"It's about being mentally strong" - 'Disappointed' Lakshya Sen opens up on historic 4th-place finish at Paris 2024 Olympics [Exclusive]
Having endured two heartbreaks in a span of 24 hours at the Paris Olympics, Lakshya Sen joined an elite list of Indian athletes to agonizingly fall short of a podium finish. Sen was India’s final hope to ensure that the badminton contingent did not return empty-handed but alas, as fate would have it, the Uttarakhand-born shuttler squandered a brilliant start to lose the men’s singles bronze-medal match 21-13, 16-21, 11-21 to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia.
That loss brought India’s 12-year badminton medal-winning streak at the Olympics to a screeching halt. It all started in London 2012 when Saina Nehwal returned with a bronze in women’s singles before PV Sindhu went one step further with a silver and a bronze in the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games, respectively.
Lakshya’s fourth-place finish is the fifth similar heartbreak featuring seven Indians across disciplines, ranging from archery to shooting to badminton. It began with shooter Arjun Babuta in the men’s 10m air rifle event, before the mixed archery team of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat experienced that fumbling feeling.
Pistol shooter Manu Bhaker, a two-time Paris medalist aiming for her third, also found herself in a similar position in the 25m final before the mixed skeet team, involving Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan, experienced the heartbreak with a close 43-44 finish.
So near yet so far for Lakshya Sen
Among all those, the 22-year-old Lakshya seemingly swallowed the hardest pill as he came tantalizingly close to scripting history by becoming the first Indian male shuttler to win an Olympic medal, not once but twice! Clearly devastated, Lakshya struggled to find answers on what exactly went wrong during the bronze-medal play-off against the Malaysian that shattered his dreams of winning an Olympic medal on debut.
“I came prepared, started well but then things started slipping out of my hands. I couldn’t hold on to my lead, and allowed him (Lee) to get back into the contest. He came back really well, credit to him..I found it tough to crack answers in the rallies,” Lakshya told Sportskeeda.
“It’s about being mentally strong even when the scores are not exactly in your favour, he held himself to get back strongly in the second half. There were a few unforced errors, but he really kept things tight in that second half,” he added.
When asked if it was the pressure of expectations in a big-ticket event like the Olympics that eventually led to his defeat, the soft-spoken Lakshya said he hasn’t got the time to analyze on the shortcomings.
“I’m obviously disappointed as the results didn’t go in my favor. As for the things which didn’t work, I will go back, sit and analyse. It’s a learning process, and I will try and work on getting better in the next tournament,” he said.
It was the second time in 24 hours that Lakshya lost after being in a comfortable position. In the semifinal against eventual gold medalist Viktor Axelsen on Sunday, Lakshya got himself to a handy seven-point lead in the second game after a closely fought 20-22 first game. However, Axelsen saved his best for the last and came back hard to beat the Indian.
Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, coach Vimal Kumar said he failed to fathom what exactly went wrong with his game in the last couple of days, as Lakshya was in medal contention throughout his campaign.
“I’m also trying to find the answer to what exactly went wrong. He has been playing really well throughout the campaign, showed great temperament to get the job done. He had the best chance of finishing on the podium, I hope he will take this learning to the next edition,” he said.