Team India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant lauded the Indian athletes for their performances at the recently concluded Paris Olympics 2024. India has sent a 117-member contingent to participate in 69 sporting events across 16 disciplines.
India has clinched six medals, including a silver by Neeraj Chopra (javelin throw) and five bronze by Manu Bhaker (women's 10m air pistol and mixed team), Sarabjot Singh (10m air pistol mixed team), Aman Sehrawat (wrestling) and Indian men's hockey team. However, India missed the seventh medal after Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the gold medal match as she was 100 grams more than the permissible limit of 50 kg, her category in wrestling.
Apart from medalists, there were Indian athletes who missed out on winning medals with the fourth-place finish, Manu Bhaker, Arjun Babuta, Mirabai Chanu, Lakshya Sen and others. Despite India having a moderate Olympic campaign, the Indian sports fraternity rallied behind their athletes and applauded their efforts.
Rishabh Pant joined the chorus support for the Indian athletes. Taking to his X handle (formerly Twitter), Pant emphasised the sacrifices that every athlete had to go through to fulfil their dream of representing India at the International level while asserting that athletes received great learnings from the games in order to prepare themselves for the next Olympics.
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"As an athlete myself I know the hardships and sacrifices all would have made to represent our nation at the highest level." the 26-year-old wrote on X.
"I'm sure all would have taken some great learnings from the games." he added.
The recently concluded Paris Olympics was the second best performance by India at the Summer Games. With six medals, Indian contingent equalled similar medal tally from the 2012 London Olympics. India's best performance came at the 2021 Tokyo Games, where they clinched seven medals, including a historic gold by Neeraj Chopra in athletics.
Achievements by Indian athletes at Paris Olympics
Apart six medals at the Paris Olympics, Indian athletes achieved historic feats. Manu Bhaker became the Indian shooter to win an Olympic medal and also being the first Indian athlete to win medals in the single edition of the Summer Games.
Both Manu Bhaker and Neeraj Chopra joined PV Sindhu and Sushil Kumar in the elite group of athletes from independent India who have won two Olympic medals.
Swapnil Kusale also made history by becoming the first Indian shooter to win an Olympic medal in the 50m air rifle 3 positions event. He was the first Indian rifle shooter to qualify for the final in this event as well.
Wrestler Aman Sehrawat became the youngest Indian athlete ever to win an Olympic medal, at just 21 years and 24 days old. He broke PV Sindhu's record, who was 21 years, 1 month, and 14 days old when she won a historic silver medal in badminton at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
