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More than 70 Indian athletes have booked their Olympic quotas for the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The Indian contingent will aim to improve on their 2 medal-tally (from Rio 2016) in Tokyo this year.
However, several Indian athletes have been victims of pandemic-induced cancelations from qualifying events. Adding to this issue has been the problem of a lack of form for some athletes while others are battling an unfortunate injury crisis. We will take a look at the five Indian stars who will miss the Tokyo Olympics.
Dipa Karmakar (Gymnastics)
Dipa Karmakar made history in Rio when she became the first-ever female gymnast in India and the first Indian gymnast in almost 52 years to participate in the Olympics. Karmakar's rise to the top of gymnastics continued as she finished just outside the podium in Rio after landing successfully in the final of the Prudonova Vault, becoming only the fifth woman in history to do so.
Sports fans in India expected Karmakar to better her record by getting a podium finish in the Tokyo Olympics 2020 but it is not to be. She failed to secure her Olympic quota as she missed several qualification events due to the pandemic and injury concerns.
She picked up an injury in 2019 which ruled her out of the three World Cups while the four World Cup events in 2020 were canceled due to the pandemic. Karmakar eventually managed to compete in only two qualifying World Cup events in 2018 and 2019.
The Asian Gymnastics Championships in 2021 were also called off due to the pandemic, which meant that the 2019 Championships results were taken into account for allotted Olympic quotas, which was also missed by Karmakar due to an underlying injury.
Gaurav Solanki (Boxing)
The 2018 Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist in the 52kg category is a victim of the pandemic induced cancelation of qualifer events. Solanki had a golden opportunity to book his Tokyo Olympics 2020 quota but succumbed to a quarter-final defeat to top seed Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov in the Asia/Oceania Olympic boxing event in Jordan.
Another round of Tokyo Olympic qualifiers was set to be hosted in Paris in June 2021, which has been scrapped due to time constraints caused by the delay of events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The quotas were then announced based on rankings instead, with the best-ranked athletes from each region in each category which ended Solanki's road to the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Sakshi Malik (Wrestling)
Sakshi Malik became the first Indian female wrestler to clinch a medal at the Olympics when she managed to bag a bronze medal in the Rio Olympics 2016 in the repechage round. But ever since her record feat in Rio, Malik's overall form has taken a dip.
She finished 14th in the 2017 World Championships and failed to win a single gold Medal in the 2017 and 2018 Asian Championships and 2018 Asian Games. She managed just one bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Seeing a dip in the overall performance of Indian wrestlers, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) called for trials in early 2020 where Sakshi Mallik lost to promising young star Sonam Malik in the final, which ended her hopes of contesting qualifying events for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 any further.
Kidambi Srikanth (Badminton)
Kidambi Srikanth's hopes of making it to the Tokyo Olympics 2020 were all but over after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced that the remaining qualifier events: India Open, Malaysia Open, and Singapore Open were canceled and no more events will be held before the qualifying period was over on 15 June 2021.
The cancelation of qualifying events meant that only the top 16 ranked shuttlers made it to Tokyo, and Srikanth failed to make the cut as he was ranked 20 in the BWF Men's Singles World Rankings.
Saina Nehwal (Badminton)
The London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist faced the same fate as Kidami Srikanth after the BWF canceled the remaining qualifier events. Saina Nehwal was ranked World No. 1 in 2017 but has been slowly witnessing a loss of form and momentum over the last few years and will find it exceedingly difficult to qualify for the Paris Olympics in 2024. She is ranked 22 in the BWF Women's Singles World Rankings while only the top 16 could make it to Tokyo.
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