The year 2024 will not just be remembered for India winning its second T20 World Cup title, but also for how the nation evolved and matured across sports.
It had many firsts, many bests, many highs and many heartbreaking moments as one would expect in sport, but what made it remarkable for me is the rise of women and youth across categories.
As the Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor to RevSportz, I was fortunate and privileged to have a front-row seat to many of those special moments.
Rohan Bopanna kickstarted proceedings by fulfilling his dream of 22 years – winning his maiden men’s doubles Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. Thanks to Matthew Ebden and his victory over Italy’s Vavassori and Bolelli at the Rod Laver Arena, Bopanna became the oldest first-time World No. 1 in men’s doubles at 43.
In March, a couple of months later, Bopanna and Ebden also won the 2024 Miami Masters title and the Indian veteran became the oldest Masters 1000 champion in tennis history.
On the tennis court, the only other meaningful highlight was to see Sumit Nagal play in the first rounds of the Australian and the French Open and slide up into the ATP 100 rankings for the first time.
After years of smashing, it out in the court, Bopanna and Nagal earned a decent purse of prize money, $885,221 and $682,354 respectively, and provided a beacon of hope for future aspirants that one can perhaps make a career in this expensive sport.
On the courts of badminton, Indian women scripted history by helping the country win its first-ever gold medal at the Badminton Asia Team Championships, in Shah Alam, in Malaysia.
17-year-old Anmol Kharb was the chief architect of this triumph, alongside two-time Olympic medal winner PV Sindhu, who on three occasions beat higher-ranked or more experienced players, including in the finals.
Indian badminton ended the year on a high when we won 3 out of the 5 titles on offer at the Syed Modi India International Open, in Lucknow, in December.
The highlight was to see the young duo of Treesa-Gopichand emerge as the first-ever Indian women’s pair to win the women’s doubles title when they beat their Chinese counterparts in straight sets.
Sindhu ended her long title drought by winning the women’s singles for the third time in her career; one she had previously won in 2017 and 2022. Young sensation, Lakshya Sen, won his maiden title at this tournament, in the men’s singles edition, when he beat Singapore’s Jason Teh without dropping a set.
Lakshya had previously set the courts ablaze at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena, in the Paris Olympics 2024. He may have broken a billion hearts when he failed to win back a bronze medal for India after being a set up against World No. 7 Lee Zii Jia, but he climbed the summit of reaching an Olympics semi-final, which no other Indian male shuttler had reached before.
His games against Jonathan Christie, compatriot Prannoy, and the hard-fought semi-finals against the eventual gold-medalist, Axelsen, were a treat to watch. His pace and agility left everyone mesmerised and one genuinely believes that he will win back many international medals, including a podium finish at LA 2028.
Paris 2024 was the inflection point for Indian sports for me, and a personal revelation as a viewer and reporter, especially the Paralympics, where our 84-member contingent bagged a historic 29 medals, including 7 golds.
To watch our ‘tiranga’ go up at the Stad de France a record 17 times is a memory that will remain indelible in my heart for a long time, especially to see Preethi Pal, Deepthi Jeevanji and Simran win four medals in running, a category where no Indian athlete, able-bodied or in para, has ever finished on a podium in our 124-year Olympic history.
Sumit Antil became the first Indian man to defend his title in the Paralympics when he won gold in the F64 javelin throw. In the F46 category, Ajeet & Sundar gave us a double podium finish with silver and bronze respectively, and that was also the case in men’s high jump T63, where Sharad Kumar and Thangavelu ended with the same yield.
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In women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1, Adani Lekhara defended her title, and Mona came in third to give us a double podium finish in shooting. Dharambir and Parnav handed us our best double-podium finish, in men’s club throw F51, where they owned the event and ended in the top two.
Praveen & Navdeep delivered record-breaking, inspiring performances in high jump and javelin and gave us an opportunity to stand tall with pride to sing the anthem.
We had that opportunity indoors as well in the badminton courts, when Nitesh Kumar won his maiden gold in men’s singles SL3. We also had the opportunity to celebrate the success of Thulasimathi, Manisha, Suhas and Nithya.
There were four others who brought home some silverware – Nishad in high jump T47, Yogesh defending his position in discus throw F56, Sachin Khilari in shot put F46 and Manish Narwal in men’s 10m air pistol SH1.
Kapil Parmar became the first Indian judoka to win a medal, a bronze, and Rubina Francis had the same outcome in women’s 10m Air Pistol SH1.
