Year Ender 2023 | 7 reasons why 2023 is a year to remember in Indian sports

Year Ender 2023 | Javelin throwers Kishore Jena, Neeraj Chopra, DP Manu. It's been a great year for Indian track and field, and for Indian sports in general. (Photos via X)

2023, without a doubt, has been a landmark year in Indian sports. A year full of great performances, a bitter but brave fight against an established power, almost a World Cup win, record-breaking sprees from giants like Virat Kohli, complete dominance over a sport at the global level by the likes of Neeraj Chopra, a remarkable coming-of-age of Indian athletics with a record haul at the Asian Games and a spate of qualifications for the 2024 Paris Olympics; a resurgence in Indian shooting after a devastating Tokyo Olympics, a badminton pair rising to the top of the sport with razor-sharp, high-octane performances, come-from-behind wins and crushing victories in cricket, hockey, wrestling, and boxing, and young, new talent showing that they belong at the highest level. 2023 needed to be like this. Because in 2024, the Olympics beckon, as does yet another cricket world cup in India’s search for another ICC trophy after 2013, despite boasting a team that can crush any other on any given day.

Indian wrestlers unite for brave #MeToo campaign

The biggest moment in Indian sports, even in a year of spectacular on-field achievements, had nothing to do with sports, and everything to do with speaking truth to power. 2023 started with a surprising protest by the country’s top wrestlers, led by Olympic medallist, world championship medallist Vinesh Phogat and Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia, against the Wrestling Federation of India. Soon, the reason spilled out—the wrestlers were alleging that the president of the federation Brijbhushan Sharan Singh had a history of sexually harassing and molesting female wrestlers. The protesters were met with every conceivable form of mudslinging—social media campaigns were run against them, the police refused to investigate, the protest was water-cannoned and the protesters jailed—but they did not back down. After months spent on the streets, it needed an intervention by the Supreme Court for Delhi Police to finally open an investigation, and for Singh to be suspended. The case continues, with the Delhi Police filing a chargesheet on Singh’s sexual misconducts.

Neeraj Chopra and the rise of Indian javelin throwers

This was Neeraj Chopra’s year. The Tokyo Olympics gold medallist added the title of world champion and Asian champion to his name. Indeed, he became the first Indian world champion in track & field, which he did with an 88m-plus throw at the World Athletics Championships in August in Budapest, Hungary. He snapped up a Diamond League title and topped the men’s javelin rankings in the world in May, and added the final brushstroke to this masterpiece of an year with the Asian Games gold with his best throw of the season in October (88.88m). Here’s to the ever-smiling, carefree Haryana athlete; may he continue in the same vein, making 2024 and the Paris Olympics his own.

An added, superb bonus: Chopra’s compatriots DP Manu and Kishore Jena both made it to the finals of the World Athletics Championships, the first time more than one Indian was in the finals of any discipline in the history of the tournament. Jena finished the season with his best ever throw of 87.54m to win the Asian Games silver behind Chopra, which also earned him qualification for the Paris Olympics.

Indian hockey’s continued resurgence

Indian hockey is standing up to be counted again. If you are like most people in India, who have heard the stories of how the nation lorded over the world in hockey but not been a witness to those years, now is a great time to become a fan. The Indian men’s hockey team is on a superb run. At the Asian Games, they were on a spree: 68 goals in seven games with just nine conceded. Some of those hammered were minnows, no doubt, but the team also dismantled the other Asian giants with ease—South Korea lost 5-3 in semis, Japan 5-1 in the finals—showing that we are, right now, a few notches beyond the reach of the rest of Asia, and among the top 3 teams in the world. The team also went through a 17-game winning streak this year, and they would be hoping to add more to that list in 2024.

The Indian men’s hockey team is on a superb run. At the Asian Games, they were on a spree: 68 goals in seven games with just nine conceded. (Photo via X)

Badminton’s big two

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty end the year as the world’s top-ranked men’s doubles pair, which is enough said already, but there is more. While an unprecedented doubles medal at the 2024 Olympics will be sensational (and expected from the top-ranked duo), by winning the Asian Games gold in October, they pulled off a prestigious and perhaps even harder-to-achieve medal than an Olympic one. That’s because all but one of the world top 10 doubles teams are from Asia (Denmark is the exception at No.8), and Satwik and Chirag smashed and drop-shot their way through that lot at the Asiad.

