Abhinav Bindra is at a loss of emotions seeing India's performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics. While Bindra is not complaining seeing India match its London 2012 tally en route to securing their joint second-best medal haul in a single Olympic, he cannot put in words the fact that India did not return with a single gold medal at the Games. India sent a strong 117-member contingent to Paris, and after India put on their best Olympics show at Tokyo three years back – winning 7 medals – the belief was that it would be bettered, and perhaps, for the first time, India would extend its medal tally to double-digits, if not more.

But six medals, five of which are bronze and one silver, brackets India's Paris show under the 'mixed bag' category, feels Bindra, India's first ever individual gold medallist at the Olympics. Part of the International Olympic Committee's Athletes Commission, Bindra and the entire country of India have now witnessed 16 years and four Olympics gone by where the contingent has secured all but one gold medal, with Neeraj Chopra creating history at the Tokyo Games. Despite winning hearts with their performances, the overall medal tally has fallen short of expectations, particularly in terms of gold medals, which continues to be a disappointment this time around.

"The Olympics is a very, very hard platform to perform at for a variety of reasons. But the Olympics is also a platform which is imperfect for performance. Because there's external expectations, and you also have internal expectations, that just doesn’t allow you to let go. Performance sometimes is almost artistic in nature. That's where you almost have to allow it to happen. And the ability to let go is very difficult," Bindra told Indian Express.

"So skill is almost thrown into the dustbin. Sometimes for most athletes, there will be a few who are just so great, but for a majority, it's not just picking up your skill and trying to get things together. You have to almost find perfection on that imperfect day."

India started their 2024 Olympics campaign well, with Manu Bhaker landing two bronze medals in the 10m air pistol event – individual and mixed-team – in a span of four days (with assist from Sarabjot Singh). Swapnil Kusale then completed a hat-trick in shooting bagging a third bronze for India in the men's 50m rifle 3 position. However, India would have to wait for the next six days to add another medal to their count as the promising badminton, boxing and archery contingents fumbled. Badminton was a major disappointment, with PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and the brightest medal prospect of them all – the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty – returning empty-handed.

'Shouldn't stop investing in other sports'

India finally finished their campaign, winning three medals in the last two days – Neeraj taking a silver and the men's hockey team and wrestler Aman Sehrawat clinching bronze in their respective events. Had it not been for Vinesh Phogat's unfortunate disqualification, India had a real shot at gold, but as fate would have it, it wasn't to be. Vinesh still has a chance at winning a silver with the CSA set to deliver its verdict on the matter on Tuesday, but would that make up for the disappointment of other disciplines? Probably no, but Bindra insists that investments in Olympic sports and their athletes must not stop.

"I don't have an answer, really. If I knew, I would put it out so that we can win more gold medals. When you put all your eggs in one basket, your self-worth is almost dependent on where your name will appear on the ranking list of a sports competition. I sometimes wonder how many of our athletes are in that bracket (where) everything is dependent on this. I have a suspicion that it's a high number," he added.

"I don't know how I'm feeling. It's been an emotional roller- coaster from an Indian perspective. I think the athletes have done well. We must keep that front and centre. We may not have won all the medals but overall, generally, you would agree there has been an improvement overall. We must consolidate the gains that have been made and work harder to get there."

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