India's most promising athletes to look forward to at Paris Olympics 2024

The Paris Olympics 2024 will take place from July 26 to August 11.

A total of 70 Indian athletes have so far qualified for individual events at the Summer Olympics in Paris this year! Shooting and athletics are the most represented sports with 21 athletes each in attendance. However, there are also some sports where it’s surprising to see India partaking in, including Equestrian, in which they’ve only ever been represented four times at the Olympics.

Let’s take a look at some of the most promising Indian athletes heading to Paris this summer.

Wrestling

The history of gambling in sports is almost as long as the history of sport itself. As fans of wrestling will know, this is one of the oldest sports around. It’s also a sport where India performs particularly well. However, this year, India’s hopes of making it to the Olympics had been all but dashed — at least for the men’s team. Despite this, there was one hope that everyone had their fingers crossed for: Aman Sehrawat.

He’s just 20-year-old, and wiry, but he’s tough. The recent World Olympic Qualifiers in Istanbul saw all of India’s other male wrestlers get knocked out, but Sehrawat gritted his teeth until the very end. His final showdown was against North Korean wrestler Chongsong Han, who spent a long time trying to goad him into attacking early.

Sehrawat kept his cool and delivered the goods, outmaneuvering Han with his explosive speed and impressive reach.

Equestrian

In an exciting turn of events, India has qualified for the Equestrian games for only the fifth time in history. Anush Agarwalla is the athlete to have achieved this feat. He took four EFI events (the minimum number to qualify) in Wroclaw, Kroneberg, Frankfurt and Mechelen. In each of these competitions, he rode Etro and competed in dressage.

At just 24 years old, Agarwalla is still very much at the beginning of his career and while it’s clear that, with just one rider, India won’t be taking home a huge haul of medals, it’s exceptionally exciting to see a young Indian athlete getting into the Olympic dressage arena.

Weightlifting

A brilliant female athlete will be representing India in the weightlifting event at the Paris Olympic games. Mirabai Chanu secured her spot (the only Indian weightlifter to qualify) after a six-month hiatus due to injury. The 29-year-old competes in the women’s 49kg category, yet manages to lift up to 113kg regularly, considerably more than twice her own weight.

Despite her injuries she appears to be on top form, so it will be exciting to see how far she progresses in what promises to be a very competitive event.

Sailing

The next athlete on our list is Nethra Kumanan. She secured her spot in the Paris games under the Emerging Nations Program at the Last Chance Regatta (a harsh but fitting name). Kumanan is the first and only Indian woman to ever qualify for the sailing event at the Olympics, so a ceremony was held in her honour. This will be the second consecutive Olympics, an Indian record in itself, that she will compete in.

Many people from her university, The SRM Institute of Science and Technology, were in attendance, to wish Kumanan the best in the next step in her career. 

Badminton

PV Sindhu is perhaps the best badminton player in the country at the moment. She made that abundantly clear in Kuala Lumpur at the Mayalsia Masters earlier this year. Although Sindhu didn’t end up taking the trophy, she did make it right up until the final leg of the competition, proving she’s truly world class.

Off the back of her runner-up finish in Malaysia, Sindhu says she’s feeling stronger than ever. There are still two major events to go before we see PV Sindhu in Paris. We’ll be watching those with excitement.

Men’s Javelin

Our final pick is Neeraj Chopra, the reigning Olympics champion, who will be competing in Paris in the javelin throw. Neeraj has plenty of winning history, having already taken an individual gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. If he can repeat this feat it will be a huge win for India and there’s no reason at all to doubt, he’s capable of it.

In the 2023 World Championships he took the gold medal too and logged a personal best throw — just shy of 90 meters. Following this, he defended his crown at the Asian Games. It’s never wise to speak of certainties in sports, but it would be surprising not to see Chopra on the medal stand in Paris.

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