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Sports have a universal appeal that captivates people worldwide, whether it’s cricket or football. Each person tends to have a sports ‘idol’ whom they avidly follow. Given the multitude of sporting events, these renowned sports figures inevitably find themselves in the spotlight. Presented below are the 50 most famous sports personalities in India.
All-Time Biggest & Most Famous Sports Personalities in India
Famous Sports Personalities in India: Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli is the captain of the Indian Cricket team and arguably the best batsman in the current era. Through his passion for cricket, flamboyance, style, as well as social initiatives, Virat Kohli has always stayed in the limelight. The Indian Captain reigned supreme throughout last season as he became the first player in history to win all the 3 major ICC Awards. Also, he was the captain of ICC’s both Test and ODI teams in the year 2019. He also remained in the number 1 spot in both ICC ODI and Test rankings for best batsmen. Also, he has scored over 12300 runs in the 262 ODIs at a strike rate of 92.84.
Apart from sports, he married Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in December 2017, and the couple has gained some of the best endorsement deals of their career since then. At a very young age, he became one of the most successful & famous sports personalities in India.
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Famous Sports Personalities in India: Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar is one of the best if not the best batsman to have ever touched a cricket bat. He is famous as Master Blaster” and “The God of Cricket”. Sachin is also the highest run-scorer across all the formats in Cricket. He gave Indian Cricket all he had in his 24-year-long career. In a country where cricket is the most followed sports cum religion and Sachin is the God of the religion, it is not surprising to see him on this list. His records and performances will always be the landmark comparison in cricket. He is undoubtedly the most famous sports personality in India.
Famous Sports Personalities in India: M.S. Dhoni
M.S. Dhoni or Mahi is a former captain of the Indian Cricket Team and one of the most intelligent players ever to play the game of cricket. He is the only captain in the history of Cricket to have led a team to all 3 ICC Championships: the 2007 ICC T-20 World Cup, the 2011 ICC World Cup, and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. All of us still get goosebumps when we look at the game-winning six hit by Dhoni in the World Cup Finals. Mahi hit the peak of his fame after the release of his biopic in September 2016. The film went on to become a blockbuster with a box office earning of INR 216 crore. MS Dhoni lifted his 5th IPL trophy in 2023 by beating Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad. Dhoni is yet another example of a famous sports personality in India.
Famous Sports Personalities of India: Yuvraj Singh
Yuvraj Singh (also known as Yuvi) is an all-time great retired Indian Cricketer. Yuvi was a very integral part of India’s World Cup-winning campaigns in 2007 and 2011. He was the man of the tournament in the 2011 World Cup grabbing 4 men of the match awards in the mega-event. Then 29-year-old at the top of his career, Yuvi was diagnosed with cancer. But the prince never gave up and defeated death. Yuvi is also famous to hit 6 sixes in an over in international cricket. Yuvraj announced his retirement after being left out of the Indian Squad for the 2019 World Cup.
Famous Sports Personalities of India: Harmanpreet Kaur
Harmanpreet Kaur is the Indian Cricketer and the captain of the Indian Women’s Cricket team. The most prominent highlight of India’s all-rounding superstar Harmanpreet Kaur is the 171 runs knock that she hit against Australia in the 2017 Women’s World Cup semi-finals, helping India proceed into the finals. She was awarded the prestigious Arjuna Award by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in 2017.
In July 2023, during the women’s cricket tour of Bangladesh by India, Kaur became embroiled in a controversy when she struck the stumps with her bat in response to being declared out. In 2023, the Mumbai Indians, captained by her, went on to win the inaugural WPL.
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Famous Sports Personalities of India: Mithali Raj
Mithali Dorai Raj is an Indian woman cricketer and the captain of India’s women’s ODI team. She has both the Arjuna Award (2003), Padma Shri (2015), and Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award (2021). She is the highest run-scorer in Women’s International Cricket across all the formats. Mithali is known as ‘Lady Sachin’ because of her immense stature like Tendulkar in Women’s cricket. In the 2018 ICC Women’s World Twenty20, Raj got into a controversy with team management. She accused the coach Ramesh Powar and BCCI COA member Diana Edulji of bias, humiliation, and not including her in the T20 world cup semifinals in a letter to BCCI.
