How a group of champion women is driving India’s Olympics dreams

After completing a dominant win over Kazakhstan’s Laura Ganikyzy at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in April, wrestler Vinesh Phogat knelt down on the mat, hands joined, head bowed as if in gratitude. A moment of calm to punctuate the roil of emotions of the last 16 months or so. Since January 2023, she had gone to war against the Indian wrestling establishment, slept on pavements, faced police violence, been attacked online, suffered an injury and undergone knee surgery before she could return to the wrestling mat.

Once there, she had to drop down to the 50kg category because Antim Panghal, a young Indian wrestler, had already secured Olympic quota in her favoured 53kg category. Though cutting weight (her out-of-competition weight is around 56kg) left her vulnerable to injury, Phogat stuck to her guns, won the national trials and represented India at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers. She needed three wins to secure a place at the 2024 Paris Olympics and she did so in style—with three technical falls (lead of 10 or more points ends the match) on the trot, the last of which was against Ganikyzy. Phogat was back.

“It’s taken so much hard work and struggle,” the 29-year-old told the United World Wrestling website. “I have been away from the mat for one-and-a-half years. I have come back after an operation. Many people suggested that I should not go in the 50kg category because I could get re-injured. But I did not have any option. It was a do-or-die situation. I chose the die option.”

Having taken the most difficult path to Paris, Phogat will compete in her third Olympics on the trot, making her the first Indian woman wrestler to do so. The Olympics hasn’t been the happiest of hunting grounds for Phogat: her campaign at Rio 2016 was cut short due to a horrific knee injury and she returned from Tokyo with a broken spirit.

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At her third, and possibly last Olympics, the 29-year-old will want to forge a few happy memories. Whether she wins a medal or not, from taking on former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh to making a remarkable career recovery, Phogat has already exemplified the best of sporting values. A firebrand on and off the mat, the wrestler will be one of the leading lights in the 117-strong Indian contingent at the 2024 Paris Olympics, which began on 26 July.

Olympics of equality

The Olympics have always stood for sporting excellence. But Paris 2024 will also mark the first time that the Summer Games seeks to achieve gender parity—equal representation of men and women on the field of play. According to the official International Olympic Committee (IOC) database, a total of 11,215 athletes, including backups, will be competing in Paris. Of those, 49% (5,503) will compete in women’s events.

While it is just short of the 50:50 split that Paris 2024 was reaching for, it is a landmark achievement given that women only started competing in the Olympics in 1900. And that Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the Modern Olympics (which were established in 1896), believed women competing at the Games would be, “impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and improper”.

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Independent India sent its first female contingent to Olympics at the 1952 Helsinki Games. It consisted of two athletes, Nilima Ghose and Mary D’Souza, and two swimmers, Dolly Nazir and Arati Saha. Forty-eight years later, Karnam Malleswari became the first Indian woman to medal at the Olympics when she won bronze in women’s 69kg weightlifting at the 2000 Sydney Games. In all, seven of India’s last 15 medals have been won by women.

At the Paris Games, women make up almost 40% (47 of 117) of the Indian squad. That includes some of the top medal contenders like P.V. Sindhu (badminton), Mirabai Chanu (weightlifting) and Nikhat Zareen (boxing), seasoned Olympians Phogat and Deepika Kumari (archery), and exciting debutants Jyothi Yarraji (track and field, hurdles) and Parul Chaudhary (track and field, steeplechase).

The medal hunt

With seven medals, Tokyo 2020 had turned out to be India’s most successful Olympic Games. At Paris 2024, five of those medal winners—Neeraj Chopra, Sindhu, Chanu, Lovlina Borgohain and the men’s hockey team—will be returning for more Olympic glory.

Sindhu, one of India’s most consistent performers on the world stage, is bidding to become the first Indian to win a hat-trick of Olympic medals—she won a silver on her Olympic debut at Rio 2016 and a bronze in Tokyo.

However, the 29-year-old has been struggling with form and injuries (foot and knee) since winning gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She hasn’t won a single tour title since then and has dropped out of the top 10 in world rankings. But Sindhu is a proven big-match performer and led a young Indian women’s squad to their maiden Badminton Asia Team Championships title in February. In the run-up to Paris, she has been working with a new team headed by the legendary Prakash Padukone (mentor) and Agus Dwi Santoso (coach).

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Sindhu also had the honour of being one of India’s flagbearers for the Olympics opening ceremony. This time the athletes’ parade was a spectacle as it was held outside the stadium for the first time, and along the Seine river that snakes through the French capital. Along with table tennis star Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sindhu led the Indian contingent out.

Mirabai Chanu got India off to a great start in Tokyo as she won silver in 49kg weightlifting and will be hoping to do the same in Paris. However, a bit like Sindhu, Chanu has been afflicted with injury since the last Olympics. The most traumatic of which occurred at the deferred 2022 Asian Games when Chanu fell on her back and had to be carried off the stage by her coach Vijay Sharma. That hip injury sidelined her for more than six months.

