History will remember 2024 as a landmark year for Indian sports.
From milestone-setting performances by Neeraj Chopra and Manu Bhaker at the Paris 2024 Olympics, the Indian men’s cricket team’s T20 World Cup victory and world titles in chess by Gukesh Dommaraju and Koneru Humpy, the year gone by witnessed several highs.
The year 2024 also marked the end of an era with the likes of Sunil Chhetri retiring from international football and PR Sreejesh hanging up his pads after a startling career in hockey.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli also announced their retirement from T20I cricket after giving Indian cricket a rock-solid platform in white-ball cricket.
Here are some of Indian sports’ highlights from 2024:
It was Rohan Bopanna who got the ball rolling in January 2024 as the Indian tennis star won the Australian Open 2024 men’s doubles title with partner Matthew Ebden.
It was Bopanna’s maiden men’s doubles Grand Slam win. But perhaps more importantly, at the age of 43 years and nine months, he became the oldest man to win a Grand Slam in the Open Era of tennis.
The Indo-Australian pair beat the all-Italian team of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in the final as Bopanna surpassed the previous record held by Jean-Julien Rojer, who was 40 when he won the French Open 2022 men’s doubles crown.
Subsequently, Bopanna also rose to world No. 1 in the ATP doubles rankings, becoming the oldest man in tennis history to hold the perch.
A couple of months later, days after his 44th birthday, Bopanna also claimed the 2024 Miami Masters title with Ebden and fortified his own record as the oldest Masters 1000 champion in tennis history.
Led by PV Sindhu and youngster Anmol Kharb, the Indian women’s team won a historic gold medal at the Badminton Asia Team Championships 2024, which was held in Shah Alam, Malaysia in February.
This was India’s first-ever gold medal at the Badminton Asia Team Championships. The Indian men’s team had previously won two bronze – in 2016 and 2020 – but this was the first time the women made the podium.
The 17-year-old Anmol Kharb proved to be India’s hero not once, but on three different occasions, beating higher-ranked and more experienced opponents in deciders, including the final.
The Indian cricket team won the ICC Men’s T20I World Cup 2024 co-hosted by the USA and West Indies to end a 17-year-long wait to recapture the title of T20 world champions. India won the inaugural edition under MS Dhoni’s stewardship in 2007.
Led by Rohit Sharma, India remained unbeaten throughout their campaign before mounting a late comeback to trump South Africa in the final. Jasprit Bumrah was adjudged the Player of the Tournament.
The grand triumph also marked the end of an era for Indian cricket as three veterans – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja – announced their retirement from T20I cricket following the tournament’s conclusion.
A golden chapter also concluded for Indian football this year as captain, leader and legend Sunil Chhetri decided to hang up his boots after serving the national team for almost two decades.
The Secunderabad-born striker, who almost singlehandedly put Indian football on the global map, played his last match in national colours against Kuwait in front of a packed crowd at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata.
Chhetri finished as India’s top scorer in international football with 94 goals in 151 matches – also the record for most appearances by any Indian footballer.
On the global stage, only Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Ali Daei have scored more goals than the Indian legend in international football.
With six medals – one silver and five bronze – Indian athletes enjoyed a stellar outing at Paris 2024.
Dreams of Chopra mounting a successful title defence in men’s javelin throw were dashed by Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem but the Indian ace managed to settle with a credible silver to add to his gold from Tokyo 2020.
The medal made Neeraj Chopra a part of an illustrious four-member club of athletes who have won multiple individual medals at the Olympics. However, none of the other three won a gold medal.
Norman Pritchard won dual silvers at Paris 1900 – one in men’s 200m and the other in men’s 200m hurdles while wrestler Sushil Kumar was the first to achieve for independent India with a bronze at Beijing 2008 and silver at London 2012.
PV Sindhu won a silver in women’s singles badminton at Rio 2016 before returning with a bronze from Tokyo 2020.
Interestingly, Manu Bhaker also won two medals, both bronze, at Paris Olympics 2024 but one of them came in a team event. The young shooter won a bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol shooting event, thus becoming the first Indian woman to win a medal in Olympic shooting.
Days later, Bhaker paired up with Sarabjot Singh to claim a bronze medal in mixed team 10m air pistol, becoming the first athlete from independent India to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics.
For Manu Bhaker, whose Tokyo 2020 campaign ended in heartbreak after an equipment malfunction cost her a medal shot, Paris provided the perfect redemption.
Bhaker’s fellow shooter Swapnil Kusale bagged a bronze in the men’s 50m rifle event at Paris 2024, making it the most successful Olympic edition for Indian shooting in terms of medal count.
Kusale’s bronze was also India’s first-ever medal in the 50m 3P event.
Aman Sehrawat won the bronze in the men’s freestyle 57kg wrestling event at the Paris 2024 Olympics to become India’s youngest medal winner at the Summer Games.
Aged 21 years and 24 days at the time when he beat Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz in the bronze medal match, Aman Sehrawat broke PV Sindhu’s record.
Sindhu was 21 years, one month and 14 days old when she bagged the silver medal at Rio 2016.
This was India’s first medal in wrestling at Paris 2024, sixth overall and the second successive one in the event at the Olympics. Ravi Kumar Dahiya won silver in the event at Tokyo 2020.
Aman Sehrawat, interestingly, had bested Dahiya in the national wrestling trials to earn the right to represent India in the men’s 57kg category at Paris 2024.
Having endured heartbreaks at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, Vinesh Phogat’s participation at Paris 2024 was uncertain even months before the showcase in France.
With Antim Panghal securing the quota in the women’s 53kg weight category, Vinesh’s pet division, the Indian grappler was forced to drop down to the 50kg division to ensure her participation at Paris 2024.