Greatest Indian Footballer: Sunil Chhetri
Famous Athletes of India: Sunil Chhetri is a famous Indian professional footballer who plies his trade as a striker or winger. He is the captain of both Bengaluru FC and the Indian National Football team. Popularly known as Captain Fantastic, Chhetri is the 3rd highest goal scorer in international matches (amongst active players) after Cristiano Ronaldo & Lionel Messi. He is the all-time top goal scorer for the Indian National Football team and international goal tally of 92 in 142 appearances.
On June 18, Chhetri scored the opening goal in a 2-0 triumph over Lebanon during the final of the 2023 Hero Intercontinental Cup, playing a pivotal role in India’s championship victory in the tournament. Also, Sunil is the most capped player to represent the Indian Football team. On June 21, Chhetri recorded his fourth hat-trick for the Indian national team in a 4-0 victory against Pakistan during a group stage match of the 2023 SAFF Championship. He got support from many famous sports personalities like Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. He is the most famous football player in India.
Fastest Women Athlete in India: Dutee Chand
Dutee Chand is a successful Indian professional sprinter and is the third Indian woman ever to qualify for the Women’s 100 meters event in the Summer Olympic Games. In 2018, Chand clinched India’s first medal since 1998 as she won silver in women’s 100m at the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In May 2019, Dutee bravely came out as India’s first openly gay athlete as she made the revelation that she is in a same-sex relationship with a partner from her village. Her revelation attracted a lot of attention as her parents and villagers opposed her calling her act unethical and unacceptable. While she gained appreciation from the LGBTQ+ community and celebrities all around the world for her brave decision.
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Famous Sports Personalities in India: Neeraj Chopra
Neeraj Chopra is the poster boy of India when it comes to Javelin Throw or even athletics in general. He took the world by surprise winning a gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2016 IAAF World U20 champion, and set the world junior record of 86.48 m at the U20 championships. In 2017, Neeraj won another gold medal in the Asian Athletic championships with a throw of 85.23 meters. Chopra then joined the elite list of athletes to win a gold medal in his first Commonwealth Games appearance. Following these stellar performances, he became the first Indian athlete to win the gold medal in Javelin Throw in the Asian Games, setting the national record of 88.06 m.
In July 2022, he broke his national record with a throw of 89.94 m in the Stockholm Diamond League. In August 2023, he won the gold medal in 2023 World Athletics Championships with a throw of 88.17m He is amongst the most famous sports personalities in India in the year 2022-2023 after winning various medals in international events.
Ravichandran Ashwin
Famous Athletes of India: R Ashwin is an Indian Cricketer and a bowling allrounder who bowls right-arm off break. He has been an instrumental part of the Indian bowling lineup in the current era. He faced a lot of criticism in during IPL when he ‘mankaded’ star batsman of Rajasthan Royals, Jos Buttler. R Ashwin is the fastest Indian bowler (also in some records the joint-fastest in the world) to reach the 50-, 100-, 150-, 200-, 250-, 300-, 350-,400- and 450- wicket mark in Test cricket in terms of number of innings. As of March 2023, Ashwin holds the top position among Test cricket bowlers and ranks second among all-rounders.
Famous Sports Personalities of India: PV Sindhu
Double Olympic medalists and ace shuttler PV Sindhu is one of the most famous Indian shuttlers in India. PV Sindhu added one more gold medal to her kitty by winning the women’s singles title at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham. She also won the women’s singles title at the Singapore Open 2022 BWF Super 500 tournament after beating Chinese shuttler Wang Zhi Yi in July 2022.
Sindhu marked her comeback from her injury hiatus during the initial tournament of 2023, the Malaysia Open. In February, she contributed to the Indian team’s achievement of securing a bronze medal at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships, marking India’s inaugural medal at the event.
