On December 12, Vinesh Phogat announced that she was returning to wrestling. It was via a heartfelt message on social media, in which she said she'd stepped away from the mat to "[allow] myself to breathe" and to take time to understand "the weight of my journey". That, she said, resulted in an essential discovery of her true self, that the "the fire [had] never left."
The same day, another image related to wrestling popped up on social media. This was from the senior national wrestling championships that started on December 12. At the entrance to the stadium in Ahmedabad, a flex-board arching over the gate that announced the event had two figures prominently placed on either side. The caption below one read "Mr. Sanjay Singh, President of Wrestling Federation of India." The other was captioned "Mr. Brij Bhushan Saransingh, Past President of Wrestling Federation of India & Ex. M.P."
Wrestling is the ONLY sport that has given ���� medals in the last 5 consecutive Olympics.
Yet, at the most important National competition of 2025, not a single image of a wrestler at the entry gate - PRIORITIES. Hope attitudes change as we prepare a very serious 2036 Olympic bid pic.twitter.com/50Oj9SQ6jI
- Viren Rasquinha (@virenrasquinha) December 12, 2025
Yes, that Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
This, on the face of it, seemed to sum up life in Indian sports: India's greatest woman wrestler coming back to the sport she just couldn't stay away from, even as an all-powerful former official still facing charges of sexual harassment levelled by her, among others, was being celebrated in the time-honoured way of Indian officialdom.
It's so easy to be pessimistic.
So easy.
Which is why we must pause, take a breath, and think: 'what would your average Indian sportsperson do?' As your mind settles, as the negativity swirls to the bottom, the answer will come. Slowly, surely... 'Hope, and just keep on keeping on.'
Take Vinesh herself. A mother now, a politician, she'd created one of the greatest sporting tales of our time when she went from protesting on the streets to upsetting an invincible champion en-route making the final of the Paris Olympics to then being disqualified for the barest of margins. She now wants to go all over again, despite the federation still being pseudo-controlled by the man she was protesting so hard against, despite all the odds stacked against her because she is built entirely of that quality that defines the Indian athlete: fight.
While domestic men's football is at a standstill, the federation pulling out an all-timer of a bungler, the sport itself on the brink of an existential crisis, three teams that have been studiously ignored for ages stood up and announced themselves to the continent. Come 2026, all three of the senior, U21, and U17 Indian women national football teams will be competing in their respective AFC Asian Cups. Even now the apathy is astounding -- Indian Women's League matches are being held two-at-a-time, four-a-day, with kickoffs at 9 am and 2.30 pm; visas for scheduled friendly tours are being messed up-- but with the support of a few dedicated to the cause, these footballers just keep on keeping on.
Earlier this year, the women's chess world cup saw two contrasting players reach the final: Divya Deshmukh, 20, just starting out, made a mark by winning it; but so did Koneru Humpy, 38, a mother, reigning Blitz world champion. Both will now compete in the Women's Candidates along with Vaishali Rameshbabu, all of them hoping for a shot at the world championship crown. In the Open Candidates too, India will have representation in the form of Vaishali's brother, Praggnanandhaa -- teen prodigy turned consistent professional now looking to take aim at his friend, contemporary and world champion, D Gukesh. These athletes have not only taken Indian chess to a level that's unprecedented as a collective (the great Viswanathan Anand stands alone on a plane of his own) over the past few years, they are keeping it there. The very real possibility exists that 2026 could end with Indian world champions in both the open and women categories.
At a Delhi Para-Athletics Championships that showed just how many miles more are to be travelled before India is ready to embrace para-sport in its true spirit, the nation's athletes won a record 22 medals (6G, 9S, 7B). Whatever else happens around them, they just keep performing. Meanwhile, the poster star of Indian para sport Sheetal Devi decided that her legend knows no bounds: the 18-year-old became the first armless woman to become para world champion and then a few weeks later finished third (out of 60) in the national selection trials to book her spot in India's junior archery "able-bodied" team. All this while making fundamental changes to her already incredible technique due to changes in archery laws. Pessimism? Negativity? Sheetal Devi doesn't have time for all that.
Even as doping rears its head once again -- India showed the highest positivity rate among major nations 3.8% -- those who choose to do it the right way continue to make their way to the top.
In weightlifting, Mirabai Chanu lit up our worlds yet again with that magnetic smile as she lifted herself to a World Championships silver. 31 now, her body held together more by sheer will than fully functional muscles and tendons, Mirabai reminded everyone why she remains one of India's modern sporting greats. Over in boxing, Minakshi Hooda and Jaismine Lamboria are world champions, while Nupur Sheoran and Pooja won a silver and a bronze each. Antim Panghal put behind her controversy at the Paris Olympics to win a bronze at the World Wrestling Championships. In badminton, the search for the next PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal continues, but Tanvi Sharma's record-breaking exploits at the junior World Championships (she's the first Indian to win two medals at a jr. worlds) show that there is promise, while Lakshya Sen battled his own mental "demons" to win the only Super 500 (or above) title an Indian won this year.
April may have seen India's premier athletics event, the Federation Cup, being held in farcical conditions in Kochi, but a couple of months later and 530 odd km to the north, Neeraj Chopra showed just how well India can host a major athletics event when it wants to. The debut Neeraj Chopra Classic was, well, a classic and it was the kind of thing that underlined his importance in the Indian sporting pantheon. Sure, he hit 90m for the first time this year, sure he ended his spectacular run of podiums with a shock eighth place finish at the World Championships... but 2025 will forever be remembered as the year India levelled up its track and field game, led there by her greatest ever athlete.
2025 was a fallow year in terms of big multi-sports events, a chance for many to reset and recalibrate, to try something different. As you can see, even that required battles being fought -- across the board, individually and collectively, big and small -- and win-or-lose, they just brushed themselves off and went on into the next one. There are still so many things that needed addressing (some like men's football are at a most critical stage), but if you ask this average Indian sportsperson that we must try and channel, 2026 brings with it hope: of glory at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games, a shot at history at a chess World Championships, another year to get body and mind ready for the big O in 2028.
And so, it is with that hope that all of us ought to turn the calendar over. Thank you 2025 for all the glory and all the lessons. Now bring on 2026 already.