Also read: 12 reasons why Asian Games 2023 could become a watershed year in Indian sports

Earlier in the year, they had been crowned champions at the 2023 Badminton Asian Championships and had become the first Indian pair to win the Indonesia Open title. Just carrying forward the good work from 2022, when they had become the first Indian pair to win a medal at the world championships (bronze), won the Commonwealth title, and were a part of India’s first Thomas Cup winning team.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the men’s badminton doubles gold at the Asian Games 2023. (File)

Record-breaking Asian Games performance

With 107 medals at the Asian Games 2023—that’s 38 more than the medal tally at the 2018 Asian Games—India signalled a breakthrough year in Olympic sports, especially in athletics.

There were so many fine moments behind that number, the finest perhaps being Parul Chaudhary bursting past Japan’s Ririka Hironaka in the women’s 5,000m final, with just 20 metres to go in a race where she had trailed the Japanese for the first 4,780 metres. Chaudhary had, just a day earlier, stood on the podium alongside Priti Lamba for an unprecedented Indian one-two in the 3000m Steeplechase.

In the men’s steeplechase, Avinash Sable set the Asian record on the same track (completing the race in 8:19.50 seconds). Murali Sreeshankar recorded some of the year’s best jumps to bag an Asian Games silver in long jump.

Ancy Sojan bagged the silver in women’s long jump.

Ramraj equalled Usha’s record in the qualifying round before bagging a silver in the 4X400m mixed relay on the same day and a bronze in the 400m Hurdles the nest day.

The Indian shooting contingent bagged more medals than they have ever done at the Asian Games, too, something that will do the shooters a world of good after their medal-less, fall-from-hype performance at the Tokyo Olympics.

Avinash Sable (Image source Twitter avinash3000m)

The next generation is here

What is a year in sports without the unearthing of fresh talent? This year saw some remarkable performances from Indian youngsters on the world’s biggest stages: 20-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal blazed in the IPL, scored his maiden T20 century and maiden Test century on debut for India; 20-year-old Salima Tete had a breakthrough season with India’s hockey squad; 18-year-old Antim Panghal won her second straight junior world title before embarking on a madcap tournament spree where she competed in, and won medals at, every senior major international—Asian Games, Asian Wrestling Championships, and the World Wrestling Championships; 18-year-old Esha Singh bagged two medals at the ISSF Shooting World Championships and four medals at the Asian Games; 18-year-old Sift Kaur Samra won India’s first 50m Rifle 3 Position gold at the Asian Games, one of two medals she won there; 18-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa became the youngest player to make the final of the Chess World Cup, and only the second Indian after Vishwanathan Anand to do so, where he went down to Magnus Carlsen.

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 18, became the youngest player to make the final of the Chess World Cup. (Illustration by Suneesh K.)

Number one across formats, but no cigar

Oh, the Indian cricket team. How did we not win it all? With the kind of dominance we showed, a silverware count seems like a cruel way to measure sporting excellence. Beyond the heartbreak, though, there were so much brilliance on the field. Till the Indian team was brought crashing down to earth in the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup by Australia, it was a squad of giants swatting away all competition with equal disdain. Look at Virat Kohli, back to his supreme best, amassing a world-record 765 runs  in just 11 innings at the World Cup, averaging over 95 through the tournament, and going past Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most ODI centuries (49. Kohli equalled and then scored his 50th century during the tournament).

Or Mohammad Shami, who only came into the playing XI after first-choice Hardik Pandya was ruled out with an injury, only to become India’s most potent weapon while bowling, his wily seam and swing and machine-like accuracy rewarding him with 24 wickets, the most at the tournament. Two matches were won by record margins, they occupy the No.1 and No.4 spots in the list of biggest winning margins in ODI history. Yet, and yet, the final.

No matter. 2024 is another year, another World Cup.