Sports

"My father and some relatives weren't very keen about me competing in weightlifting. They would say ‘you’ll break our bones, who would marry you’. But my mother stood firm", says the legendary Karnam Malleshwari. #WomensDay #SheDared

Feared by other rugby-playing nations, 19-year-old Sweety Kumari hails from a village where parents don't let their daughters wear shorts and play sports. #WomenInSports

"Playing for India is every child’s dream. I never expected that I would ever play for India. Words cannot describe the feeling of playing for India," says the swashbuckling batsman Sunil Ramesh Kumar, whose blistering innings helped India win the Blind World Cup last year. #Inspiration #Respect

A week after the birth of her child, hockey legend Pritam Rani Siwach didn’t know whether she would ever play for India. Three years later, she won the Commonwealth Games gold! #WomenInSports #RealLifeHeroine

Verma's ingenious idea to circumvent this issue was to give Shafali a haircut that made her look like a boy. This allowed her to play every weekend.

Imagine this: You are made the captain a few months before travelling for the World Cup, your country has won just one match in the last two editions of the tournament combined, your teammates are so certain about crashing out early that they book tickets for vacations. And you are 24. #KapilDev #83Film #WhenHistoryWasMade

Manju Rani was just 12 when she started boxing in a dusty ground in Haryana village. Seven years later, matched the heroics of her idol Mary Kom to reach the World Championships final on her debut!

It’s not just her victories that are inspiring, but the journey to get here is equally worthy of a mention. Sindhu travelled for almost 56 km every morning to get to Pullela Gopichand’s Academy, where she would train for four hours each day.

From the man who swam across oceans of five continents in a year to the first captain of the Indian football team, on #NationalSportsDay, we salute 7 forgotten heroes who overcame major hurdles to bring glory to India.

In the past century, India has witnessed many glorious sporting moments. So on #NationalSportsDay, we at The Better India decided to undertake the difficult task of listing the top 10 greatest moments in Indian sports. What do you think of the list?