A new year and with it comes fresh aspirations, greater efforts from the sports persons and perhaps enhanced progress as we look ahead to the sports scenario in the country. Surely the one big name that immediately strikes the mind has to be Neeraj Chopra, the Haryana young man who stormed the world of athletics in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with a gold medal effort in javelin throw. That brought up India’s first medal in the Olympics in the athletics arena and that too straightaway a gold! Till then P. T. Usha, the current IOA President but the country’s darling athlete in the eighties, had remained the closest to winning an Olympic medal for the country, but missed it in the 400 m hurdles by as close as 0.01 seconds in the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

And yet has Chopra now dashed the hopes of his myriad fans with this decision to part ways with his Czech coach Jan Zelezny, a man whose accomplishment in javelin throw is unparalleled? Chopra had been with Zelezny for just a year and it was during this period that he had scaled a new high. The 90.23 m was his first 90m plus throw that helped him finish second in the Doha Diamond League in May last year.

It was a different matter that later in the year he had the mortification of slipping to the eighth place in the Tokyo World championship for it was injuries that had affected him then. The Indian still seemed to be going strong. The sudden development took even the Athletics Federation of India President, Mr Adille Sumarivalla by surprise. Barring the suddenness, the champion thrower seemed none the worse for it. For, as he mentioned in the media, he had wanted to take a greater control of his playing and professional career and admits that he had learnt several useful things from the great Czech in terms of ideas, techniques, rhythm and movement. Indeed, challenge is what is fuelling him ahead. It was a challenge that pushed Chopra as a youngster and made him into a champion and the trait remains with him hopefully to help him take on all that he has to confront in the demanding 2026 season that has lined up the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games for him to test his prowess again. Perhaps it is the wish of every Indian sports fan that Chopra will not disappoint.

Talk of challenge and there is much that one looks forward to in the badminton arena. The name P.V. Sindhu is what comes up. A forgettable year in 2025 with injuries coming in the way the great shuttler and a double Olympic medallist like Chopra, came to the new year as if with an announcement that she was ready to fight again. The sparkling touch in the Malaysian Open where she came up to the semi-final was an apt reminder that Sindhu was not a forgotten force yet. Hopefully the fire in her is truly there even as the focus would also be on Lakshya Sen and the doubles specialists Satwik and Chirag not to forget the emerging talents like Unnati Hooda, Tanvi Sharma and Ayush Shetty. With the Asian Games there and also the BWF world championship badminton stars have plenty to look forward to.

As things stand every discipline for that matter seems to have some big competition coming up and to that extent the all-round sporting interest ahead would be a lot more. Then again certain sports like hockey for instance needs to be extra sharp because title-wins get related to Olympic qualification, Like the Asian Games gold for instance. India are the hockey title holders, having won the last edition in China. Now, in Japan, they must aim for nothing less than victory to secure their qualification for the next Olympics. Coach Craig Fulton would have his hands full to draw out the best from the Indian squad for aside from the Asiad there is the world cup coming up and then the FIH pro-league where the home team has not had a great record.

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D Gukesh | File Photo: PTI

An equally eyeball catching event will be the Chess world championship since an Indian is at the top currently by name D. Gukesh. Now will his crown be challenged by another Indian, D. Praggnanandhaa will be the big interesting question. Pragg is the sole Indian representative in the eight-player Candidates tournament, the winner of which challenges Gukesh. Such is the growth of chess in India now that any surprise can be expected! How much Viswanathan Anand has inspired this sport! The great man continues to trade his expertise and the recent show in the Tata Steel rapid chess where in the title-match he found himself outwitted by a 21-year-old opponent, Grand Master Nihal Sarin. That loss Anand would not have felt much, for it was Chess’ future that had checked him!

Aside from this all on the national front where for sure many new icons will rise to shine, can we forget the greatest event of all coming up, the Football World cup! The year will witness the grand event, made grander this time with 48 countries (from 32 earlier) taking part and the competition is spread out over three countries – USA, Canada and Mexico. It is a huge exercise made tougher in the light of the current international political developments but in the end the great sport of football has to be the winner. Yes, 2026 has much to offer as a sporting year!