Indian Atheletes in Paris 2024 Olympics review: Season records fail to convert to medals

None of the Indians competing made a personal best attempt, four season’s best attempts were recorded — by Parul Chaudhary in the women’s 5000m and 3000m steeplechase events, by Neeraj in the qualification round (89.34m) and in the final (89.45m), and finally by the Indian men’s relay team, who clocked a time of 3:00.58 to finish fourth in their heat.

As Neeraj Chopra’s javelin soared through the Parisian night sky in the final, it wasn’t hard to wonder why that performance was a one-off in athletics. That Chopra has come to symbolise excellence isn’t a surprise; he has shown time and again that the only way for him is up. However, at the Games, from an Indian athletics point of view, the only thing that had an upward trajectory was Chopra’s javelin.

The disappointment didn’t come from the absence of other medals. It came because of a string of less than ideal displays right across the board. In events like athletics where a lot of Indians aren’t necessarily contenders at the global level, you look for other things like season bests, personal bests, national records, advancing to the semifinal… small increments to show they are on the right path.
It didn’t transpire that way. Take for instance both of Jyothi Yarraji’s runs in Paris. Over the last year, she has become a consistent sub 13 seconds operator. In this time, she has also won Asian honours apart from lowering the national record. On that purple Mondo track though, the 24-year-old clocked outside of the 13.15 seconds mark both times.

Shot-putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor, a serial-medallist at the Asian level and a consistent 19.25m+ operator, had one mark in qualifying. 18.05m. The last time he had a worse mark than that was in 2019. The last time he had dipped below 18.5m was in October 2022.

These sort of examples aren’t just limited to Toor or Yarraji. Kishore Jena, an athlete who threw 87 at the Asian Games last year, didn’t breach the 81m mark. Annu Rani, whose national record is 63.8m, had a best of 55.8 in Paris. Sarvesh Kushare in the high jump was another whose mark left one scratching their head in dismay.

At his best, he can clear 2.2m most days. In Paris, he managed only 2.15m and crashed out in the early stages of the qualification process. In all, only three individuals managed to achieve their bests of the year in Paris; Parul Chaudhary, Chopra and the men’s relay team in the 4/400.

Just before the Olympics, Adille Sumariwalla, head of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), in an interaction with this daily, had said: “We hope to do better. I’m not worried about medals. All I am saying is we will do better in every way. Whether in terms of the number of athletes in the final or the number of athletes who may get a medal or performance-wise… a number of national records and personal best.”

In all, two athletes qualified for the final (Chopra and Sable), one athlete got a medal, zero athletes broke national records or personal bests.

To be fair to Sumariwalla, Indian athletics has had some historic firsts in the recent past. At the Asian level, they are the clear frontrunners, winning machines even. At the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, there were a number of glass-shattering moments. Two years later, however, that excitement has been tempered, at least for the time being.

But, and this is the thing, the sport needs multiple jaw-dropping performances at the elite level. In a document released by the government of India in July, `96.08 cr was spent on the sport out of `470 cr spread across 16 sports. To justify that expenditure, the returns on investment have to be faster.

In that same interview, Sumariwalla had made a prediction that at the 2028 Games in LA, they will be in the reckoning for medalling in all three of the longer relays. The race starts now.