Over 111 athletes will represent India at the 2024 Paris Olympics. It is confirmed, though, that the Indian contingent this time will be lesser than the 124 athletes that participated at the Olympics in Tokyo. India had won a record seven medals at the Tokyo Olympics and would be hoping to do the same. However, there are quite a few prominent Indian athletes who won't be featuring in Paris this year due to multiple reasons. Here, we take a look at five such big names.Ravi Dahiya: The man whose first reaction after becoming just the second silver medal-winning wrestler from India was that he was disappointed for missing out on gold, lost his bout in the selection trials in March this year for the Asian Olympic qualifiers.

Dahiya was only returning from a long-term injury but his opponent Aman Shehrawat was in good nick, winning a medal in almost every tournament he had competed in in 2023. Shehrawat went on to secure the 57kg men's freestyle quota and is set to represent India in Paris.Bajrang Punia: Like Dahiya, Punia also lost in the selection trials in March this year. Punia had won bronze in 65kg at the Tokyo Olympics, a result that was seen as a bit of a surprise at the time as he was a favourite to win gold. At the trials this year, Punia, who was a prominent face of protest against former WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, suffered a crushing 1-9 defeat in the men's freestyle 65kg semifinal against Rohit Kumar.

Both Punia and Dahiya's hopes received a final blow when the WFI decided against holding a trial again after the Asian Olympic qualifiers.Murali Sreesahankar: Unlike Punia and Dahiya, Murali Sreeshankar had qualified for the Olympics, breaching the men's long jump qualifying standard of 8.27m at the Asian Athletics Championships 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand last year. He recorded 8.37m at the meet to claim silver. However, he was forced to rule himself out of the Games and the rest of the 2024 season due to an injury sustained during practice in April this year.Kidambi Srikanth: The former World No.1 has missed out on an Olympics for the second consecutive time. Srikanth crashed out in the first or second rounds in 10 out of the 11 BWF World Tour tournaments this year, which included the All England Open in Match.

He has finished well outside the top 16, which was the minimum requirement for qualification. Even if he had made it, he would've had to finish at least above 13th spot where Lakshya Sen has finished so as to join HS Prannoy as one of two Indians who can compete in men's singles.Women's hockey team: The Indian women's hockey team finished a historic fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, equalling their best-ever result and missing out on a medal by a whisker. While they received a rousing welcome, this was followed by some turmoil within the team with captain Rani Rampal being practically frozen out of the side by coach Janneke Schopmann after the Tokyo Games. Missing out on gold at the Asian Games meant that India had to go through an Olympic qualifier to book tickets to Paris. The country hosted the qualifiers and yet, India first lost to Germany in a penalty shootout, which ruled them out of finishing in the top two. They then had to beat Japan to secure third but ended up losing 1-0, thus ending their hopes of making it to a third consecutive Olympics.

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