'Haven't been able to get over it yet': Savita Punia on failing to qualify for Paris Olympics

Savita Punia, the captain and goalkeeper of the Indian women's hockey team, has still been haunted by the team's failure to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, India made a historic fourth-place finish, missing a medal by a whisker, losing the bronze medal play-off 3-4 against Great Britain.

This will be the first time since the 2016 Rio Olympics that the Indian women's team will be missing the Olympic Games.

"Good moments in life are not forgotten but neither are the bad ones. Losing the Olympic qualifiers is such a bad moment that we will probably not be able to forget our entire life," Savita was quoted as saying by PTI.

The national women's team was expected to secure a spot at the Olympics for the third successive time at the Olympic qualifiers in Ranchi. But a 1-0 defeat in the bronze medal playoff match against Japan dashed India's Olympic hope.

"I haven't been able to get over it yet," she admitted.

Savita is so heartbroken by the defeat in the third-place playoff against Japan that she does not even want to recollect the moment.

"I didn't want to talk about it because it still hurts a lot. I still can't believe that we are not going to Olympics. We were confident and well-prepared but you cannot predict anything in sports," she said.

"After the qualifiers, we were at home for a week and told all the players that this break is a for them to cry and feel sad as much as they want. Keeping it inside will do no good and it is necessary to vent it out. No one talked about the Olympic qualifiers during this break," she revealed.