Year 2024: Celebrating 24 Sports and Countless Sporting Achievements of India!

No longer will the saying “India is a nation of only one sport” stand true, as the landscape of sports in the country is changing slowly. 2024 is yet another year as a testament to this with some extraordinary achievements by individuals, teams and the entire sporting fraternity. We come to the end of this roller coaster year where Lakshya Sen became the first Indian male badminton player to reach the Olympic semi-finals but also lost the third spot, and while the Indian cricket team recovered from the loss of the ODI World Cup by winning the T20 World Cup, the Indian men football team couldn’t qualify for the FIFA World Cup. Despite a few setbacks, this year was a bag full of medals, trophies and achievements, let’s have a look at the top sporting achievements in 2024 in 24 categories of sports. 

1. Tennis 

The pride of Indian tennis, Rohan Bopanna became the oldest grand slam winner at the age of 43, also securing doubles victory with Matthew Ebden (Australia) in the Australian Open 2024 finals against Italian pair Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori.

2. Shooting 

• Sonam Maskar, a 22-year-old girl from Maharashtra brought home a silver in the 10m air rifle event at the ISSF World Cup 2024.
• Another shooter who made the entire nation proud was Manu Bhaker. She became the first Indian woman to win a shooting medal at the Olympics, the first Indian shooting pair (with Sarabjot Singh) to win an Olympic medal, and the first athlete from independent India to win two medals at one Games. 
• Swapnil Kusale won the bronze medal in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions. This made India’s best medal tally in any sport in the Olympics, with three medals in shooting.
• The haul for medals in shooting didn’t stop for India in 2024, Indian shooters topped the medal tally at the ISSF Junior World Championship 2024 in Lima, Peru, with an impressive tally of 24 medals with 13 golds, 3 silvers and 8 bronze medals.

3. Badminton 

• Lakshya Sen became the first Indian male badminton player to reach the Olympic semi-finals. However, he couldn’t win a medal in the Olympics to script another history as the first Indian male to win an Olympic medal.
• In another achievement, the class duo, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the World No. 1 ranking in men's doubles, a first for India. 
  

4. Chess 

• At the IV El Llobregat Open in Spain in May this year, Vaishali Rameshbabu was officially awarded the title of Grandmaster (GM) by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). After this, she and her brother, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, became the first brother-sister GM combination in chess history.
• One of the greatest moments of joy came when 18-year-old GM Gukesh became the world's youngest chess champion by defeating the defending champion Ding Liren from China in a nail-biting match in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024. 
• Chess saw other notable achievements; Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa became the only third Indian to defeat the reigning world champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Gukesh D became the youngest winner of the Candidates Tournament at the age of 17 and M Pranesh secured the Grand Master Title at the age of 16 years. 

5. Kabaddi 

• Kabaddi players Ritu Negi from Himachal Prades and  Pawan Sehrawat from Delhi received the second-highest sporting award - the Arjuna Award for their contribution to Kabaddi.
• Puneri Paltan was crowned the winner of the Pro Kabaddi League 2024. 
• The Indian men's kabaddi team reclaimed the gold medal at the Asian Games after a dramatic victory over Iran.
  

6. Squash

• When we said, India is in the dawn of the overall sporting era, we were not joking, India won two titles in the Asian Doubles Squash Championships, which concluded in Johor, Malaysia this year. Squash player Abhay Singh won the men’s doubles crown along with Velavan Senthilkumar. Abhay along with Joshna Chinappa also won the mixed doubles final at the tournament, securing two wins at the prestigious tournament.  
• In another achievement that came late this year, Anahat Singh won the Western India Slam 2024 squash; clinching the ninth PSA Challenger title of the year.
  

7. Cricket 

• We Indians entered this year with the grief of losing the ODI World Cup, but becoming the T20 World Cup champions was a dressing to that wound. The Indian men's cricket team made us proud with that terrific win against South Africa in the mid the year.
• The Indian women's cricket team also didn’t stay behind as they clinched the gold at the Asian Games, defeating Sri Lanka in the final.

8. Table Tennis 

• In a game where India was far behind a few years ago, the Indian women’s and men’s teams brought us to the forefront when they won a bronze at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan. 
• Sreeja Akula, the table tennis star, was crowned "Athlete of the Year" at the GoSports Foundation Annual Sports Awards Night 2024.
  

9. Football

• Although Indian Indian men’s football team didn't have a great year, NorthEast United won the Durand Cup 2024 which was held in Kolkata. 
• In March 2024, Chhetri played his 150th game for India in a FIFA World Cup qualifier against Afghanistan. He has scored 94 goals in 150 international matches, making him the fourth-highest scorer among FIFA members.

