I expected five medals in London Olympics; one each in archery, badminton, boxing, shooting, and wrestling. We got six. In archery we did not get a medal. In badminton we got one. In boxing we got one. I expected a medal from one of the seven men; we got from a woman, Mary Kom, the only woman boxer. In shooting we got two. I expected one from Abhinav Bindra, we got silver medal from Vijay Kumar and bronze medal from Gagan Narang. In wrestling we got bronze medal from Yogeshwar Dutt and silver medal from Sushil Kumar. Sushil Kumar became the first Indian to win two individual Olympic medals. In Beijing we got one gold and two bronze. In London we got two silver and four bronze.
I did not expect any medal in hockey and tennis. In hockey India did not get a penalty corner against Holland in its first match and lost the match 2-3, a difference of one goal. Next match India lost by two goals, third, fourth, and fifth matches by three goals each. They lost to New Zealand 1-3, to Germany 2-5, to South Korea 1-4, and to Belgium 0-3. In the classification match to decide 11th and 12th places out of 12 teams India lost to South Africa 2-3 and finished 12th.
In tennis India did not go beyond second round. Some said sending two doubles teams will double the chances of medals. Zero multiplied by two is zero. There was lot of acrimony during selection. Mahesh Bhupati and Rohan Bopanna should not be selected to play for India in Olympics, Davis Cup, Asian Games or any other tournament.
There were controversies in boxing. Sumit Sangwan should have gone to the next round. One commentator said the decision of judges was daylight robbery. India’s appeal against that decision was said to have been thrown out because it was not filed within the stipulated time of 30 minutes. In Vikas Krishnan’s case, judges declared him winner. The Americans appealed against that decision. The jury reversed the decision and Vikas Krishnan was declared loser. India’s re-appeal was dismissed. There was a report that India appealed to Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and CAS said we do not decide on on-field decisions. Later another report said CAS denied having any appeal from India. Manoj Kumar lost to Thomas Stalker in pre-quarter finals. Devendro Singh lost to Paddy Barnes in quarter finals. Manoj Kumar and Devendro Singh claimed they were unfairly deprived of victory.
Indians reached finals in men’s discus throw, women’s discus throw, and semi-final in women’s 800m race. In men’s triple jump Renjith Maheshwari committed three fouls and did not qualify for final.
This Olympics had some strange decisions. Eight badminton players were disqualified for not trying to win. One Tunisian was disqualified for not trying to win 800m race heats. He produced a medical certificate. He was reinstated and won gold medal in 1500m race. South Africans were allowed to compete in men’s 4 x 400m relay without completing the relay in semi-final.