Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar won a billion hearts by making the finals of the women's vault event at the Rio Olympics and missed out on a bronze medal by a whisker, finishing fourth overall. This wasn't the first time that an Indian athlete or team had gone within a touching distance of an Olympic medal. Here is a look at eight events in Olympic history in which a bronze medal was so close, yet so far, for India.
Milkha Singh at the 1960 Olympics in Rome (Athletics)
Speedster Milkha Singh, also known as the Flying Sikh, missed out on a bronze medal during the 1960 Olympics held in Rome. Participating in the 400 metres final and touted as a medal contender, Singh misjudged the race to be pushed to fourth at the finish by South Africa’s Malcolm Spence, by mere 1/10th of a second. Singh failed to win an Olympic medal in three events that he participated in.
Women’s hockey team at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow (Hockey)
The Indian women’s hockey team participated in the Olympics after a long gap of 36 years in Rio de Janeiro. The team last featured in an Olympics in the 1980 Moscow Games, where they finished fourth and missed out on bronze by a whisker. India just needed a draw against hosts USSR in their last match to bag the medal. However, they lost 1-3 and have gone downhill ever since.
PT Usha at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles (Athletics)
Known as the Payyoli Express, PT Usha was a household name during her athletics career. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she missed the 400-metre hurdles bronze by 1/100th of a second, making it the closest ever miss for an Indian athlete in any competition. She ended up fourth behind Romania’s Christina Cojocaru.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi at the 2004 Olympics in Athens (Tennis)
Arguably India’s greatest tennis doubles pair, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi missed out on a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics games in Athens. The Indian duo lost a marathon men’s doubles bronze-medal match to Croatia’s Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic 6-7 6-4 14-16 to come fourth.
Joydeep Karmakar at the 2012 Olympics in London (Shooting)
Shooter Joydeep Karmakar from Kolkata had finished fourth in rifle prone at the London Olympics. But exactly after 20 minutes, the Indian fans were all smiles as Vijay Kumar won silver in the 25-metre rapid fire pistol. However, for Karmakar, in the 50-metre rifle prone final, Slovenia’s Rajmond Debevec pushed him to fourth by 1.9 points.
Abhinav Bindra at the 2016 Olympics in Rio (Shooting)
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Abhinav Bindra made history by winning a gold medal in the 10m air rifle event and ended India's wait for an individual gold medalist at the Summer Games. However, eight years later, in his final Olympic appearance, he missed the bronze medal by a whisker.
Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna at the 2016 Olympics in Rio (Tennis)
Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna were India’s big medal hopes at Rio. After both bowed out in quick succession in their women's and men's doubles encounters respectively, the duo backed themselves for a medal in the mixed doubles event. However, they failed to play their best tennis and lost 1-6 5-7 to the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek in the bronze medal match.
Dipa Karmakar at the 2016 Olympics in Rio (Gymnastics)
Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian woman gymnast to compete at the Olympics in Rio. She was also the first Indian gymnast to compete at the Olympics in 52 years. However, after making the final of the women’s vault event, Karmakar finished fourth overall with a score of 15.066 and missed the bronze medal by 0.150 points.