🏅 Underrated Indian athletes who deserve way more attention than they get

Came across a genuinely impressive interview with an Indian athlete recently, competing at a genuinely high international level in a sport that honestly gets almost zero mainstream media coverage here compared to cricket, and it made me realize just how many genuinely talented athletes across other sports probably go largely unnoticed by most people simply because of which specific sport they happen to compete in. This particular athlete has apparently won several genuinely significant international medals over the past few years, results that would likely generate considerably more coverage and public attention if achieved in cricket specifically, yet barely registers in most mainstream news coverage here beyond a brief, easily missed mention buried somewhere in the sports section. Talked to a friend who genuinely follows several of these less mainstream sports closely herself, and she rattled off a handful of other names I honestly had never even heard of before, each with genuinely impressive achievements that would likely make them household names if they happened to compete in a more popular sport here instead of whatever specific discipline they actually chose to pursue themselves. Part of the issue seems to be purely structural, sponsorship money and genuine media attention naturally flow toward whatever sport already commands the biggest audience, which creates a fairly self reinforcing cycle where less popular sports struggle considerably to build any real audience without that same crucial media attention and financial backing in the first place. It genuinely makes me want to actually start following a wider variety of sports myself specifically to support these athletes properly, even in some fairly small way, rather than continuing to default purely to cricket coverage the way most casual sports fans here, myself included honestly, tend to naturally do without giving it much real thought. Who are some genuinely underrated Indian athletes people here would actually recommend following more closely, and how did you personally first discover them given how little mainstream coverage they honestly tend to actually get here generally?

Coverage seems to follow whichever sport already has a built in audience rather than helping build one for something new and clearly deserving of it too, which keeps quietly talented athletes stuck in the exact same cycle of being overlooked year after year, no matter how many medals eventually pile up on a dusty shelf somewhere at home unnoticed by anyone.

My cousin represented the state in an individual sport for nearly a decade with almost zero sponsorship the entire time, funding mostly came from family savings rather than any proper support system backing her up. That story is far more common around here than most people watching casually from the outside would probably ever assume it to be at all.

A para athlete from a nearby district medalled internationally last year and barely got covered locally beyond one small newspaper column tucked away near the very back pages somewhere, which felt properly unfair given how much quiet work clearly went into that achievement over several long years that most people around here never even hear about happening at all, ever.