117 athletes, six medals. To some, India's campaign at the 2024 Paris Olympics is a disappointment, but this is India's third-best performance ever at the Games. Six fourth-placed finishes represent the narrow margins of how these Games are perceived.
There's plenty of debate in the zeitgeist on India's performance, so perhaps the best way is to assign letter grades and have a final say.
Here's a report card for all of India's sporting contingents:
INDIA'S OLYMPIC MEDAL TALLY | INDIA AT PARIS OLYMPICS | LATEST OLYMPIC NEWS
Athletics: F and A+; did not meet expectations (barring a few)
India's expectations from athletics at an Olympics aren't high at the best of times, but the contingent repeatedly failed to meet their personal bests, which was the least one could ask from them. However, the likes of Parul Chaudhary, Avinash Sable and the men's 4x400m relay team came close to making some headlines, so maybe they don't deserve the low grade. For India's largest athletics contingent however, it was a terrible outing.
Neeraj Chopra wins silver but sets the gold standard for Indian sport
At the same time, technically, this is India's second-best athletics result at the Games. That one medal came from you-know-who, and while Neeraj Chopra's silver was a 'disappointment' to some, it was the second-best throw of his life and would have won gold if not for a freak, once-in-a-lifetime performance by Arshad Nadeem. A+, because gold and an Olympic record would have been S-tier.
Archery: C+; did not meet expectations
Deepika Kumari's Olympic hoodoo continued, and the likes of Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav disappointed as well. Only Dhiraj Bommadevara, Ankita Bhakat (somewhat) and Bhajan Kaur enhanced their reputations at the Olympics. A narrow fourth-placed finish, the first semifinal in Indian archery history is something to crow about, but given the time and investment poured into this 'priority sport', another Olympics without a medal after multiple World Cup wins will result in questions being asked.
The archers aren't as guilty, but the federation takes a lot of the blame for this low grade. The mix-up with the high-performance director and South Korean coach not being present alongside their wards in Paris needs looking into.
As Sharda Ugra put it best: Reboot.
Badminton: D; did not meet expectations
The bottom-line is this: India's badminton contingent did not win a single medal at the Olympics, for the first time since 2008. The highs of team wins (Thomas Cup in 2022 for the men, Badminton Asia Team Championships in 2023 for the women) in recent years haven't translated.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were expected to fight for gold but walked away with nothing, PV Sindhu's big-game performances deserted her, and HS Prannoy looked a shadow of himself, while not much was expected from Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa anyway. Lakshya Sen came away with some credit for overcoming a tough group and reaching the bronze medal matches, but the way he threw away advantageous positions means it's a low grade.
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Boxing: F; did not meet expectations by some margin
The defence of India's boxers will be that they were handed tough draws, but this is the Olympics - the draws will be tough at some stage anyway. Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina Borgohain, reigning world champions and tipped to win medals walked away with nothing, while Nishant Dev's impressive performances came unstuck.
There were a few complains about the judging, but this is also a sport where you can leave no doubts. The federation's selection policy was already under question after India's failures in the Olympic qualification tournament, and the acquiescing to the IBA meant India were poorly seeded in the draws. The federation needs a revamp -- the potential for medals is there amongst the boxers themselves. However, with boxing still not included in LA 2028, it may be a long wait for Nikhat Zareen and co.
Equestrian: B; met low expectations
Not much was expected from Anush Agarwalla, that he made it to the Olympics was a feat in itself. He finished 52nd but will hope that he can continue his good form on the circuit as he looks forward to the next Asian Games.
Golf: D; did not meet expectations
From the highs (and lows) of Tokyo, where Aditi Ashok finished an agonising fourth, it was all lows in Le Golf National. Shubhankar Sharma and Gaganjeet Bhullar weren't expected to bring home any medals but finishing spots of tied-40th and tied-45th was worse than expected, compounded with most images of them being in the rough or amidst wildflowers.
Aditi Ashok (tied-29th) and Diksha Dagar (tied-49th) will look back on Round 3 with plenty of regret, as apart from that day, they were performing to expectations. The low grade is simply because Aditi in an Indian jersey outperforms, and she could very well have earned a top 10 finish or even medal spots had she performed to her best. Three Olympics in, she will have only regrets to look back on, sadly.
The Indian golf community considered this the best quartet to ever represent India, but ultimately Olympic pressure told.
Hockey: A; exceeded expectations
Harmanpreet Singh, PR Sreejesh and co. overcame a slow start to fully embrace coach Craig Fulton's philosophy, and it showed. While the Tokyo bronze came out of nowhere and had its fair share of fortune, India's Parisian bronze was completely deserved, and their performances arguably deserved more.
