India at 2024 Paris Olympics

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*India at the Paris Olympics 2024- the preview  by Nitin Sanker part 1 of 4 *

 

Aha it is that time again with the Olympics round the corner and let us see where we are.  A double digit number or just a rio like  situation lets uncover the truth together

 

This three part series would start with the overall Olympic team  and go through the major sports ( I am excluding 5 sports in this coverage – tennis , rowing , sailing , judo , equestrian where if come in the top 20 or so that would be good ). I will be covering the other 11 sports   in alphabetical order  and then end with my predictions ( including the world famous eat my hat prediction ) . so let’s get down to business

 

 

*Overall*

 

We have *113 sportspeople in 16 sports* who will be donning Indian colors in Paris in less 2 weeks. This is smaller than our best performing squad which was Tokyo 2020. That squad had *122 athletes in 18 sports* ( we do not have representation in Gymnastics and fencing this time ) (see table1). In fact this squad is even smaller then our rio squad ( 117 ). But on the plus side we have a 92 event – participation which is the highest ever ( compared to 89 in 2020 Tokyo ). Remember each event participation can win us a medal . where a 16 member men’s hockey squad can only win 1 medal    technically  a single shooter like manu  can win 3 medals because she has a participation in three events. 

 

Let us run through sports one after the other now. In alphabetical order that brings us to archery

 

*Archery* - this sport has been a heart breaker for me , because we have won many world championship medals , come to the quarter finals at least 5-6 times in recent Olympics to my recollection ( including 3 times in Tokyo alone ) but have never crossed the QF stage. So high quality but low output.

First the good news we have the full squad of 6 (for only the third time  , which means we will have the maximum participation possible – a 9 event-participation ( 3 each  in women’s and men’s singles , Men’s, women’s and mixed team ) . well no one is really standing out as a true medal hopeful but many decent players who with a bit of luck can medal.

 

We do have chances with Bhajan and Deepika in women's individual , Dhiraj and Tarundeep in men's individual , the  men's team ( which accomplished the rare feat of defeating Korea in the recurve mens team event in a world cup ) and the mixed team. We have been doing well with an average medal haul of 1.6 medals in the world cups. But and that is iust a big big BUT we have as always not been able to perform in the crunch moments including that we did not qualify at  any of the qualifiers but had to get through using the world ranking criteria .

 

So long and short of it I would say a 50-50 chance of  One medal across all the events

 

*Athletics* -

 

Indian atheletics had to often content itself with finals performances and almost there stories. But of course things are different becasuse we have Neeraj chopra ( current Olympic , world and Asian champion in our midst). Of course the remarkable Neeraj ( he has always medalled in every event he has participated in since 2018 as per statistics ) remains our best bet , we would definitely with his consistency expect a medal ,

 

it would need a very good performance from weber( GER ) , Jakub Vadlejch( CZE) , Nadeem( PAK )   or Peter(GRN) to take away gold from Neeraj , An average performance by neeraj should easily beat the average performances by any of the others. SO obviously Gold hopeful.

 

Other than neeraj , finals appearance by Indians in athletics is far and few ( 2 in Tokyo , 1 in rio etc ) so if we can get 2 more finals appearance that would be an improvement , Here the remarkably hard working Avinash Sable in Steeplechase ( he recently broke the national record for the 13^th time ) , the mercurial mens 4*400 squad who finished 5^th in the world championship , Kishore Jena in Javelin , Annu Rani In womens javelin , Parul in womens steeplechase are probably the best bets ( kishore, Annu and Parul all  have not been in good form though ) . So One medal Possibly  Gold  very likely and 1-2 other finalists.

 

*

[nitinsanker 202]

*India at the Paris Olympics 2024- the preview  by Nitin Sanker part 2 of 4 *

 

Lets see , we had a medal count of 1.5 ( after athletics and archery ) , so let us take the next few sports in alphabetical order

 

*Badminton*

 

Badminton is the only sport other than wrestling where we have consistently medaled in the last 3 Olympics. So we are looking towards Badminton at Paris  with hope in our eyes and dreams in our heart . We have 5 quota Places in Badminton with 2 in Men singles ( lakshya and Prannoy ) , 1 in women singles ( the incomparable PV Sindhu ) , 1 in Men doubles ( Satwik and chirag affectionately called Satchi ) and 1 in Women’s Doubles *Ashwini and Tanisha* , Of these I am not focusing on The WD pair as they are ranked around 21  and really cannot be expected to produce any major results.

 

So lets look at the rest –

 

let’s start with my all-time personal favorite sportsperson – *the truly great PV Sindhu* , She is on the verge of GOATness  - if she medals here in Paris  she would be the first womens player ever to get 3 women’s Singles  medals ( Susi  susanto has 2 , same as PVS ) .  Sindhu  has been injured, not in great form and struggling a bit. Now coming to the current draw she is luckily seeded 10^th, she should reach the round of 16 , but then she faces tough Chinese opponents in the round of 16 and QF so tough but not impossible . I am putting her as having a shot for medal because PVS is still PVS -  a great big tournament player who brings her best to each key tournament. Second her winning percentage in 2024 is 62.5 percentage  ( 63% in 2016 , 62% in 2021  ) so not too bad. This is the lady I will be really rooting for

 

