Knowledge Nugget | Indian Women in Sports 2024–2025 : Top 10 moments as India women Women’s World Cup final

Why in the news?

Jemimah Rodrigues starred with a sensational 127 not out off 134 balls as India overpowered defending champions Australia in the semi-final of the 2025 Women’s World Cup to storm into the final. India chased down a target of 339, rewriting the record for the highest successful run chase of all time in women’s ODIs. This victory has once again brought Indian women in sports into the spotlight. In fact, 2024–2025 has seen many women athletes make India proud with their remarkable achievements. Here are some of the most significant ones.

Key Achievers: 

1. Manu Bhaker (Shooting)

She became India’s first athlete to win two medals at the 2024 Olympics in Paris and first Indian woman shooter to win an Olympic medal. She won two bronze medals (women’s 10 m air pistol and mixed team 10 m air pistol along with Sarabjot Singh). 

2. Avani Lekhara (Para‑Shooting)

Tokyo Paralympics champion Avani Lekhara won gold at the Para Shooting World Cup. She in fact became the first Indian woman to win two gold medals in the Games’ history. She scored 249.7 in the final – creating a new Paralympic record and also shattering the previous record of 249.6, set by her exactly three years ago on her Games debut at Tokyo 2020.

3. Preethi Pal (Para‑Athletics) 

Preethi created history becoming the first-ever Indian woman track & field athlete to win 2 medals at the Paralympics or Olympics. After her historic 100m bronze medal at the Paralympics, Preethi Pal added another medal to her cabinet with a 200m bronze in Paris. 

4. Smriti Mandhana (Cricket)

Smriti Mandhana on 15 January 2025 smashed her 10th ODI century in only 70 balls, marking the fastest hundred by an Indian woman in ODI. She scored this century against Ireland at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot.

Mandhana also became the first Indian woman to record 10 ODI centuries and only the third opener in WODIs to achieve the landmark. Only Lanning (15), Suzie Bates (13) have recorded more ODI centuries than her.

5. Divya Deshmukh (Chess) 

In 2025 became the FIDE Women’s World Cup champion by defeating the veteran Koneru Humpy, 38, in the final via the tiebreakers on Monday. This marked the first time that two Indian women reached the final, and is also the first-ever Women’s World Cup title for India. Divya winning the Women’s World Cup also makes her eligible to be India’s fourth woman to become a grandmaster,

6. India women’s national cricket team 

Image source: X/BCCI Women

The team achieved their first ever T20I series win in England in July 2025.

7. Jyothi Yarraji (Athletics)

She won the country’s first-ever gold in the women’s 100 metre hurdles at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok.

8. Malvika Bansod (Badminton) 

Reached the finals of the Hylo Open in 2024, becoming only the third Indian woman to do so. 

9. Jaismine Lamboria (Boxing)

She became gold medallist after winning over Paris Olympics silver medallist Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the women’s 57kg final in the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool. Jaismine Lamboriya became the ninth Indian woman boxer to win a Worlds title and only the second to do so in an Olympic category. 

10. Minakshi Hooda (Boxing)

She won the gold medal in 48 kg category, beating Kazakhstan’s Nazym Kyzaibay. in the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool.

BEYOND THE NUGGET: Inspiration beyond medals and success

Each athlete mentioned above has a story that will inspire us. Hence, they are not just important for factual knowledge but also for the values and determination they represent. The excerpt below is from The Indian Express article, “World Boxing Championships: Minakshi, daughter of auto-rickshaw driver, wins India’s second gold, makes up for World Cup silver.”

Minakshi’s father, an auto-rickshaw driver, says he will take her to their village in his three-wheeler when she returns to India. Read on to get inspired!

As his daughter Minakshi won the title in Liverpool, her father Srikrishna was waiting to ferry passengers in his second-hand auto rickshaw in front of Sir Chhotu Ram Stadium in Rohtak, the very place from where Rio Olympics bronze medallist wrestler Sakshi Malik started her career.

It has been the routine for Srikrishna for the last 30 years but on Sunday, the auto-rickshaw driver was telling anyone who would listen about his daughter’s feats and how she is now a world champion. “She only had the passion and willpower to box and that’s what has made her go so far. I could only support her dreams in whatever way I could. Every day I take passengers in an auto in Rohtak to earn my living but let Minakshi come, I will take a world champion to our village Kiloi,” said an emotional Srikrishna while speaking to The Indian Express.

Srikrishna, father of Minakshi Hooda, who won gold medal in World Boxing Championship in England, waiting for passengers at Sheela Bypass in Rohtak. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

Back at the village Rurkee Kiloi, 15 kms from Rohtak, famous for truck drivers in the region, coach Vijay Hooda went back to train the 60 odd girl trainees at the Shaheed Batun Singh Stadium post watching the final bout. The coach, who has trained the likes of 2017 World Youth Champion Jyoti Gulia, would be the first to ask a printer in Rohtak to get the posters made of his trainee. “To start her boxing dreams with borrowed shoes and training gear to become the world champion today, Minakshi has seen it all and it’s just the start for her,” says Hooda.

Post Read Question

Which of the pairs below is not correctly matched?

(a) Minakshi Hooda : Boxing

(b) Divya Deshmukh : Chess

(c) Jaismine Lamboria : Table Tennis

(d) Jyothi Yarraji : Athletics

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