Indian Sports In 2024: Year Of Monumental Victories, Breakthroughs, And Near Misses

A cricket World Cup, half a dozen Olympic medals and two chess world champions. Year 2024 gave the average Indian sports fan unprecedented reasons to celebrate as peaks outnumbered the valleys in a confident march towards a promising future. Tales that bear repeating were many but the year going by will primarily be remembered for four dates -- June 29, July 30, December 12 and December 28. A big step towards the future was the formal expression of intent to host the 2036 Olympics, a move that has the potential to change the sporting landscape of the country.

When sport shone through in its purest form

On a humid and nervy June evening in Barbados, the Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team won a long-awaited World Cup title after more than a decade of heartbreaks in knockout matches of ICC tournaments, the feat matching the country's undisputed status as the game's most influential voice.

A month later, effervescent pistol shooter Manu Bhaker became India's first athlete post independence to win two Olympic medals in a single edition, showing incredible mental fortitude to exorcise her Tokyo demons and write one of the best redemption stories at the Games.

Also in Paris, one of India's greatest ever, unassuming javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra embodied excellence like few others and climbed into a galaxy of his own by winning a silver medal, three years after his historic gold at Tokyo Games.

India had hoped for a gold from the reigning world champion, but it was ultimately not to be as he lost to Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem who bettered a Games record that had stood for 16 years, not once but twice.

In the last four months, the chess board became India's happy hunting ground with both the men's and women's teams knocking off