who qualified and competed in the individual 400m event. We need sprinters who can qualify in the individual track events and run in the sub-45 range to boost our chances of contending for a medal

Jeswin Aldrin's interminable decline needed guidance. Others like Annu Rani, Praveen Chithravel and Abdulla Aboobacker have been off the boil since winning accolades at the Asian and Commonwealth games respectively

Sarvesh Kushare's run to Olympics qualification was impressive to say the least. His 2.25m jump at the inter-state meet was a SB for him but he too fizzled out under the intense glare of competition finishing with a 2.15m jump when a 2.24 could have a garnered him a shot in the finals

Finally, we missed both Shankars, Tejaswin and Murali. If only the Olympics happened a year ago we might have had a few more memorable moments to cherish. There's always a tomorrow to look forward to but this Olympics could have been so much more than what it turned out to be.

Until Next Time,

Your regular sports fan

PS: There's no question that Indian athletes are definitely on the rise but they need a guiding hand to maximize their off season and peak at the right time. Let's come back stronger the next time around.

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