No golds for India: Why the world’s most populous country punches below its weight at the Olympics

New Delhi (CNN) — The competition was tight until the very last shot. India’s Abhinav Bindra was level with his closest rival going into the final round of the men’s 10-meter air rifle at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Then, with a near-perfect shot, Bindra won India’s first-ever individual Olympic gold.

It was a historic achievement that many in India hoped could prove a turning point for the giant country following many decades of underperformance at the Olympics.

But 16 years, four Summer Games and just one additional gold medal later, those dreams have largely failed to materialize.

India, home to more than 1.4 billion people, is the world’s most populous country, according to the United Nations. In 2022, India surpassed Britain as the world’s fifth largest economy, and last year became one of just four countries to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon. And it’s led by an ambitious prime minister who has widespread influence on the global stage.

But when it comes to the Olympics, India punches below its weight.

India won just six medals in Paris, falling short of its record haul of seven at Tokyo in 2021.

The United States, with less than a quarter of India’s population, topped the charts with 126 medals followed by China with 91.

India ranked 71st in the medal table, below nations with much smaller populations including Georgia, Kazakhstan and North Korea.

India has now won just 41 Olympic medals in total since its debut in 1900, all at the Summer Games.

“There is no doubt that India has been an underperformer in the Olympics and generally in global sports,” said Ronojoy Sen, author of “Nation at Play: A History of Sport in India.”

“If you look at the population to medal ratio it is probably the worst.”

Among the bright spots for India in Paris, javelin ace Neeraj Chopra added silver to the gold he won at Tokyo 2020, and shooter Manu Bhaker clinched double bronze to become the first Indian woman to win two medals at the same Games.

Vinesh Phogat, known for her high-profile role in anti-sexual harassment protests, became the first Indian woman to qualify for a wrestling final in the women’s 50kg freestyle – only to be disqualified for failing to make her weight class. On Wednesday, her appeal for a silver medal was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

CNN reached out to the Indian Olympic Association for comment on the team’s performance in Paris.

Major hurdles

India’s history of untapped Olympic potential can be explained by several factors, according to experts, with underinvestment in sports being a major culprit.

New Delhi has never poured resources into a national training program like those of traditional Olympic powerhouses, which have long regarded gold medals as a symbol of national strength, Sen said.

“For nations like the USA, China and the (then) Soviet Union, sport was very much a part of their nascent national story, it was a means for global recognition and glory,” he said.

The most successful Olympic nations also identify and develop talent from a young age, he added, pointing to China, where “you see kids being trained right from the moment they can walk.”

Indian athletes often face obstacles such as inadequate funding and a lack of access to facilities, analysts say.

“When people say 1.4 billion people and only (six) medals, that is a totally wrong headline, because … 1.39 billion people don’t have access to sports facilities,” said Boria Majumdar, sports analyst and author of “Dreams of a Billion: India and the Olympic Games.”

India sends far fewer athletes and support staff to the Olympics than top teams like the US, Majumdar said. For example, 117 Indian competitors went to Paris, compared with nearly 600 Americans.

India also faces broader health challenges that impede development and curtail sporting potential from childhood, experts say.

India ranked 111th of 125 countries in the 2023 Global Hunger Index report. At 18.7%, it has the world’s highest child wasting rate – the number of children who are too thin for their height – reflecting acute undernutrition. More than one third of children under age 5 in India are stunted due to malnutrition, meaning they are too short for their age, according to the report.

“Until we address some of these basic concerns around nutrition, it will be very hard for us to achieve greater excellence at the highest level of sport where victories are counted in milliseconds,” Sen said.

Another challenge to Olympic progress is the additional barriers faced by women athletes in India, in what remains a deeply patriarchal nation.

“Right from childhood, when I started wrestling, people would tease me saying that ‘she’s a girl what can she do, why is she entering a male sport?’” said Sakshi Malik, an Indian wrestler who won bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Malik quit wrestling last year amid controversy over sexual harassment allegations against India’s wrestling chief, which saw Malik, Phogat and other wrestlers sleeping on the streets of Delhi for weeks demanding action.

“I gave up my sport which I love beyond all else for this fight because I bear that responsibility of protecting the younger athletes who come after me,” Malik said. “Things have to change.”

Untapped potential

While India’s overall showing in Paris may not have wowed, fans celebrated the feats of the country’s medalists in social media posts in an outpouring of pride and admiration.

Individual athletes have the power to galvanize a population, Majumdar said.

“To think that the entire country is watching javelin at 2 a.m. because of one man, that is a revolution,” he said, referring to the millions watching back home as India’s Chopra won silver in Paris.

India’s massive Olympic potential is perhaps best underlined by its status in cricket, by far the country’s most popular sport and one in which it has become the dominant global force.

Cricket has not been included in the Olympics since 1900 but is set to return at Los Angeles 2028, to the excitement of Indian fans and players, who will be chasing gold.

While cricket’s multi-billion-dollar Indian Premier League is the most visible sign of sports investment in the country, other sports have also received a boost in recent years - both from increased corporate sponsorship and government funding.

In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched “Khelo India” or “Let’s Play India,” a nationwide program to “revive the sports culture” in the country with the aim of identifying and funding promising young talent, particularly in rural areas.

That same year, India also revamped its Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), which supports and funds training, international competition, equipment and coaching for elite athletes.

As of July 2024, India’s sports ministry had allocated nearly $260 million to state governments to develop sport infrastructure under the Khelo India program.

Sen, the author, said there is also a growing realization in India of the soft power potential of global sporting success, citing Modi taking the time to call Olympic medalists to congratulate them.

“I appreciate the efforts of the Indian contingent through the games,” Modi wrote on X on Monday. “All the athletes have given their best and every Indian is proud of them.”

During the International Olympic Committee’s annual meeting in Mumbai last year, Modi told sports officials that India would bid to host the 2036 Summer Games, the Associated Press reported.

The IOC said it also expects to soon add an Indian sponsor to its roster of 15 top-tier partners, which together gave the Games almost $740 million last year – another sign of India’s growing Olympic ambitions.

Majumdar, the sports analyst, believes India’s best Olympic days are yet to come.

“I think the journey has started but it’s not going to happen overnight,” he said, pointing out that India spends just a fracture of US expenditure on sports infrastructure.

“In another decade I believe India has the potential to be in the top half of medals.”

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