*Lakshya sen* - Unseeded , has been in decent form though and has defeated most of the top players at one time or other . But draw is a bit unkind and placed him in the same group as Jonathan Christie ( seeded 3^rd ) , he has a poor head to head record against Jo-Jo ( 0-3   though all three matches were 3-setters ) , so very difficult but not fully impossible to climb out of the group  into the round of 16 and then move up

 

*Prannoy* - he has been ill with a severe gastro problem and has been in very poor form this year but a classy player , still he is seeded 13^th and hence will most likely  reach the round of 16 but tough after that

 

*Satchi in Mens doubles* -  Here are chances are bright , they have won a world championship medal and have been world number 1 , defeated all the top players. In the olymp[ics they have been seeded number 3 .  They are in the same 4 member group as Alfian and Adriano ( INA )  ( they have a 3-2 head to head record against them ) along with two weak doubles pairs , they should top the group and reach the quarters where I think again they should get through , Semis may be a toss up so a medal and even Gold can happen here.  

 

So let us  say a 1.3 medals chances  from badminton .

 

*Boxing* -  Boxing at least at the world championship level has been the best olympic sport of all for India. We currently in this world championship cycle have 5 world championship medals ( 2 Gold medals in women and 3 bronze medals in mens ), so Boxing should be a good sport for us at Paris.

 

 but there are caveats 1 )  IBA which is the world body conducting the world championships has been blacklisted by the IOC , the championships had  many countries boycotting so the medals do have maximal sheen 2) Our NOC handling this has been having few problems where they changed the methods of selections midway , the high performance director Bernard Dunne was sacked after poor results in mens qualifiers

 

But I feel we have definitely 4 major medal prospects – Nikhat( 50 kg )  and Lovlina ( 75 kg )  in the women and Amit( 51 ) and  Nishant ( 71 ) .

 

In fact even the other two hard hitting feisty preeti ( 54) and lanky Jaismine ( 57 ) do have some chance because boxing has a  low number of quota places, just  two-three  winning bouts and you are in the semis ( all semifinalists in boxing get medals ) . But let us focus on our best bets . all four of whom have won world championship medals

 

*Amit Panghal* – a great name of Indian boxing , has won every medal you can -  Asian Gold , Commonwealth , world championship[ silver . But He had a terrible Tokyo where seeded one he lost in the first round. Amit at 28 is wily and very experienced, he has fought his way into the Indian team after  Deepak bhoria had replaced him. I feel he is very very determined to redeem himself at the Olympics and get the one medal he lacks , on the counter side he has not had a lot of top level matches since he was  dropped from the national side

 

Nishant dev – A world bronze medallist he is a fearless boxer , he was in rehab throughout 2022 but has bounced back with decent results after that. He has lost crucial fights in the quarters at the asian games and the qualifiers so at the highest level slight question marks but  he can  medal . I would say decent chances . Between the two men I am hoping for one medal

 

Nikhat Zareen – The telengana tigress is one of the best women boxers in her category a winner of two world championship golds, she rarely loses , she lost a semi finals  medal match in the Asian Games but in the last couple of years she has just lost twice , I feel strong prospect of a medal and can go for Gold as well.

 

Lovlina Borgohain – has an Olympic medal and 3 world championship medals ( 2 bronzes and a gold ) , so definitely a much storied boxer again at her prime ( 26 years ) , she is bit unfortunate in her seeding , which is 8^th . she is likely to face world number 1 Li Qian in the QFs , she lost to li qian in the Asian games but defeated her in the world championships earlier , so this is a  bit of a toss up

 

But overall I am expecting 2 medals from Boxing factoring in the long shots as well.

[Prashanth 175]

Please find the day wise schedule of Indian participation in the thread. Would post results in the individual threads created by @Fly_like_a_don for more indebt discussion. Day wise results would be posted in the day schedule.

[Indian Sports fan 5]

Here are the sporting arenas where Indian athletes will compete at Paris 2024!

 

 

[Indian Sports fan 5]

Live Updates blog for Paris 2024: https://thesportsgram.in/2024/07/20/india-at-paris-2024-live-updates/

Edited July 21 by Indian Sports fan

[Siddhartha Talukdar 234]

Watch the most comprehensive analysis of our Indian athletes in 2024 Olympics with @Fly_like_a_don @nitinsanker and @Roamingrover86

 

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[Roamingrover86 856]

Team  building in Olympic Village 

[Roamingrover86 856]

Our Flag bearers for opening Ceremony in Olympic Village 

 

[tirtha22 233]

India has won a total of 3 Olympic Medals on August 11 across different editions of the Olympic Games.

 

Abhinav Bindra  🥇 in Shooting

 

Indian Men's Hockey team 🥇 at 1932 Olympics

 

Yogeshwar Dutt 🥉 in Men's Wrestling 

There is a chance for India securing a medal on August 11 at the Paris Olympic Games 2024    where India and Reetika Hooda will make their debut in the Women's 76 Kg wrestling event.

 

[tirtha22 233]

At the 2018 Commonwealth games, Manika Batra won 🥇 using her pimpled rubber bat surface

 

At the Paris Olympics 2024   , her secret weapon is termed as "Bhangra Twiddle" which is quickly switching grips from Backhand to Forehead or vice versa to confuse the opponents.

 

The term twiddling comes from the novel Alice in Wonderland whereas the hand movements during twiddling resembles similar moves from the Punjabi dance form called Bhangra.