Top 10 Indian athletes who will miss Paris Olympics 2024

Two Tokyo medalists will miss the Paris Olympics in 2024.

The Paris Olympics are just around the corner and the excitement is increasing daily amongst the fans. India is sending a 117-member squad, five less than the Tokyo contingent. Some athletes have qualified for the first time, while there are some big names missing.

From Tokyo Olympic medalists to world champions, there are a lot of big names that have missed the bus to Paris due to injury, doping issues and so on. Let’s look at the top 10 Indian athletes who will miss Paris Olympics 2024:

10. Ravi Dhaiya

The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist is one such prominent name that will miss out on the Olympics. The 26-year-old suffered a knee injury last year and has ACL injuries, which are difficult to recover from. Ravi tried to make a comeback on the mat, but unfortunately, he lost the Asian Games and Olympic trials because he hadn’t fully recovered.

Hence, the dream to win a second medal was over for Dahiya in the men’s 57kg. Being a physically demanding sport, wrestling demands athletes be in peak physical shape and any injury can have a significant negative impact on performance.

9. Bajrang Punia

One of the top wrestlers in India, Bajrang Punia, is well-known for his accomplishments on the wrestling mat. Punia, who won a bronze medal at the Olympics in Tokyo 2020, will miss out on Paris and unfortunately, no Indian has qualified in that category.

He finished fourth at the Asian Games. He then lost his steam and lost the trials for the Olympic Qualifiers; thus, his journey for the Olympics ended. Punia is the most successful Indian wrestler at the World Championships, having won four medals.

8. Deepak Punia

The Tokyo Olympian Deepak Punia was determined to bring a medal this time for India after finishing a heartbreaking fifth at the Tokyo Olympics, losing the bronze medal match in the last 10 seconds. However, things didn’t go Punia’s way, as he failed to qualify for the Olympics. He failed to compete at the Asian Qualifiers due to a flight delay from Dubai caused by flooding in the region.

He was in good form before and having won the silver medal at the Asian Games, Deepak was expected to qualify easily. However, his luck didn’t help him. At the World Qualifiers, Deepak got a good draw, but he couldn’t capitalize on it as he lost to the Chinese wrestler in the first round. Thus, the dream of qualifying for Paris ended.

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7. Indian women’s hockey team

The Indian women’s hockey team, which won over millions of fans with their incredible performance in Tokyo 2020, just missed placing on the podium and failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics. After the highs of Tokyo, no one expected that the Indian women’s hockey team would fail to qualify for the Olympics. The Indian team had three chances to qualify for the Olympics.

They lost at the Asian Games to China in the semi-finals and then at the final Olympic Qualifier, they had two chances but failed to capitalize on them. India started with a loss against the USA and it was looking like their qualification dream was over, but they came back stronger to defeat Italy and New Zealand to qualify for the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals, they faced Germany and lost 3-4 in the shootout. In the bronze medal match, they faced Japan and it was expected that India would win, but the girls panicked, conceded an early goal and never recovered from that. Thus, their dream of qualifying for the Olympics was over. It was a disappointing performance because, despite having home advantage, they failed to qualify for the Olympics.

6. Bhavani Devi

Bhavani, the first Indian fencer who qualified for the Olympics, failed to qualify for the Paris Games. Bhavani, who had put India on the map of fencing and introduced a new sport to the Indian fans won’t be competing at the Paris Olympics.

At the Asian Qualifiers, Bhavani was the top seed and favourite to qualify for the Olympics, but she lost to Hong Kong’s Chu Wing Kiu, whom she had beaten in the pool. So, it was a bit disappointing for Bhavani, who started the match on a positive note but lost steam after that.

5. Parveen Hooda

The 2022 World Bronze medalist Parveen won the quota for India by winning the bronze medal at the Asian Games. However, she was handed a 22-month suspension for a whereabouts failure. As a result, her Olympic quota was nullified and India lost the quota in the women’s 57kg.

The ITA (International Testing Agency) in a press release said that boxer “Parveen Hooda has been suspended for a 22-month period, effective until 16 July 2025, after committing three whereabouts failures within a twelve-month period as defined in article 2.4 of the International Boxing Association anti-doping rules.”

4. DP Manu

The young javelin thrower, DP Manu, also failed to qualify for the Olympics after getting caught in a doping scandal. The 24-year-old won the silver medal at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships. He had performed well at the World Championship by finishing sixth with a best throw of 84.14m.

At the Commonwealth Games, he finished fifth. He has a personal best of 84.35m and was all set to qualify for the Olympics via rankings. During the last week, news broke that DP Manu had been caught in doping, thus ending the dream for the youngster.

3. Rudrankksh Patil

The world champion, Rudrankksh Patil is also among the prominent athletes who will miss out on the Olympics. The 20-year-old from Thane won the quota for India in the 10m air rifle category by winning a gold medal at the 2022 World Championships.

However, winning the quota wasn’t enough to represent India at the Olympics. The NRAI made a new policy of sending the shooters through trials after the debacles at the last two Olympics. As a result, Patil had to compete in trials to qualify for the Olympics. However, he failed to shoot well in the trials and thus lost his spot at the Olympics.

2. Murali Sreeshankar 

Murali qualified for the Paris Olympics by jumping 8.37m at the Asian Athletics Championships, breaching the automatic qualification mark of 8.27m. He also had an outside chance to win a medal at the Olympics.

He became the first male long jumper from India to win a silver medal at the Asian Athletics Championships and also registered a top three finish at the Diamond League. However, he suffered a knee injury that required surgery and has been ruled out from the Olympic Games.

1. Dipa Karmakar

Dipa made headlines at the Rio Olympics by finishing fourth and missed out on a medal by a whisker. Dipa won billions of hearts and also successfully performed Produnova Vault. However, she suffered an injury after her heroics at Rio.

She made a comeback in 2018 but again got hurt on her right knee and failed to qualify for the Olympics. Dipa then served a 21-month ban by the ITA as she tested positive for a banned substance. As a result, she couldn’t fully prepare for the Olympics and failed to qualify for Paris as well.

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