New Delhi, India (CNN/DT) — The competition was intense until the final shot. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, India’s Abhinav Bindra was neck and neck with his closest rival going into the last round of the men’s 10-meter air rifle.
With a nearly perfect shot, Bindra clinched India’s first-ever individual Olympic gold, marking a historic moment that many hoped would signal a turning point for the country after decades of underperformance at the Games.
Yet, 16 years and four Summer Games later, with only one additional gold medal to show, those aspirations have largely fallen short.
India, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, is the world’s most populous country, as recognized by the United Nations. In 2022, it surpassed Britain to become the world’s fifth largest economy and, last year, joined the ranks of just four countries to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon. Led by a prominent prime minister with significant global influence, India has made notable strides in many areas.
However, when it comes to the Olympics, India continues to underperform relative to its size and achievements.
India won just six medals in Paris, falling short of its record haul of seven at Tokyo in 2021.
The United States, with less than a quarter of India’s population, topped the charts with 126 medals followed by China with 91.
India ranked 71st in the medal table, below nations with much smaller populations including Georgia, Kazakhstan and North Korea.
India has now won just 41 Olympic medals in total since its debut in 1900, all at the Summer Games.
“There is no doubt that India has been an underperformer in the Olympics and generally in global sports,” said Ronojoy Sen, author of “Nation at Play: A History of Sport in India.”
“If you look at the population to medal ratio it is probably the worst.”
Among the bright spots for India in Paris, javelin ace Neeraj Chopra added silver to the gold he won at Tokyo 2020, and shooter Manu Bhaker clinched double bronze to become the first Indian woman to win two medals at the same Games.
Vinesh Phogat, known for her high-profile role in anti-sexual harassment protests, became the first Indian woman to qualify for a wrestling final in the women’s 50kg freestyle – only to be disqualified for failing to make her weight class. On Wednesday, her appeal for a silver medal was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
CNN reached out to the Indian Olympic Association for comment on the team’s performance in Paris.
Major Hurdles
India’s history of unrealized Olympic potential can be attributed to several factors, with a significant issue being the underinvestment in sports.
According to experts, New Delhi has never invested heavily in a national training program comparable to those of traditional Olympic powerhouses, which view gold medals as a symbol of national strength, as noted by Sen.
“For countries like the USA, China, and the former Soviet Union, sports were integral to their early national narratives and a means of gaining global recognition and glory,” he explained.
The most successful Olympic nations also excel in identifying and nurturing talent from a young age. For example, in China, training starts as early as when children can walk, Sen added.
Indian athletes frequently encounter obstacles such as insufficient funding and limited access to facilities, analysts point out.
“When people highlight that India, with its 1.4 billion people, has only (six) medals, it’s a misleading narrative,” said Boria Majumdar, sports analyst and author of “Dreams of a Billion: India and the Olympic Games.” “The reality is that 1.39 billion people lack access to adequate sports facilities.”
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India sends far fewer athletes and support staff to the Olympics than top teams like the US, Majumdar said. For example, 117 Indian competitors went to Paris, compared with nearly 600 Americans.
India also faces broader health challenges that impede development and curtail sporting potential from childhood, experts say.
India ranked 111th of 125 countries in the 2023 Global Hunger Index report. At 18.7%, it has the world’s highest child wasting rate – the number of children who are too thin for their height – reflecting acute undernutrition. More than one third of children under age 5 in India are stunted due to malnutrition, meaning they are too short for their age, according to the report.
“Until we address some of these basic concerns around nutrition, it will be very hard for us to achieve greater excellence at the highest level of sport where victories are counted in milliseconds,” Sen said.
Another challenge to Olympic progress is the additional barriers faced by women athletes in India, in what remains a deeply patriarchal nation.
“Right from childhood, when I started wrestling, people would tease me saying that ‘she’s a girl what can she do, why is she entering a male sport?’” said Sakshi Malik, an Indian wrestler who won bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Malik quit wrestling last year amid controversy over sexual harassment allegations against India’s wrestling chief, which saw Malik, Phogat and other wrestlers sleeping on the streets of Delhi for weeks demanding action.
“I gave up my sport which I love beyond all else for this fight because I bear that responsibility of protecting the younger athletes who come after me,” Malik said. “Things have to change.”
