Ankita Dhyani (born 5 February 2002) is an Indian athlete from Uttarakhand. She is a middle-distance and long-distance runner. She is named in the Indian athletics team for the 5000m event in the 2022 Asian Games at Hangzhou, China. [1] She qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games at Paris and will represent India in the women's 5000m event. [2]
Ankita hails from Maroda village in the Pauri Garhwal district, Uttarakhand. She used to run with the big boys training for Army selections in her village which is at a high-altitude of 1400m. [3]
Preeja Sreedharan is an Indian long-distance runner. She holds the national records in both the 10,000 metres and 5000 metres disciplines, which she set en route to the gold and silver medals at 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. Sreedharan was conferred with the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting honour by the central government in 2011.
Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner. Kipyegon is the current world record holder for the 1,500 metres and mile, set in 2024 and 2023 respectively, and the former world record holder for the 5,000 metres. Kipyegon won a gold medal each at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 1,500 m. She also won a gold medal in the 1,500 m at the 2017, 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships and in the 5,000 m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen is a Norwegian middle- and long-distance runner, who is the current world record holder for the indoor 1500 metres and the 2000 metres, and holds the world best time over the two mile distance. Ingebrigtsen is a two-time World champion, winning gold medals in the 5000 metres in 2022 and 2023 and a four-time European champion, winning gold medals in the 1500 m and 5000 m in 2018 and 2022. He also won a gold medal in the 1500 m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, setting an Olympic and European record. In addition to the 1500 m, Ingebrigtsen holds European records in the mile and 5000 m, and is one of only three men to run a sub-3:30 1500 m, sub-7:30 3000 m and a sub-12:50 5000 m.
Camille French is a New Zealand long-distance runner.
Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG), are the annual national level multidisciplinary grassroot games in India held in January or February for two categories, namely under-17 years school students and under-21 college students. Every year best 1,000 kids will be given an annual scholarship of ₹5 lakh (US$6,000) for 8 years to prepare them for the international sporting events.
Tejaswin Shankar is an Indian athlete who competes in the decathlon event. He holds the high jump national record of 2.29 metres set in April 2018.
Ankushita Boro is an Indian boxer. She won gold medal at the 2017 AIBA Youth Women's World Boxing Championships. She won gold medal in the first North East Olympic Games 2018, Imphal. She won silver medal at the 2nd India Open International Boxing Tournament and a gold at the 3rd Khelo India Youth Games (KYIG) 2020, both held in Guwahati. She also won 'The Best Boxer' title in the 2017 AIBA Youth Women's World Boxing Championships. She won bronze medal at the 5th Elite Women's National Boxing Championship in Hisar.
Khelo India University Game is a national level multi-sport event held in India, where athletes from universities across the country compete in different sports disciplines. The inaugural edition held in Odisha started on 22 February and concluded on 1 March 2020. It is organised by Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports along with Association of Indian Universities, Indian Olympic Association and National Sports Federation. It is the largest university level sports competition in India.
Khelo India: National Programme for Development of Sports, branded as Khelo India, aims at improving India's sports culture at the grass-root level through organized talent identification, structured sporting competitions and infrastructure development. It is a Government of India programme launched in 2017-18 under the tenure Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sports Ministers Vijay Goel and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. There has also been an emphasis on including traditional Indian games in Khelo India events in order to revive their popularity.
Esha Singh is an Indian amateur shooter from Hyderabad, Telangana state, supported by OGQ. She became the National Champion in the 10m Air Pistol category in 2018 at the age of 13 and created history. she will represent India in the 10m air pistol at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Freweyni Hailu is an Ethiopian middle-distance runner. She won the gold medal at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships over 1500 metres.
Dhanush Srikanth is an Indian deaf sports shooter. He made his Deaflympic debut at the age of 19 representing India at the 2021 Summer Deaflympics. Despite his deafness, he has been competing in Indian shooting circuit and has been regarded as one of the regular faces in Indian shooting fraternity. He is currently coached by former Indian sports shooter Gagan Narang at the Guns for Glory Shooting Academy in Hyderabad.
Pavithra Vengatesh is an Indian athlete from Tamil Nadu. She represents India in the pole vault event. She is part of the Indian team for the Asian Games at Hangzhou, China. Pavithra's personal best is 4.10m. The national record of 4.15m stands in the name of V S Surekha set in 2014.
Harmilan Kaur Bains is an athlete from Punjab, India. She was selected for the Asian Games Indian athletics team. She won the silver medals in the 800m and 1500m race at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. She was the Indian record holder in 1500m before K. M. Deeksha shattered her NR.
Mohammed Afsal Pulikkalakath is an Indian athlete from Kerala who competes in 800m. He is named in the Indian athletics team for the 2022 Asian Games at Hangzhou, China. He won the men's 800m silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games on October 3. He finished first in his heats on October 2.
Florence Barla is an Indian athlete from Jharkhand. She competes in 400m and she is named in the Indian athletics team for the 2022 Asian Games at Hangzhou, China.
Bhajan Kaur is an Indian archer from Haryana, supported by OGQ. She was selected for the Indian Archery team for the recurve events at the 2022 Asian Games at Hangzhou, China. Along with Ankita Bhakat and Simranjeet Kaur, she won the Women's team recurve event bronze medal for India. The Indian trio defeated Vietnam team 6-2 in the bronze-medal play-off. On 16 June 2024, she won a gold in the final Olympic qualifier at Anatalya, Turkey. She will represent India at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games at Paris.
Rakshitha Raju, a visually challenged runner from India, is a para athlete from Chikkamagalur in Karnataka. She takes part in the women's 1500 metres T11 category. She was selected for the Indian team that took part in the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Para Games. She won the gold medal Asian Para Games behind China's Shanshan He. Later, Shanshan was disqualified and Raju was promoted to take the gold medal. She clocked 5 minutes, 21.45 seconds. Being a visually handicapped runner, Rakshitha completed the race with the help of a guide Rahul Balakrishna.
Parvej Khan is an Indian track athlete from Haryana. He won the 1500m race at the 2024 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Florida. He also won the gold medal in the 800m at the U-16 nationals in Mangalgiri and placed third at the U-18 Khelo India Games in 2020.