3 Indian athletes who missed an Olympic medal by a whisker ft. Abhinav Bindra

India has a long history at the Olympic Games, with its first participation in the event coming in 1900 when Norman Pritchard won two silver medals.

Since then, India has competed in every edition of the quadrennial event, winning a total of 35 medals — 10 gold, nine silver and 16 bronze. The recent edition of the event in Tokyo saw India get represented by a record number of 124 athletes, with the highlight being Neeraj Chopra's gold medal in the men's javelin throw.

Despite a handful of big performances over the years, there have been a few occasions where Indian athletes came very close to a podium finish, only to be thwarted by the smallest of margins.

With the 2024 Paris Olympics less than two months away, here is a look at three Indian athletes who missed an Olympic medal by a whisker.

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#3 Milkha Singh

Milkha Singh is widely considered India’s first sporting hero since the country gained independence in 1947. Popularly called the Flying Sikh, he entered the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome in good form, having won the 400m gold at the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo.

In the 400m event in Rome, Singh did not break a sweat to get through the heats. He went faster by a second in the quarterfinals and was the fourth-fastest in the semifinals.

Singh was one of the favorites going into the final, which he started strong. After quickly joining the lead pack, he looked set for a top three finish when he made the mistake of slowing down before the final turn. This saw South Africa's Malcolm Spence close down the gap and it resulted in a photo finish at the end.

While Spence clinched the bronze medal with a 45.5-second effort, Singh was just 0.1 seconds slower across the finish line and had to return home empty-handed.

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#2 PT Usha

While Milkha Singh lost out on an Olympic medal by a tenth of a second, PT Usha lost her moment under the spotlight by an even more minuscule margin.

Usha entered the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in good form, having won the silver medals in the 100m and the 200m events at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi. Later at the Asian Athletics Championships, she won the gold medal in the 400m by setting her first Asian record.

In the 400m event in Los Angeles, Usha finished second in her morning heats and better her performance in the semifinals, where she also managed to beat American favorite Judy Brown for the second time in the space of a few months.

In the final, the Kerala native shook off a slow start to join the leading pack of runners. While Morocco’s Nawal El Moutawakel led the race till the end to take home the gold, Brown was right behind to clinch the silver medal.

It was a fight between Usha and Cristieana Cojocaru for the final step on the podium, and the Romanian's decisive move to dip her head in the photo finish saw her beat the Indian to the bronze medal by 0.01 seconds.

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#1 Abhinav Bindra

If Milka Singh and PT Usha missed out on an Olympic medal by less than a second, for Abhinav Bindra it was heartbreak by a few points.

By the time the 2012 London Olympics came around, Bindra had already established himself as one of the finest marksmen the sport has ever seen. He became the first Indian to hold the world and Olympic titles in the men's 10-meter air rifle event when he won the 2008 Summer Games and the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships.

With retirement on the horizon, Bindra was expected to bow out on a triumphant note. In the men's 10m air rifle at the 2012 Olympics, Bindra finished seventh (625.7) in the qualifying round to reach the final, while compatriot Gagan Narang failed to make the cut.

Italy's Niccolo Campriani clinched the gold with an Olympic record score of 206.1, while Ukraine's Serhiy Kulish took home the silver with 204.6. In the shootout for bronze between Bindra and Vladimir Maslennikov, the Indian managed just 163.8 while the Russian scored 184.2 to seal his spot on the podium.