Rahul NareshIndian female athletes have been at the top of their game in recent times. The most recent showing came in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where the women bagged several medals. In celebrating the women’s game, the following is a list of the best female athletes that India has produced so far. The list includes current athletes as well as retired athletes.
PV Sindhu
The first of the most prominent female athletes of India is PV Sindhu. A renowned badminton singles specialist and a two-time Olympic medal winner, Sindhu bagged the bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and a silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She has five World Championship medals, which includes a gold medal at the 2019 Championships.
Sania Mirza
Sania Mirza is yet another celebrated athlete of India. The Hyderabad-born doubles tennis specialist is a multiple Grand Slam winner. She has won the US Open, the Australian Open, and Wimbledon in her doubles career. Her mixed doubles career also contains a similar list of victories, including the US Open, the Australian Open, and the French Open.
Mithali Raj
Mithali Raj is arguably one of the best cricketers and captains India has ever produced. At the age of 39, she continues to take India’s cricket to greater heights. Mithali has over 7000 runs in ODI cricket with an Average of over 50. She is one of the very few who have ‘seen it all’ in women’s cricket.
Mary Kom
Mary Kom is one of the most celebrated boxers of India. Hailing from the Northeast, she bagged a bronze at the 2012 Olympics in the Flyweight category. She has eight World Championship medals to her name, six of them being gold.
Saina Nehwal
The second badminton player on this list, Saina Nehwal, is the more senior of the two badminton players appearing on this list. She has an Olympic bronze medal to her name, which she bagged at the 2012 Olympics. To add to her list of medals, she also has a couple of medals won at the World Championships.
Deepika Kumari
Deepika Kumari is an archer who has risen to the top of her game in the last few years. Although she takes part in a sport that does not gain the most coverage in the country, she still has impressive achievements in the sport. Kumari has a couple of silvers to her name in the World Championships in the team event and an individual gold in the World Cup.
Dipa Karmakar
Gymnastics as a sport finds itself relatively low in the pecking order of preferred sports in India, but it is athletes like Dipa Karmakar who are instrumental in improving the sport’s status in the country. Karmakar has a Commonwealth Games bronze as well as an Asian Championships bronze to her name. She also bagged a gold at the 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Cup.
Rani Rampal
The Indian women’s hockey team captain is next on the list. Rani Rampal is currently 27, though it feels like she has been around for ages. One reason for this is because she was just 15 when she joined the national team for the 2010 World Cup. She was a part of both teams who won medals at the Asian Games in 2014 and 2018. She was instrumental in India’s famous run in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well.
Dipika Pallikal Karthik
Dipika Pallikal has been around for a while as well and has proved herself on a number of occasions, which makes her an obvious choice for this list. The squash player has multiple achievements in a sport that still requires greater recognition today. She holds three medals at the Commonwealth Games, which includes a gold at the 2014 CWG. She has four more medals in the Asian Games and a solitary individual Asian Championships silver as well.
PT Usha
Although PT Usha was not an athlete who stacked up medals for her nation, she was crucial in improving the Indian status in track and field events. Towards the end of her career, Usha proved her worth in the Asian Games: at the 1986 Asian Games, she won four golds and one silver in track and field events for the country.
