Indian Debutants to watch out for in Paris Olympics 2024

The Paris Olympics 2024 will begin on July 26 in Paris, the capital of France, in which more than 100 Indian athletes will show their mettle to reach the podium of the world's biggest sports stage.

This time Indian athletes will have a golden opportunity to destroy all the old records. The last Tokyo Olympics has been the most successful for India. But this time India has full hope of getting at least 10 medals. If this happens, it will be the first time in Olympic history that India will get double-figure medals.

Nikhat Zareen appears to be standing at the forefront of the list of debutants in Paris 2024. let's take a look at seven promising Indians making their Olympic debut in Paris.

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Debutants to watch out for in Paris 2024

7. Jyothi Yarraji

24-year-old hurdles sprinter Jyothi Yarraji has won a series of medals leading up to Paris 2024, with golds in the Asian Athletic and Asian Indoor Athletic Championships. Yarraji secured quota through the world rankings route. Though the women’s 100m hurdles event has been part of the Summer Games since 1972, this will be the first time an Indian athlete is present on the start list.

The hurdler from Andhra Pradesh could have secured automatic entry to Paris if not for an injury to her lead leg that she suffered at the Monet Grand Prix in Finland in May. She clocked 12.78 seconds in Finland, missing the qualification mark by only 0.01 seconds.

6. Parul Chaudhary

At the Paris Olympics 2024, Parul Chaudhary will participate not only in the women’s 3000m steeplechase but also in the 5000m event. She qualified for the Olympics by breaching the Olympic qualification mark and in the latter through the Road to Paris World Rankings. Chaudhary shot into the limelight with a gold in the 5000m and silver in the 3000m steeplechase events of the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. The 28-year-old is the first Indian to clock less than nine minutes in the 3000m women’s steeplechase.

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5. Sreeja Akula

Sreeja Akula, who played an important role in helping India obtain quotas for the team event at the Paris 2024 Summer Games, is set to make her Olympic debut in both team and individual events. In 2022, Sreeja teamed up with Sharath Kamal to win the mixed doubles gold in her first-ever Commonwealth Games appearance in Birmingham.

Sreeja also created history in Lagos by becoming the first Indian table tennis player to win a WTT Contender singles title. The 25-year-old Indian table tennis player hopes to carry the momentum and create a few upsets in Paris.

4. Lakshya Sen

Lakshya Sen, the 'new star of Indian badminton' secured his spot at the Olympics by finishing 13th in the Paris 2024 Olympic Qualification Rankings (OQR) with 64021 points. He also ensured that India would have two men’s singles player representatives at the Olympics for the first time since 2004.

Lakshya has immense potential for the upcoming Paris 2024. He recently made a comeback with two consecutive semi-final finishes in the BWF European World Tour and French Open Super 750. He won three deciders at the French Open and All England Opens and two in two consecutive weeks which shows his sheer Potential, and determination to perform well on the big stage.

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3. Anshu Malik

Indian wrestler Anshu Malik is a strong medal contender at the Paris Olympics. Anshu had won a silver medal at the recent Ranking Series event in Budapest in the women's 57kg, losing the final to China's Kexin Hong. The 22-year-old Anshu had qualified for Paris 2024 by winning a gold medal at the Asian Olympic Qualifier in April. At the age of 18, