Which sport is India cheering these days? The answer is not one. Javelin throw, wrestling, chess, shooting, and badminton are also making us bite our nails as much as cricket does. Here are some sporting heroes that have captured the nation’s imagination in recent times… 

Javelin throw

‘Golden Boy’ Neeraj Chopra may say he is not as popular as cricketers Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, but he put javelin throw on the map by winning a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This was India’s first-ever gold medal in track and field events at the Olympics. He followed it up with a silver medal at the 2024 Games. At the 2024 Paralympics, the medals of Sumit Antil (gold), Navdeep Singh (gold), Ajeet Singh (silver), and Sundar Singh Gurjar (bronze) made javelin even more popular. According to Rakesh Kumar Yadav, the coach of Paris Paralympics medal winner Ajeet Singh, Chopra’s gold medal at Tokyo helped remove barriers for the country’s javelin throwers. Not just that, how popular the sport got is substantiated by the fact that people rushed to the internet to find out about javelin classes. An analysis of consumer search trends by Justdial reveals that from July 26 to August 12, searches for javelin throw classes saw an extraordinary increase of 825%. Chopra is the only second individual to win gold after Abhinav Bindra in air rifle 10 metre in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Chess

When you think of chess, you think of Viswanathan Anand. But India’s iconic grandmaster has ensured that chess isn’t restricted to his name in India. Anand not only inspired the next generation of Indian players but is also actively involved in mentoring them through his Westbridge Anand Chess Academy established in 2020. In the recently concluded 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, India bagged a historic double gold, becoming only the second team after China to win top honours in both the men’s and women’s categories since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Apart from the two team gold medals, the Indian players also bagged four individual gold medals at the Olympiad and all four of them are 21 or under. Gukesh Dommaraju, Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh, and Vantika Agrawal can all herald a golden era for Indian chess for the next few years. Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Vaishali Rameshbabu from the academy’s first batch of students were part of India’s triumphant team in Budapest as well as individual gold medallist Vantika Agrawal. On the popularity of chess, Anand said in a media interview:  “I am not that much of a futurologist. I wouldn’t have been able to imagine that. But you can see that the game’s popularity has grown steadily over the decades. Slowly barrier after barrier is being crossed.” Upon winning the gold medal, grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa said it is a big thing that we are being recognised.

Wrestling

Who broke the 56-year-long drought to win a medal in Indian wrestling? It was Sushil Kumar in 2008 and since then, India’s medal-winning streak in the sport has continued. The likes of Yogeshwar Dutt, Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and Ravi Kumar Dahiya have ensured India’s rapid rise in the sport by winning medals as well the enthusiasm towards the sport. Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification by a mere 500 gm and losing out on a medal was a huge disappointment for the nation, as after Sakshi Malik’s (the first Indian female wrestler to win a medal in wrestling) bronze in 2016, Phogat would have been the first to win a medal. When she came to India, she received a hero’s welcome. Aman Sehrawat, an orphan who won a bronze medal and is the youngest-ever individual to win an Olympic medal, kept the medal-winning spree in wrestling strong in the 2024 Olympics.

Shooting

While it all started in 2004 in Athens with Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s silver medal in shooting at the Olympics, this year Manu Bhaker’s two bronze medals (second with Sarabjot Singh in the mixed team) and Swapnil Kusale’s bronze medal brought attention to shooting. Paris Olympics performances offset a 282% spike in searching for pistol shooting training centres, according to Justdial. In the Paralympics as well, Avani Lekhara has been keeping the hopes of medals intact and winning gold back to back. With the victory, Lekhara is now a three-time paralympic medallist and the first woman to win two paralympic gold. Mona Agarwal and Rubina Francis won bronze medals as all three women contingent in the paralympics returned with medals. The success of Indian shooters in Paris is causing a surge in enrollments in academies and clubs, which before the Olympics were receiving 1-2 queries a day, which increased to a dozen post the games.  

Badminton

So far, India has won three medals in badminton and all three have come in women’s singles. PV Sindhu’s silver at Rio 2016 and bronze at Tokyo 2020 and Saina Nehwal’s bronze at London 2012 have made the game quite popular in India. While India fell short of a medal at the Paris Olympics, tensions were high when Lakshya Sen lost the bronze medal match. Former world champion Sindhu seeded 10th in the women’s singles competition and bowed out in the round of 16. Despite this, the searches for badminton classes after the Paris Olympics spiked to 78% according to Justdial. At the Paralympics, India’s performance was stellar with Nitesh Kumar winning gold, Thulasimathi Murugesan’s silver and Manisha Ramadass’s bronze in their debut, and Suhas Yathiraj’s silver medal that made badminton at Paralympics a treat to watch.