Entering the Games as an unseeded competitor, Vinesh faced a daunting opening bout against Japan’s Yui Susaki. A three-time world champion in the 50kg category and the defending Olympic champion, Susaki boasted an unblemished international record of 82-0.
The Japanese wrestler, who won the gold at Tokyo 2020 without dropping a single point, was the overwhelming favourite in the contest.
Defying all expectations, Vinesh delivered the performance of a lifetime and pulled off a stunning 3-2 victory over Susaki in what was hailed as one of the biggest upsets in Olympic wrestling history.
In the quarter-finals, Vinesh defeated Ukraine’s Oksana Livach, a former European champion, before overpowering Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman, the reigning Pan American Games champion, in the semis. This remarkable run made Vinesh the first Indian woman to reach an Olympic wrestling final.
However, disaster struck on the morning of the final. During the weigh-in, Vinesh was found to be slightly overweight despite taking some drastic measures the night prior to make the weight cut.
As per the rules, Vinesh was disqualified from competing in the final and relegated to the last rank in her category, abruptly ending what could have been a historic campaign for Indian wrestling and a possible Olympic gold!
The Indian men’s hockey team’s bronze medal win at Paris 2024 was the perfect swansong for legendary goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who decided to call time on his storied career following the Olympics.
Sreejesh, one of the chief architects behind India winning bronze at Tokyo 2020 to end a 41-year-long medal drought at the Olympics, played a decisive role at Paris 2024 as well alongside captain Harmanpreet Singh, who was the tournament’s top scorer with 10 goals.
The Indian custodian was instrumental in India’s shootout win over England in the quarter-finals and made some stunning saves to help his team beat Spain 2-1 in the bronze medal match.
India’s run in the competition also included a historic 3-2 win over Australia in the group stage, marking their first victory over the Kookaburras in Olympic hockey after 52 long years.
Lakshya Sen narrowly missed a medal at Paris 2024 after losing to Lee Zii Jia in the bronze playoff but walked away with a piece of history by making the semi-finals.
No other Indian men’s badminton player had managed to make the top four at the Olympics before him.
En route, the Indian badminton player upset some heavy hitters like Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie, the reigning All England champion, and senior compatriot HS Prannoy.
It took the defending champion Viktor Axelsen to stop Lakshya’s march in Paris. However, the Danish ace was left impressed with Lakshya’s fight in the semi-finals.
“Lakshya is an amazing player. He has shown in this Olympics that he is a very, very strong competitor, and I am sure in four years from now, he will be one of the favourites to win the gold,” Axelsen said after the match.
Lakshya Sen lost the bronze medal to Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia after squandering decent leads, an issue that plagued his Paris campaign .
Supported enormously by the sports ministry’s ambitious Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) programme, Indian para-athletes came to the fore at Paris 2024 by winning 29 medals – seven gold, nine silver and thirteen bronze. This is India’s best-ever medal tally in Paralympics, surpassing the 19 medals won at Tokyo 2020.
Shooter Avani Lekhara and javelin thrower Sumit Antil became the first Indian female and male athletes, respectively, to win back-to-back gold medals at the Paralympics.
Meanwhile, Harvinder Singh won India’s first-ever Paralympic gold medal in archery.
India achieved unprecedented success in chess in 2024, highlighted by double gold at the Chess Olympiad in both the men’s and women’s sections and world titles from D Gukesh and Koneru Humpy later in the year.
At the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, the Indian men’s team of Gukesh D, Praggnanandhaa R and Arjun Erigaisi beat Slovenia in the final round, scoring a record 21 points.
The Indian women’s team, anchored by Harika Dronavalli and Divya Deshmukh, beat Azerbaijan for the title.
India also won four individual board gold through D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal.
Later in the year, 18-year-old Gukesh was crowned the 2024 world chess champion in Singapore after defeating Ding Liren in the final. Gukesh became the youngest world chess champion and only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win the title.
Koneru Humpy ended 2024 with a win at the World Rapid Championship in New York. It was her career’s second World Rapid Championship title. Her first win came in Moscow in 2019.
Another big retirement from the Indian sports sphere this year was that of gymnast Dipa Karmakar.
Dipa holds the distinction of being the first Indian female gymnast to compete at the Olympics. Dipa’s only Summer Games appearance at Rio 2016 saw her narrowly miss a medal in the women’s vault event, finishing fourth.
The Indian is also among the very few gymnasts in the world who have been successful at executing the famous Produnova vault.
Dipa ended her career on a high by winning a gold in vault at the Asian Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2024, thus becoming the first Indian to bag the top prize at the continental meet.
A Padma Shri awardee, Dipa Karmakar was a trailblazer in Indian gymnastics. She is the first Indian woman to win a gymnastics medal at the Commonwealth Games after claiming bronze at Glasgow 2014.
Dipa also became the first Indian to win a gold medal at an international gymnastics event after topping the women’s vault podium at the 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Mersin, Turkiye.
The year also saw the rise of a potential global superstar from India.
Squash prodigy Anahat Singh created waves in 2024 by winning an astonishing nine PSA Challenger titles – the JSW Willingdon Little Masters and Senior Tournament, Hamdard Squashters Northern Slam, Chennai and Kolkata legs of the HCL Squash Tour, Reliance PSA Challenge 3 Tournament, Costa North Coast Open, the Alto Pennant Hills NSW Open, the JSW Sunil Verma Memorial Tournament and the Western India Slam.
The teenager, who successfully defended her Indian senior and junior national titles this year, also broke into the top 100 of the women’s PSA rankings for the first time.