For a team that was facing brickbats for ninth place at the World Cup last year, and middling performances in the Pro League, first back-to-back hockey medals in 52 years means they have permanently written their names in history. Not to mention it being a close-to-perfect farewall for the legend that is PR Sreejesh.
Fulton adapts to India as India adopt Fulton to win Olympics bronze
Judo: N/A
Tulika Maan's Olympic campaign lasted all of 28 seconds, as she was taken down by former Olympic and world champion Idalys Ortiz of Cuba. Qualifying for the Olympics was a surprise so despite the quick exit, it's hard to assess Tulika's performance.
Rowing: B; met low expectations
Balraj Panwar finished 23rd overall and was unable to fulfill his aim of becoming the first Indian to reach the semifinals proper, but for a person who only took up the sport a few years ago, it was a brief, but impressive outing.
Sailing: C+; slightly below low expectations
Vishnu Saravanan and Nethra Kumanan finished 18th and 21st respectively, and while they weren't expected to win any medals, their finishing spots were lower than expected. The pair weren't Olympic debutants by any means, so their experience from Tokyo didn't count for much. A slight disappointment for the Indian pair.
Shooting: A+; exceeded expectations
They finally did it. India's shooting contingent broke a 12-year shooting medal drought, and in some style. With three medals, India's shooters were the best performing contingent, and Manu Bhaker broke plenty of records on her way to winning two bronze medals. Sarabjot Singh and Swapnil Kusale's medals underlined how deep India's shooting well is, as well as justifying the functioning of the NRAI.
There were a few disappointments like Sift Kaur Samra and close finishes like Anantjeet Naruka - Maheshwari Chauhan, but the margins in a sport like shooting are razor thin.
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Swimming: B+; met low expectations
The fact that there were eight swimmers who finished behind 14-year-old Dhinidhi Desinghu is impressive, even if 23rd in the rankings doesn't read too well. Srihari Nataraj finished 33rd out of 46, which was slightly disappointing for India's best swimmer.
This is a sport that needs a lot of investment over the coming decades if India can even think of medals in it. We shouldn't be depending on universality quota much further.
Table-tennis: C and A; did not meet expectations (barring a few)
It's an even split along gender lines in Table-tennis. The men didn't do much, the women impressed. Sharath Kamal took a game off Fan Zhendong, but there was little more to cheer about. In contrast, Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula became the first Indian women to reach quarterfinals and dragged India along in the team event as well.
There's promise in India's table-tennis contingent, and it needs to be nurtured for a medal in LA 2028.
Tennis: B-; barely met low expectations
Not much was expected from Sumit Nagal, and his first-round exit to a higher-ranked player was expected. Rohan Bopanna had been breaking multiple records all year alongside Mathew Ebden, but while his tour partner won Olympic gold, Bopanna couldn't pull off anything alongside N Sriram Balaji.
Weightlifting: C+; didn't meet expectations
It was always a tall ask for Mirabai Chanu after she was coming back from injury, but she lifted below her best. 1kg behind the bronze medal shows the margins involved, and after Mirabai lifted her best snatch weight, hopes were high.
Two kilograms separate Mirabai Chanu and Olympic glory
Ultimately, Mirabai lost out in her pet clean-and-jerk event and will be disappointed to not have at-least walked away with a bronze medal, when her best (207kg) would have won gold. The federation meanwhile, have not nurtured the medallists of the Commonwealth Games, and that we could only send one athlete is poor. Introspection is the need of the hour.
Wrestling: B- and S; barely met low expectations (barring one superstar)
Let's get this out of the way, Vinesh Phogat put in an S-tier performance -- beating the unbeaten Yui Susaki was impressive enough, had she been allowed to fight her gold medal bout, she probably would have won, since she had a 2-0 record against Sarah Hildebrandt. The fact that she pulled all this off in a weight category below her usual one, after a year without training in the wrestling protests, and an unsupportive federation speaks volumes. But for 100 grams, this would have been India's finest wrestling performance ever. Technicalities aside, this was it. S-tier.
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Aman Sehrawat showed no signs of being overawed on his way to a bronze medal, belying his age. In contrast, Antim Panghal showed all the signs of a youngster feeling the Olympic pressure, while Reetika Hooda impressed in her debut. Anshu and Nisha had some misfortune, but overall the wrestling contingent did well despite the mess their federation is in.