The only Indian weightlifter to make the cut for Paris, Chanu’s worry is that she doesn’t have enough quality tournaments under her belt. She competed in only one event in 2024—IWF World Cup in April—and finished 12th with a combined lift of 184kg. She is looking to up her game—lift around 205kg—to stay in the medal hunt in Paris.

Borgohain, a surprise medallist at Tokyo, will go into Paris as a world champion. After winning a bronze in the 69kg category at the deferred 2020 Olympics, Borgohain stepped up to the 75kg weight class. Though she took some time to adjust to the heavier category, where power becomes paramount, Borgohain hit back with a gold at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in 2023 and a silver at the 2022 Asian Games, which saw her secure an Olympic berth.

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“My performance has been better in 75kg; I feel fitter,” the 26-year-old from Assam told Lounge earlier this year. “It was a struggle to maintain weight for 69kg. That was one of the reasons I shifted to a higher weight category. Main ache se kha pee ke khelungi, (If I eat properly and compete), maybe I will be able to give a better performance.”

India’s top contenders

In the past decade, India has taken massive strides in the sports sphere. Apart from the record-breaking haul in Tokyo, India also clinched 106 medals, including 28 gold, at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou. It was the first time that India had crossed the 100-medal mark at the continental event.

As the country looks to surpass its tally from Tokyo, which is a big ask, it also has medal hopes pinned on two-time world champion Zareen and badminton stars Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Lakshsya Sen and H.S. Prannoy.

As soon as the curtains fell on the 2020 Olympics, a picture of countdown to Paris was pinned on Zareen’s X account. The boxing star, who competed in the same weight category as London 2012 bronze medallist M.C. Mary Kom, finally got a chance to step into the spotlight at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in 2022.

A smart counter-puncher, Zareen won five bouts with unanimous 5-0 verdict to capture the title. In New Delhi last year, despite dropping down from flyweight (under 52kg) to light flyweight (under 50kg), she won the championship yet again to become only the second Indian women’s boxer after Mary Kom to claim back-to-back world titles.

In her two tournaments in 2024, the 28-year-old has picked up one gold (Elorda Cup) and a silver (Strandja Memorial). But more than her form, Zareen’s fire may singe her opponents. One of the most confident and driven athletes in India, the boxer is unlikely to waste the Olympic opportunity she has so yearned for.

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Paris may also see the emergence of India’s first medallist in men’s badminton. Saina Nehwal (bronze, London 2012) and Sindhu have accounted for India’s three medals in the sport so far. But former World No.1 pair of Satwik-Chirag are one of the frontrunners in men’s doubles and have Olympic experience from Tokyo to draw on.

In singles, Sen and Prannoy have shown they can beat the best in the world on their day. At the either end of the career spectrum, the 22-year-old Sen and 32-year-old Prannoy are both making their Olympic debuts in Paris. But they have enough big-match experience and have medalled at the World Championships.

Young guns and old warhorses

With every Olympics, India breaks new ground. This time, it was 100m hurdler Yarraji and the men’s and women’s table tennis teams that became the first from India to qualify in for their respective events at the Olympics.

Yarraji’s rise to prominence, in one of the most competitive events, is another inspiring story of grit. The 24-year-old from Visakhapatnam comes from a modest family—her father Suryranarayana is a security guard and mother Kumari works as domestic help. Having overcome early financial obstacles, Yarraji went on to become the first Indian woman to run 100m hurdles under 13 seconds. Her national record currently stands at 12.78s.

Other Indian debutants who could create a stir at Paris include Parul Chaudhary, who is competing in the 5,000m and 3,000m steeplechase, 22-year-old rifle shooter Sift Kaur Samra and 19-year-old wrestler Panghal. Swimmer Dhinidhi Desinghu, all of 14 years old, is the youngest on India’s 2024 Olympics roster.

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While sport is always looking for a new star, there are some old warhorses in the Indian team who have defied time to extend their Olympic march. Tennis star Rohan Bopanna, 44, is competing in his third Olympics, while Sharath Kamal, the 42-year-old table tennis player, is gearing up for his fifth Games. Ace archer Deepika Kumari, who gave birth to her first child in December 2022, has made a successful return to the sport and will be chasing that elusive medal at her fourth Olympics.

“Woh paanch ring ka pressure, haavi ho ja raha hai (the pressure of the five Olympic rings is becoming a bit too much),” Kumari had said after a disappointing quarterfinal exit from Tokyo. “Everyone keeps saying we (archers) don’t have a medal. We think of it a thousand times there, and it dominates our psyche.”

Young or experienced, they will all start Paris 2024 with a clean slate. And how they deal with the once-in-four-years Olympic pressure will make or break them.

Deepti Patwardhan is a sportswriter based in Mumbai.

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