Dame Valerie Kasanita Adams is a retired New Zealand shot putter. She is a four-time World champion, four-time World Indoor champion, two-time Olympic, three-time Commonwealth Games champion and twice IAAF Continental Cup winner. She has a personal best throw of 21.24 metres (69.7 ft) outdoors and 20.98 metres (68.8 ft) indoors. These marks are Oceanian, Commonwealth and New Zealand national records. She also holds the Oceanian junior record (18.93 m) and the Oceanian youth record (17.54 m), as well as the World Championships record, World Indoor Championships record and Commonwealth Games record.
Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha is an Indian sports administrator and retired track and field athlete. Usha was born in Koothali near Perambra in Kozhikode district, Kerala. She grew up in Payyoli. Usha has been associated with Indian athletics since 1979. She has won 4 gold medals and 7 silver medals in the Asian Games. She is often associated as the "Queen of Indian track and field".
Gong Lijiao is a Chinese Olympic shot putter and the 2020 Olympic champion in that event. A three-time Olympic medalist, she holds a record eight medals at the World Athletics Championships, including two World titles.
Jaisha Orchatteri Puthiya Veetil, commonly known as O. P. Jaisha, is an Indian track and field athlete from Kerala. She is the current national record holder in the marathon, a distinction she achieved by clocking 2:34:43 at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing. In the process she bettered her own mark of 2:37:29, set at the 2015 Mumbai Marathon. She is also a former national record holder in the 3000 metres steeplechase.
In India, the sport of athletics was introduced during the period of the British Raj. The sport is governed at national level by the Athletics Federation of India, which was formed in 1946. Despite its large population, few Indian athletes have won a medal in a global or major championship. This began to change in the 21st century, when Indians started taking greater interest in athletics more generally and improved facilities for the sport began to be built at a local level. At a continental level, it has been among the more successful Asian nations, though some distance behind China and Japan.
Manpreet Kaur is an Indian professional Olympic shot putter. Born in Ambala, her gold-medal winning performance of 18.86m at the 2017 Asian Grand Prix in Jinhua, China turned out to be a world-leading throw, taking her to the No. 1 spot in the rankings. Kaur was qualified to represented India at Summer Olympics at Rio 2016 in shot put.
Deepa Malik is an Indian athlete. She started her career at the age of 30. She is the first Indian woman to win a medal in Paralympic Games and won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in shot put. She also won gold in the F-53/54 Javelin event at the para athletic Grand Prix held in Dubai in 2018. She is currently the world number one in the F-53 category. She has won accolades for her participation in various adventure sports. She is associated with Himalayan Motorsports Association (H.M.A.) and Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (F.M.S.C.I.). She has undertaken an 8-day, 1,700-km drive in sub-zero temperatures which included a climb to 18,000 feet (5,500 m). It was – Raid De Himalaya. This journey covers many difficult paths including remote Himalayas, Leh, Shimla and Jammu.
Annu Rani Dharayan is an Indian javelin thrower from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, supported by OGQ. She was the first Indian to reach the finals of the women's javelin throw event in the World Athletics Championships, Doha, 2019. Annu had qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics through world rankings after missing out on the Olympic Qualification mark. Her career best effort is 63.24m which helped her win the gold in the National Interstate Athletic Championship, Patiala, 2021.In the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Annu Rani scripted history as she became the first Indian female javelin thrower to win a medal, a bronze. She is the first Indian Javelin thrower to win a Gold medal in Asian games 2023 at Hangzhou.
Lucienne Velu-Chapillon, Mrs Odoul was a French athlete and basketball player. She was inducted into the French Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2011. She was born Paris and died in Quincy-sous-Senart.
Subedar Neeraj Chopra is an Indian track and field athlete, who is the reigning Olympic champion and World champion in Men's javelin throw. He is the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in javelin and the first Asian to win gold in his event at the World Championship. A Junior commissioned officer in the Indian Army, Chopra is the first track and field athlete to win a gold medal for India at the Olympics. He is also the first track and field athlete from India to win at the World Under-20 Championships, where in 2016 he achieved a world U20 record throw of 86.48 m, becoming the first Indian athlete to set a world record.
Navjeet Kaur Dhillon is an Indian track and field athlete who competes as a Discus thrower. Her current world ranking in the Women's Discus Throw category is 46, and in the Women's Overall ranking is 4165. She was the bronze medalist at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with her final throw of 57.43 m and became the second Indian to win a medal at the World Junior Championships in Athletics in 2014. She holds a personal best of 59.18 m, set in 2018 in Indian Grand Prix in February, 2018.
Tajinderpal Singh Tooor is an Indian shot putter who is a two-time Asian champion, an Asian Games gold-medallist, four time national champion, an Olympian supported by OGQ and the current Asian record holder in Asian and national record of 21.77m.
Velluva Koroth Vismaya is an Indian athlete from Kerala who specializes in the 400 metres. She was part of the gold-winning Indian team at the 2018 Asian Games.
Himashree Roy is an Indian athlete. She won the bronze medal in the 100 meters women's relay race along with Merlin K Joseph, Srabani Nanda and Dutee Chand in the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships which concluded on July 9, 2017. She was born in Kolkata, West Bengal on 15 March 1995.
Sarah Dawn Mitton is a Canadian athlete specializing in the shot put. She is the 2023 World silver medallist and 2024 World Indoor champion, the first Canadian woman to medal in the shot put at either World Athletics global championship. As well, she is the 2023 Pan American, 2022 Commonwealth, and 2019 Summer Universiade champion.
India is scheduled to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France from July 26 to August 11, 2024. Indian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games since 1920, although they made the team's official debut in Paris 1900.
Jyothi Yarraji is an Indian track and field athlete from Andhra Pradesh. She specializes in 100 metre hurdles and holds the Indian national record. She broke the long-standing record by Anuradha Biswal on 10 May 2022 clocking 13.23s. She has broken the record multiple times ever since.
Kiran Baliyan is an Indian shot putter, hailing from Meerut.
Pooja is a para athlete from Haryana. She represented India at the 2022 Asian Para Games and won a silver medal in the women's discus throw F54/55 event on 25 October 2023.
