Skills, hard word, capabilities are what one requires to be successful and be an achiever. But sometimes, luck, destiny, and fate can throw its card. One can say, similar happened with some of our Indian athletes who excelled in their field but their luck worked hard on a particular day and they ended up losing with a minimal score in Olympic events.
Olympic Games are the leading international sporting events that feature a lot of summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes take part worldwide. Some of the well-known names who got victory are Vijender Kumar, Sushil Kumar, Abhinav Bindra, P.V. Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Mary Kom, etc. But there are some heartbreaking instances which are still remembered and create a sad atmosphere around us. Though they lost the medal, they won millions of hearts.
Milkha Singh
He is popularly known as The Flying Sikh, is an Indian former track and field sprinter, who also served in the Indian Army. He was introduced in the sport when he was a part of the army. He also won an individual athletics gold medal at a Commonwealth Games until Krishna Poonia won the discus gold medal at the Commonwealth Games 2010, and until then he was the only Indian athlete to win it.
He holds various medals and rewards due to his excellence and some of them being, a gold medal which he was on 1958 and 1962 Asian Games and Padma Shri as well which is considered as India’s fourth-highest civilian honor.
But his luck did not work at the 1960 Rome Olympics. He is the greatest runner of all times but he missed out on a podium finish agonizingly in the 1960 Rome Olympics. Probably, he must have had heartbreak due to his small mistake which caused him the position of the winner on that day. It was a 400-meter race, in which he looked over his shoulder midway, and due to which his speed slowed down for a fraction of seconds and he lost. Otis Davis won the race after tying with Carl Kaufmann at 44.9 seconds which resulted in photo-finish. The timing rules Davis as the winner by just 0.01 seconds, Kaufmann completed at 45.08 whereas Davis at 45.07. The third spot was sealed up by Malcolm of South Africa at 45.08, who was just 0.1 seconds faster than our Flying Sikh.
P.T. Usha
Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha who is another gem of India lost due to minimal score. She is a retired Indian track and field athlete and has been associated with Indian athletics since 1979. She got Padma Shri in 1985 and Arjuna Award in 1983. She represented India in 4x200 meters relay with Rachita Mistry, E. B. Shyla, and Sarawati Saha at the 1998 Asian Championships in Athletics where her team won the gold medal and also set the current national record of 44.43 seconds. She has won various medals in Asian Games and Championships. Thus she is often called the ‘Queen of Indian track and field’.
P.T. Usha finished the race at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Champion track and field race at fourth position with a time difference of one-hundredth of a second. Nawal Moutawakal from Morocco won the gold medal and Louise from Sweden won the silver. The reason behind her loss as claimed by Usha herself was that she was forced to eat just rice porridge with some pickle, which obviously lacks nutrition value required by an athlete.
Joydeep Karmakar
He is an Indian shooter hailing from Kolkata, West Bengal. In 1994, he became a Junior National Champion in his first Nationals. He also qualified to represent India at the 2012 Summer Olympics in Men’s 50 m Rifle Prone event. He is a recipient of the Arjuna Award.
He lost at the 2012 London Olympics and finished at the fourth position in the 50 m rifle prone event. Scoring 595, he entered into the finals along with the other 4 participants. At the third position was Raymond Debevec with 596 points. They had to take 10 shots which were added to the total score. Joydeep Karmakar’s 10 shots were all in 10’s but just due to earlier 1 point difference cost him his medal.
Abhinav Bindra
He can be called as a multi-talented person as he is an Indian businessman and as well retired professional shooter who is a former World and Olympic champion in the 10 meter Air Rifle event. He became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games by winning a gold medal in 10 meter Air rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
He missed out narrowly in winning a medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He secured the fourth position in the final of the men’s 10- meter air rifle final at the Olympic Shooting Center. He was doing well but due to some shots, he lost the medal and scored 163.8 points.
Dipa Karmakar
She is an India artistic gymnast and has showcased amazing skills in her field. She won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, becoming the first Indian female gymnast to do so.
She represented India at the 2019 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, becoming the first Indian female gymnast ever to compete in the Olympics. She finished fourth in the women’s individual vault final and missed out the bronze medal with just a whisker. Simone Biles, an American gymnast won her third gold medal at 15.966, whereas Maria Paseka scored 15.253 and Giulia Streingruber was able to secure the third position at the score of 15.216, which was just 0.150 points more than Karmakar.
Ups and Downs are what defines life, and due to such small differences, the skills of these legends do not become less appreciable. They have won hearts and will continue to do so, India is proud of these gems!