4 times when India failed to win a medal at the Olympic Games ft. 1992 Barcelona Olympics
Athletes and sports fans from around the globe are gearing up for the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024. India made its debut appearance at the Olympics in 1900 and this will be the 25th edition of the Summer Games that they will be competing in. In 24 Olympic Games participations so far, India has won a total of 35 medals. Out of the 35, 10 have been gold, 9 silver, and 16 bronze medals. Their best performance so far at the global event has been at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, where the Indian contingent finished with a total of 7 medals.
However, India has not always returned with a podium finish from the famed games. There have been times when the nation has had to face disappointment and make do without any Olympic medals at all. In fact, India had to go through a 16 year drought where its athletes could not manage to win any medals.
4 occasions where India has failed to win a medal at the Olympics
1992 Barcelona Olympics
Having gone through a disappointing run at the Olympics that ran right through the 1980s, India ventured into the 1992 games in Barcelona with no medals to show from the previous 2 editions. Indian athletes would have hoped to start the decade with a positive turnaround. As fate would have it, however, the Indian contingent was unsuccessful yet again and ended the 1992 event with no medals either. India had turned up with a strong contingent of 53 athletes and though they tried their best, they could not manage a medal-winning performance in any event.
1988 Seoul Olympics
Following the Los Angeles Games in 1984, India had yet another disappointing performance at the 1988 event in Seoul, South Korea. India competed in 7 disciplines, which included a debut appearance in archery along with participation in tennis, swimming, boxing, hockey, athletics, and table tennis. However, the contingent of about 20 athletes could not manage to break the jinx and the country ended up with another Olympic campaign where its athletes came home without any medals on their shoulders.
1984 Los Angeles Olympics
The 1984 Summer Games held in Los Angeles were the event that initiated a 16-year medal drought for India, finally broken by tennis star Leander Paes with a bronze in 1996. However, even in Los Angeles, things could have been different for India if it was not for a heartbreaking 4th position finish for iconic track and field athlete PT Usha. Competing in the 400m hurdles finals, Usha missed out on a historic podium finish for India by the extremely narrow margin of one-hundredth of a second, which eventually rounded off India’s campaign with no medals won.
1976 Montreal Olympics
The Summer Games in 1976 were the first since 1928 in which the Indian men’s field hockey team did not win a medal, signaling a very disappointing edition for the nation. Coming off a lone bronze medal win at the 1972 games in Munich, the Indian contingent would have hoped to turn up with better performance and results at Montreal, but instead had a campaign worse than '72 as they had to return home empty-handed.