Although the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics is set to be held on Saturday, India’s campaign begins on Friday with archers Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat, Bhajan Kaur, Pravin Jadhav, Tarundeep Rai and Dhiraj Bommadevara in action in the women’s and men’s individual ranking rounds. India had won seven medals at the Tokyo Olympics, which is the most the nation has won in a single edition of the Games. While it was rare to see the country win more than one medal in an edition of the Games throughout the 20th century, India has never returned without winning at least two since the 2004 Olympics. They will now be looking to surpass their record haul in Tokyo and for that, India will be looking to their leading medal hopefuls. There are realistically about 10 medal contenders out of the 117 athletes that make up the Indian contingent and here, we take a look at the challenges that some of the leading contenders face in their quest for Olympic glory.
1. Neeraj Chopra up against Arshad Nadeem and Jakub Valdlejch
Neeraj is the reigning world and Olympic champion and is the only Indian in Paris who is a clear favourite to win gold. This wasn’t the case in Tokyo, where Neeraj was a clear contender to win a medal but wasn’t sen as a frontrunner to win gold. Here, he maybe the leading contender but he would need no reminding of the abilities of Jakub Valdlejch of the Czech Republic and Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan. Valdlejch has been the only consistent rival to Chopra since Tokyo 2020, where he had won silver. Nadeem, on the other hand, has struggled with consistency but can blow the competition away on his day, as he showed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games where he breached the 90m mark and beat Chopra to the gold medal despite carrying an injury.
2. Men’s hockey team’s precarious group stage
The Indian men’s team goes into these Olympics ranked seventh in the world. They are in Group B, which includes sixth-placed Argentina, fourth-placed Australia and reigning gold medallists Belgium, who are third in the world. Australia, in particular, will be a significant challenge for India to overcome. At the Tokyo Olympics, where they won bronze, their sole defeat in the group stage was against Australia and that was a bruising 7-1 thrashing in the opening game. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games final, Australia beat India 7-0 and more recently, they beat India a 5-0 in April.
3. PV Sindhu’s recent struggles and possible showdown with Chen Yu Fei
2023 was a grim year for PV Sindhu. She had been on the sidelines for a lengthy period after winning gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games due to a knee injury. She was a seeded player at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, where she won silver and bronze respectively, but she goes into the Paris Games ranked 12th in the world. She has a win-loss record of 15-9 since returning from the injury. However, there have been bright sparks going into these Olympics at the Malaysia Masters in May, where she reached the final, and in Singapore where she almost beat Carolina Marin for the first time in six years. There is a sense that pre-tournament doesn’t really matter when it comes to Sindhu as she tends to be at her best in the big moments. In Paris, she has been drawn into a comfortable group. She could face He Bing Jiao, whom she beat in the bronze medal in Tokyo, in the round of 16 and then could be up against reigning gold medallist Chen Yu Fei, who unlike Sindhu has been in very good form, in the semifinals. Both players have won six games each against each other but Sindhu might just be the underdog going into that match.
Like Sindhu, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have been drawn into a comfortable group. Unlike Sindhu, the star men’s doubles pair have shown impressive form over the past two years and are among the top contenders to win a medal. They are not really seen as frontrunners for gold though, that would Chinese top seeds Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, whom they could face in the semifinals. Satwik and Chirag have won once against Liang and Wang and lost five, including their last three matches.
5. No Turkish delight for Nikhat Zareen
The two-time boxing world champion is making her Olympic debut and she is an obvious contender for gold in the women’s 50kg category. However, Zareen herself has identified Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu as her biggest challenge in her hunt for gold. She had sparred with Cakiroglu as part of her preparation for the Olympics. The Turkish boxer had won silver at the Tokyo Olympics and a gold at the 2022 World Championships.
6. Vinesh Phogat looking to break the Olympic curse
Vinesh Phogat might just be the greatest example of how cruel sport can be on an athlete. She was among the gold medal contenders at Rio 2016 but a career-threatening injury ended her run in the quarterfinals. She came back strong despite having to change her weight class and was a top contender again at the Tokyo Olympics, only to be stunned in the quarterfinals once again. She took an extended break from the sport as she became a leading figure in the protests against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and then secured an Olympic quota on her first attempt. Vinesh is unseeded which means she could face a difficult opponent in the early rounds itself. This includes Japan’s seeming inconquerable Yui Susaki. She won gold without losing a point in Tokyo and holds four World Championship gold medals, three in the 50kg category that she and Vinesh will be competing in. Needless to say, Vinesh faces an uphill battle if she meets Sasaki early on and may have to depend on the repechage rounds, considering the fact that it will be the shock of all shocks if Sasaki doesn’t reach the final.