10. Para Shooting 

In the Paralympics, Avani Lekhara won the gold in para shooting - 10m air rifle standing SH1 event. She became a three-time Paralympic medallist and the first woman to win two Paralympic golds.   

11. Wrestling 

• Aman Sehrawat made history by winning the first-ever bronze medal for India in men’s 57 kg freestyle wrestling at the Paris Olympics.
• India also had an impressive run at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2024 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan with 9 medals - 4 silvers and 5 silvers. The winners are as follows; Udit (men’s 57kg) - silver, Radhika (women’s 68kg) - silver, Anju (women’s 53kg) - silver, Harshita (women’s 72kg) - silver, Abhimanyu (men’s 70kg) - bronze, Vicky (men’s 97kg) - bronze, Shivanee Pawar (women’s 50kg) - bronze, Antim (women’s 65kg) - bronze and Manisha (women’s 62kg) - bronze.

12. Para Running 

• Deepthi Jeevanji became the first intellectually impaired Indian athlete to win a Paralympic medal. She won a bronze medal in the women's 400m T20 class and also made a world record of 55.06 seconds at the 2024 World Championships. 
• Another historic feat came in when Preeti Pal made history by securing India's first para-athletics medal at the Paralympics, winning bronze in the women's 100m T35 race at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

13. Para Archery 

• Sheetal Devi, the first and only international para archery champion without upper limbs, bagged bronze in the mixed team event along with Rakesh Kumar. She also became the youngest Paralympian to win a medal at the age of 17 years, 7 months, and 23 days.
• Harvinder Singh won India’s first-ever gold medal in Para archery. Singh topped the podium three years after becoming India’s first Para archery medallist with bronze. 

14. Para Club Throw 

• Dharambir became the oldest athlete to win gold in the Paralympics at the age of 35 years, and 7 months. He also won a bronze medal at the World Para Athletics Championships. 
• Ekta Bhyan achieved a season’s best mark of 20.12 to secure gold in the Women's Club Throw F51 Final. 
• Kashish Lakra also secured a silver medal with a mark of 14.56 in the Women's Club Throw F51 Final.

15. Para Javelin 

Sumit Antil became the first Indian man to defend the gold medal title at the Paralympics with a Paralympic javelin throw record of 70.59m. 

16. Para High Jump 

• India achieved another historic feat as Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu won the silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the men’s high jump T63 class at the Paris 2024 Paralympics. Mariyappan Thangavelu won bronze in the high jump at the Paralympics, becoming the first Indian to win medals at three consecutive Paralympics.

17. Para Shot Put 

Sachin Khilari won the silver medal in the men’s shot put F46 event at the Paris 2024 Paralympics with an Asian record of 16.32m. Earlier this year he became the Para World Championship by defeating Greg Stewart. 

18. Hockey 

• The Indian men's and women's hockey teams beat the People's Republic of China in the final to win the Asian Champions Trophy 2024.
• The Indian men's hockey team continued its revival by securing a second consecutive bronze medal after the Tokyo 2020 win where they broke a 41-year record. 

19. Pickleball 

• With the rise of this new sport in India, the team of Picklers left no stone unturned in 2024. India won 6 medals at the World Pickleball Championship in Hong Kong, including 1 gold, 3 silvers, and 2 bronze. 
• Team India also won four gold and two bronze medals at the Asian Open Pickleball Championship in Vietnam.

20. Para Discus Throw 

Yogesh Kathuniya shone brightly at the Paris 2024 Paralympics by clinching the silver medal in the Men’s Para Discus Throw F56 category. 

21. Recurve

India’s men’s recurve team, comprised of Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav, and Dhiraj Bommadevara secured a gold medal in the 2024 Archery World Cup in Shanghai, China.

22. Cycling 

• India ended its cycling campaign by winning a historic 18 medals at the Asian Track Cycling Championships 2024. 
• India also made history as 6 riders qualified for the World Track Cycling Championships 2024.

23. Equestrian 

India achieved another historic moment in equestrian sports when Anush Agarwalla won gold in dressage at the Asian Games.

24. Javelin 

Although our Javelin star Neeraj Chopra had injuries throughout the year, he managed to retain his consecutive Olympic silver and finished second at the Diamond League final. 

Overall, 2024 was an eventful year for the Indian sports fraternity, players, audiences and the nation as a whole, with so many feathers to our cap that will only fly high.