In years to come, it will be part of the iconography of Indian sport, as much as the portraits of Kapil Dev with the World Cup on the Lord’s balcony, MS Dhoni’s winning six in 2011 and Abhinav Bindra on the medal podium at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Pusarla Venkata Sindhu had battled Carolina Marin, badminton’s world No 1 from Spain, for 83 minutes, even taking the first set off her. But the Spaniard’s flawless footwork and deft touches at the net had transformed the match, and she prevailed 21-15 in the third set.
World No 10 Sindhu had shown tremendous tenacity and skill in extending Marin all the way, but it was what happened after the final point had been played that will remain etched in millions of Indian hearts for a while yet.
Sindhu walked across to the other side of the court, where Marin lay face down in tears, and congratulated her opponent, giving her a hug before ceding the limelight. It took a lot of class and no little grace to swallow her pain at missing out on a gold medal, and do the right thing.
In the two previous rounds, Sindhu — who has played most of her career in the shadow of Saina Nehwal, bronze-medal winner at London in 2012 — had upset world No 2 Wang Yihan and Nozomi Okuhara, who had become the first Japanese in 39 years to win the All England Open. Against Okuhara, she had reeled off 11 straight points to seal a place in the final, stunning her opponent with a fusillade of smashes and drop shots.
The Indian sports fraternity rallied behind her, and people could speak of little else on social media in the run-up to the final.
Sachin Tendulkar, a goodwill ambassador for the Indian contingent at Rio de Janeiro, sent out a stream of tweets during the final, and Anil Kumble had recorded a video message saying the Indian cricket team were “rooting” for her.
It was not as though Sindhu was the first girl to capture India’s imagination during the Olympic Games either.
On August 14 — the day before India’s Independence Day — Dipa Karmakar, a gymnast from the tiny state of Tripura, had charmed millions with two vaults. The first Indian to qualify for a gymnastics final, she attempted the Produnova (with a difficulty score of 7.0) for her second vault.
“It’s insane! Just simply insane. I would never attempt it,” said Simone Biles, the world’s premier gymnast.
Had Karmakar nailed her landing she would have been assured of a medal. As it was, her knees pushed down so low that her bottom brushed the mat. Fourth place was hailed as a miraculous achievement by those that watched, but Karmakar burst into floods of tears once she got back to the athletes’ village, perhaps aware that at 23 there may not be a second chance at Olympic glory.
At that stage, India were still without a medal at the Games.
The sense of gloom merely deepened a couple of days later when Vinesh Phogat, the most fancied of the female wrestlers, had to be carried off the mat on a stretcher after injuring her knee during a quarter-final bout.
Sakshi Malik had also been eliminated in the quarter-finals in the 58-kilogram category.
But once Russia’s Valeria Koblova made the final, Malik had a chance to fight for the bronze through the repechage. She overcame her Mongolian opponent and came up against Kyrgyzstan’s Aisuluu Tynybekova, the Asian champion, for bronze.
With just over a minute left, Malik trailed by five points, but she attacked with such ferocity that the final score was 8-5 in her favour.
Malik comes from a village in Haryana where the sex ratio is an abysmal 822 women to every 1,000 men.
Female foeticide is rampant, and her coach has spoken of how he was heckled for taking her on.
After winning India’s first medal of the Games, Malik is a local hero, with the village planning a parade for her return.
India’s greatest athlete, PT Usha — fourth in the 400-metre hurdles at Los Angeles 1984 — never quite realised her full potential.
Time will tell what the future holds for Karmakar and Malik, who is also 23.
Sindhu, who is just 21, should be around for the long haul.
And no matter what lies ahead, a nation will never forget what she did on a Friday evening in August 2016.
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