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Saina Nehwal
Famous Athletes of India: Saina Nehwal is an Indian badminton player and India’s first shuttler to win a medal at the Olympics. She has been the World’s No.1 in the BWF rankings once. Saina has over 24 international titles to her name out of which 11 are Super series titles. Saina is an eminent athlete who has given an immense contribution to making the sport of Badminton popular in the country. After MS Dhoni and Milkha Singh, a biopic on Saina Nehwal’s life and achievements was made where actress Parineeti Chopra played Saina in the film.
Famous Indian Athletes: Mary Kom
Famous Athletes of India: Mary Kom is an Indian Olympic boxer who hails from the North-Eastern state of Manipur. Mary Kom is a 6-time World Amateur Boxing Champion, and the only woman boxer to win a medal in all seven world championships apiece. In the 2012 London Olympics, Mary became (and remains) the only Indian woman boxer to qualify for the Summer Olympics. She went on to clinch the bronze medal in the 51 kg flyweight category.
Kom was a part of the Keep India Smiling Foundational Scholarship program, a national program offering scholarships and mentorships in the fields of education, sports, and community betterment. In 2018, Mary Kom became the most successful boxer in the history of the Women’s World Championships by winning her sixth gold medal with a unanimous 5-0 result over Ukraine’s Hanna Okhota.
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Lakshya Sen
Lakshya Sen is a young Indian badminton player who chiefly competes in the singles category. Sen first came to prominence in 2016, when he had a successful junior badminton circuit. He is also a former world junior no. 1. He secured the bronze medal at the 2021 World Championships and was also a runner-up at the 2022 All England Open. Lakshya was also a part of the Indian team which won the Thomas Cup 2022. In the men’s singles event, Lakshya Sen brilliantly won the gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham.
In February 2023, Lakshya Sen was part of the Indian squad that secured a bronze medal at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships. Then, on July 9, in Calgary, Canada, Lakshya Sen emerged victorious in the 2023 Canada Open final by defeating China’s Li Shifeng in straight sets, with a scoreline of 21-18, 22-20.
Gautam Gambhir
Famous Athletes of India: Gautam Gambhir is one of the most talented, yet underrated cricketers of all time. Gautam Gambhir announced his retirement from the game in December 2018 after being left out in the IPL auction. He has some big performances when men in blue needed him the most. His memorable World Cup knocks will always hold a special place in the hearts of Indian fans. In 2019, he joined the ruling BJP and recently won the election from the East Delhi (Lok Sabha constituency).
A true patriot, Gambhir manages to stay in the headlines with his comments and views on social media. On learning about the retirement of his fellow left-handed batsman and former Indian legend Yuvraj Singh, he recommended that BCCI retire jersey number 12 as a tribute to the Prince of Indian Cricket.
Famous athletes in India: Hima Das
Hima Das, aka “Dhing Express”, is an Indian sprint runner from Assam. Das is also the first Indian athlete to ever win a gold medal in a track and field event on the global stage in the IAAF World U20 Championships.
Hima Das was conferred with the Arjuna Award by Hon, President, Mr. Ram Nath Kovind on 25th September 2018. The Government of Assam has appointed her as the state’s brand ambassador of sports. Also, the 2nd largest sports brand in the world, Adidas has signed her for an endorsement deal. She is UNICEF India’s first-ever youth ambassador for sports. Hima Das currently holds the Indian national record in 400 meters with a timing of 50.79 s that she clocked at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
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FAQ
They achieve excellence and success in their respective sports through hard work and dedication, winning medals, breaking records, and representing India on international platforms.
They serve as role models, inspire the youth, promote fitness and healthy living, and often use their fame to support charitable causes and social initiatives.
They follow strict training regimes, maintain a healthy lifestyle, receive professional coaching and guidance, and adapt to changing techniques and technologies.
Sachin Tendulkar is commonly recognized as one of India’s most exceptional cricketers, if not the absolute best, owing to his extensive records and remarkable achievements in the game.
