International Women’s Day: Young Guns Shining on Horizon of Indian Sports Fraternity

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the article sums up the contribution of young women athletes in the Indian sports fraternity with their notable performances on the global stage. The list stretches from the well-known face of Richa Ghosh, a wicketkeeper batter, to Sheetal Devi, an Indian para-athlete, who bagged the Arjuna Award.

Hyderabad: Indian sports saw a good number of female athletes shining on the global stage with their stupendous performances in recent times. These athletes showed that women are not pushover in any aspect as compared to the men with their contributions when in comes to bringing laurels to the country. Here are the players from different sporting arena who were came out with superlative performances and became forces to reckon with in their respective fields.

Anmol Kharb

Anmol Kharb, the young Indian badminton player, played a key role in India’s campaign in the Badminton Asia Qualifiers Championships recently. Anmol, translated as priceless in English, is already creating ripples with standout performances in badminton tourneys.

She became the women’s singles national badminton champion at the age of 16 in 2023 and is turning out to be a bright prospect in Indian badminton. She played a key role for the Indian women’s team bagging gold in the recently concluded Asia Team Championships in Malaysia.

Apart from her technical skills and hunger to excel, Anmol’s toughness makes her standout. In the Badminton team Asia Championships, she turned out to be India’s saviour not only once but on three different occasions outplaying higher-ranked and more experienced opponents in decisive matches including the final fixture of the tournament.

Kharb started playing the sport at a young age after watching her brother Hardik play. She won the U-17 All India Ranking title in Hyderabad in 2019 at the age of 12. The youngster then won under-17 national titles in both singles and doubles. She has also done well in the international age-group tournaments and entered the pre-quarterfinals of the Asian Junior Championships in 2022.

Vaishali Rameshbabu

Vaishali Rameshbabu, who became India’s third female chess grandmaster recently is taking big leaps in the world of chess. She joined the elite company of Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli last year with an incredible feat. After fulfilling all the norms of becoming a grandmaster in December 2023, her achievement added a new chapter to the rich legacy of Indian Chess. Also, she became part of the first-ever grandmaster siblings duo in chess.

The credit for Vaishali’s meteoric rise can be also attributed to her training with her brother Praggnandha. Vaishali has already achieved significant milestones in her chess career. She first emerged victorious in the Girls’ World Youth Chess Championship in the Under-12 category in 2012 and the Under-14 category in 2015. In 2016, she was bestowed with the title of Woman International Master (WIM), and in 2018, she became a Woman Grandmaster (WGM) after fulfilling final norm in a tournament in Riga, Latvia.

In 2020, she represented Indian team that clinched the gold medal at the Online Olympiad, marking India’s first-ever medal in the event. She also earned the title of International Master (IM) in 2021.

Richa Ghosh

An admirer of Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni, the youngster hails from Siliguri. Her consistent performances in the age-level cricket earned her a place in the national team and she is now one of the potential stars in the Indian women’s cricket.

Richa made her debut in 2020 and has been playing a pivotal role for the Indian side while finishing games for them. Making her debut just at the age of 16, the right-handed batter impressed the BCCI with her performances to earn her first central contract next year.

The explosive batter in women's cricket has been making waves with her brilliant performances ever since her debut while batting in the lower order for the Indian team. She has scored 677 runs with a strike rate of 133.53 in the shortest format of the game. Also, the 20-year-old has featured for Hobart Hurricanes in BBL, London Spirit in The Hundred and Royal Challengers Banglore in the WPL.

Her exploits have earned her a place in the teams of the various franchise leagues and she is currently plying in the Women’s Premier League (WPL)

Aditi Swami

The 17-year-old had a memorable 2023, becoming India's first-ever world champion in archery and contributing to India's historic performance in the Hangzhou Asian Games held in China with a gold medal representing the women's team. She also bagged bronze individually.

Aditi broke the Junior World Record and secured a top spot in the ranking round among the world's best archers. However, she shot to stardom at the Medeline World Cup in Colombia in 2023 and later claimed the gold medal at the World U19 Archery Championships in Limerick, Ireland. She also became the Senior Archery World Champion in Berlin, Germany.

She was also part of the Indian compound women's trio that won four gold medals last year, including a gold at the World Championships, partnering with Parneet Kaur and Jyothi Surekha Vennam.

Indian archer Aditi Swami has received the Breakthrough Archer of the Year 2023 award from World Archery.

Isha Singh

Isha Singh won India’s 15th Paris Olympics quota with a gold medal in the women’s 10m Air Pistol final in the Asian Olympic Qualifier in Jakarta in January this year.

The youngster stunned Manu Bhaker and seasoned shooter Heena Sidhu at the age of 13 in the 10m air pistol final in the National Championships in 2018 before cementing her place in the Indian junior and senior teams.

Apart from the 10m Air Pistol silver in the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, the Hyderabad shooter became the 25m Pistol junior world champion in 2022.

Isha Singh's performance in the Asian Games was remarkable. She not only contributed to the women's 10m air pistol team's silver medal but also won an individual silver in the women's individual 25m pistol event.

Additionally, Esha was part of the trio, alongside Manu Bhaker and Rhythm Sangwan, that secured a gold medal in the women's 25m pistol team event.

Sheetal Devi

India's para-athlete, Sheetal Devi was honoured with the Arjuna Award from the president of India on January 9. Sheetal Devi received her award from the President of India Droupadi Murmu.

She bagged gold medals in the individual compound and mixed team events apart from winning the silver medal in the women’s doubles competition at the Asian Para Olympic Games in October.

Sheetal Devi claimed a silver medal in the open women’s compound archery event at the World Archery Para Championships 2023 in Czech Republic in July. She was the first female armless archer to win a medal at the Para World Championships. The medal also helped Sheetal obtain a quota for India for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

What makes Sheetal Devi’s achievements all the more astonishing is that she is the only active female international archer to shoot without arms.

Following her success in securing a silver medal at the 2023 world championships and two golds and one silver at the Asian Para Games, Sheetal Devi claimed the No. 1 spot in the rankings for para compound archers.

Sheetal Devi was named the Best Youth Athlete of the Year in 2023 by the Asian Paralympic Committee.