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List of India's fourth-placed heartbreaks in Olympics history: Indian athletes will be looking to put their best foot forward at the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024 as the nation aims for its best of outings at the sport's biggest extravaganza.

India's best performance in the Olympics came at the Tokyo Games in 2020 when they won seven medals including the historic gold medal for javelin throw star Neeraj Chopra.

Apart from the limited success India have achieved at the Olympics, there have been instances when the Indian athletes were left heartbroken for missing out on the podium finish despite being on the cusp of creating history.

If finishing last carries the feeling of embarrassment, securing the fourth place inflicts the pain of being so near yet so far.

It is an instance where the feeling of missing out on success by a close margin can either drive an athlete to future glory or leave them completely crushed.

India have had a history of witnessing close misses at the sport's grandest stage starting of which took place way back in 1956.

Here is a look at the instances when Indian athletes came close but ended at just that.

 

1956 Olympic Games, Melbourne: Football

The Indian football team made it to the final four after defeating hosts Australia 4-2 in the quarterfinals with Neville D'Souza becoming the first Asian to score a hat-trick at the Games.

Just when India came close to overcoming the last-four clash against Yugoslavia, the opponents made a comeback in the second half and clinched a victory.

In the bronze medal classification match, India lost to Bulgaria 0-3 and missed out on a podium finish.

 

1960 Olympic Games, Rome: Athletics

The legendary Indian athlete Milkha Singh missed out on a bronze by a whisker.

Considered a medal contender in the 400m final, the 'Flying Sikh' fell short by a mere 1/10th of a second after slowing down to steal a glance at his fellow competitors.

Milkha went on to recall and regret that error for the rest of his life.

 

1980 Olympic Games, Moscow: Women's Hockey

The Indian women's hockey team had a great chance to finish on the podium in their first attempt as top teams like the Netherlands, Australia and Great Britain boycotted the Moscow Games over the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan.

Losing their last match to USSR 1-3, India finished behind Zimbabwe, Czechoslovakia and the hosts, missing out on a medal.

 

1984 Olympic Games, Los Angeles: Athletics

Another heartbreak was witnessed in athletics when PT Usha missed the 400m hurdles bronze by 1/100th of a second.

This became the closest-ever miss for an Indian athlete in any competition.

PT Usha finished fourth behind Romania's Christina Cojocaru but her heroic effort helped her in becoming a household name and inspire the younger generation to take up the sport.

 

2004 Olympic Games, Athens: Tennis

It took a 20-year-long break before India suffered yet another fourth-placed heartbreak.

This time it was the Tennis where the celebrated duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi missed out on the podium at the Athens Games.

Arguably India's greatest doubles pair in tennis, Paes and Bhupathi missed out on a bronze medal after losing a marathon match to Croatia's Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic 6-7 6-4 14-16 to end fourth.

They had earlier suffered a defeat in the semi-final against the German duo of Nicholas Kiefer and Rainer Schuttler in straight sets 2-6 3-6.

At the same Games, Kunjarani Devi finished fourth in the women's 48kg weightlifting competition

Kunjarani finished with a total effort of 190kg, 10kg behind bronze-medallist Thailand's Aree Wiratthaworn.

 

2012 Olympic Games, London: Shooting

Shooter Joydeep Karmakar, who finished seventh in the qualification round of men's 50m rifle prone event, ended just 1.9 points behind the bronze medal winner in the finals.

 

2016 Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro: Gymnastics

Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian woman gymnast to compete at the Games but finished fourth overall with a score of 15.066, missing out on the bronze medal by 0.150 points.

Abhinav Bindra, who had created history in the 2008 Games with a historic Gold, missed the bronze medal by a whisker.

 

2020, Tokyo Olympic Games: Women's Hockey

After more than four decades, the Indian women's hockey team once again became a victim of the curse of the fourth-place finish.

Having defeated the three-time Olympic champions Australia to make the semifinal, India suffered a 0-1 defeat against Argentina.

In the Bronze Medal game, India did well to take a 3-2 lead over Great Britain but ended up losing the match 3-4 to miss out on the medal yet again.

At the same Games, golfer Aditi Ashok also experienced the agony of missing out on a historic podium finish.