Fourth Place Finishes at Olympics: Full List Events in Which Indian Athletes Narrowly Missed Out on a Medal

India’s ace shooter, Manu Bhaker was on the brink of history yet again as she was just one step away from her third medal at the Paris Olympics 2024. However, her fourth-place finish was not one that she expected as her campaign ended on a heart-breaking note.

Some might even consider that ending up fourth and missing out on a medal might be harsh in comparison to finishing last or not getting a medal in the first place.

Let us look back at instances where Indian athletes were on the brink of securing a medal. 

Antwerp 1920: Randhir Shine – Men’s 54 kg Freestyle Wrestling

During the bronze medal match, Shinde lost out to Great Britain’s Philip Bernard in the men’s featherweight freestyle clash.

Helsinki 1952: Keshav Mangave – Men’s 62 kg Freestyle Wrestling

After making his way to Round 5, Mangave suffered a defeat to USA’s Josiah Henson.

Melbourne 1956: Team India – Men’s Football

Probably the biggest moment in Indian football history, the Indian team were able to beat the hosts Australia to make their way to the bronze medal clash. However, the team suffered a 3-0 defeat to Bulgaria to finish fourth.

Rome 1960: Milkha Singh – Men’s 400m Athletics

The legendary sprinter was just 0.1 seconds away from the bronze medalist in the final event resulting in a heartbreaking fourth-place finish.

Rome 1972: Prem Nath – Men’s 57kg Freestyle Wrestling

In what was a different scoring system at the time, Prem was able to make his way to the seventh round but since he accumulated nine penalty points, he had to take fourth place. At the time the top three competitors with the fewest penalty points would take the medals.

Munich 1972: Sudesh Kumar – Men’s 52kg Freestyle Wrestling

Sudesh was also just a whisker away from claiming a bronze medal in the Munich Games but ended at fourth as he accumulated seven penalty points.

Los Angeles 1984: PT Usha – Women’s 400m Hurdles Athletics

The Payyoli Express, a popular nickname for the Indian runner, narrowly missed out on a bronze medal as she was behind the third-place winner by 1/100th of a second.

Los Angeles 1984: Rajinder Singh – Men’s 74 kg Freestyle Wrestling

The repetitive theme of wrestlers narrowly missing out on a bronze medal continued. Rajinder was in second place till the penultimate round where he suffered a defeat to the Albanian Saban Sejdi in the final.

Athens 2004: Leander Paes/ Mahesh Bhupati – Men’s Doubles, Tennis

The legendary Indian pair were defeated in the semi-final despite going past the likes of Switzerland who had Roger Federer and USA’s Andy Roddick but the duo suffered a defeat in the bronze medal match against Croatia’s Marco Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic.

Athens 2004: Kunjarani Devi – Women’s 48kg Weightlifting

The weightlifter was really close to a medal in 2004. She had lifted 82.5 kgs in the snatch and 107.5 kgs for the clean and jerk but the total was not enough for a medal finish.

London 2012: Joydeep Karmakar – Men’s 50m Rifle Prone Shooting

Joydeep was able to take up a final score of 699.1 which was 0.9 points short of the eventual bronze medalist, Rajmond Debevec from Slovenia.

Rio 2016: Abhinav Bindra – Men’s 10m Air Rifle Shooting

Eight years after claiming the historic gold medal, Bindra ended up at fourth after a shoot-off against Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish where the former hit a 10 but the latter was able to do better with 10.5.

Rio 2016: Sania Mirza/ Rohan Bopanna – Mixed Doubles Tennis

The legendary pair of Mirza and Bopanna were seeded fourth but fell short as they were beaten by Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka in straight sets to miss out on a bronze.

Rio 2016: Dipa Karmakar – Women’s Vault Gymnastics

After being the first Indian female to make it to the final of a gymnastic event and landing the Produnova Vault, she missed out on third place by just 0.15 points.

Tokyo 2020: Aditi Ashok – Women’s Golf

Despite being in her best form from the first round and consistently being in the hunt for a top-3 finish, she unfortunately dropped down to fourth in the final round where she was just behind by one stroke.

Tokyo 2020: Team India – Women’s Hockey

After making it to the semi-final for the first time in their history, their campaign ended on a heartbreaking note as they were beaten by Great Britain 3-4 to end their spell without a medal.

Paris 2024: Arjun Babuta – Men’s 10m Air Rifle Shooting

The Indian shooter was just 1.4 points away from being able to secure a medal. Babuta finished with a score of 208.4 while Croatia’s Miran Maricic did better with a score of 209.8.

Paris 2024: Dhiraj Bommadevara/ Ankita Bhakat – Mixed Team Archery

Despite a valiant effort from both the Indian archers, the pair fell to USA’s Brady Ellison and Casey Kaufhold 6-2 to miss out on a medal and end their campaign on a disappointing note.

Paris 2024: Manu Bhaker – Women’s 25m Air Pistol

A hat-trick of medals was on the cards after Bhaker had claimed two bronzes earlier. But despite taking second place in the qualifiers, she was not able to replicate her performance as she finished fourth after a shoot-off against Hungary’s Veronika Major.

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