After missing out on an individual medal, despite breaking a world record, young Sheetal Devi became India’s youngest Paralympic medallist when she won a historic bronze in the mixed doubles archery with Rakesh Kumar. Indian archery also had its first-ever Paralympic champion in Harvinder Singh.
India finished 18th on the medal tally in the Paralympics. I reckon the day we field as many athletes as China and Brazil, we will enjoy a Top 10 finish.
In comparison, the Olympics was a letdown when it came to the medal tally, with India ending at the 71st position and without a single gold. Neeraj Chopra won a silver in javelin and became the first Indian to win track-and-field medals in consecutive Olympics.
After a heart-breaking finish at Tokyo 2020, Manu Baker rewrote the history books to become the only Indian to win two medals in the same Olympics edition. She won a bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol contest and another one in the mixed category, alongside Sarabjot Singh.
Swapnil Kusale won a bronze in the men’s 50m rifle three positions and Aman Sehrawat became the youngest Indian to win an individual Olympic medal, when he lifted a bronze in the men’s freestyle 57kg wrestling contest.
Harmanpreet Singh and his brave men helped India defend their bronze in men’s field hockey, but anyone who watched those matches, especially the one against Great Britain that we played with a man down, would attest to the fact that this could have been a gold medal on another day.
Whilst we went home with 6 medals, there were an equal number of tantalisingly close fourth place finishes that left us heartbroken and wondering what if?
But there was no bigger heartbreak than seeing a Vinesh Phogat return home humiliated and without a medal; I had boarded my return flight hoping to celebrate a historic gold when I landed at Changi, but alas, I was bombarded with notifications of a controversial ouster.
Whilst India didn’t have a positive outcome in table tennis at Paris, there was some solace as Manika Batra and Sreeja Akola became the first paddlers from India to reach the round of 16 at an Olympics. The two ladies, along with Archana Kamath, gave a tough fight and made their way to the quarters before losing to the Germans.
2024 turned out to be the best year for Manika, who rose to a world ranking of 24, the highest-ever for an Indian woman in singles, and she also became the first Indian to reach the quarterfinals of a WTT Grand Smash event.
Earlier in the year, Sreeja and Ahyika Mukherjee did the unthinkable by beating the world number 1 and 2, Sun Yingsha and Wang Didi, respectively to win their singles matches at the World TT Championships, where the women eventually lost 2-3.
Ahyika and Sutirtha, the Mukherjee sisters from Naihati, who had delivered the biggest upset at the 19th Asian Games in 2023, won bronze at the Asian Table Tennis Championships. Sreeja, Manika and Diya joined the Mukherjees by winning another bronze in the women’s team event, and the 5-member men’s team followed suit.
In another racquet sport, 18-year-old squash prodigy, Anahat Singh, who had won two bronze medals at the 2023 Asian Games, won 9 PSA Challenger titles and also broke into the top 100 of the women’s PSA rankings for the first time. One would expect a lot from her and her partner, Abhay Singh, in the coming Olympics cycle.
Beyond the men’s T20 World Cup win, it has been a forgettable year for Indian cricket with the men’s team losing as many as 5 Tests in the season, their most ever and the women’s team failing to win the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup.
The sport that gave India the richest dividends in 2024 is chess. Beyond Gukesh’s World Championship win and Koneru Humpy’s second World Rapid Championship title, India won a historic double gold at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest and four individual golds through Gukesh, Erigaisi, Divya and Vantika.
Later in the year, Erigaisi became the second Indian to cross 2,800 ELO points and now ranks 4th on the FIDE ratings list after Grandmaster Carlsen, Caruana and Nakamura.
The Indian chess revolution has been unleashed, and whilst a repeat of 2024 may be difficult, we can expect many young boys and girls to pick up the sport professionally.
2025 may not be as massive a year for sports compared to 2024 in terms of the sporting calendar, but I would highly encourage and urge each one of you to watch and back our athletes, across arenas, stadia, TV channels and social media, across both able-bodied and Paralympic sports.
The sporting ecosystem is still very much led by eye-balls driven revenue models and the more we watch them, not only does it encourage them but also increases the chances of many of our non-cricketing athletes making a meaningful profession out of their sporting career.
For a long time, Indian sporting glory has relied on just one or two sports but as the nation harbours the ambition of hosting the 2036 Olympics, one can expect the coming decade to be one of the most exciting ones for the ecosystem – for the athletes, viewers, administrators and every other professional stakeholder involved.
Keep watching!
Also Read: 2024 Cricket Recap – The Hits and Misses and some Spellbinding Performances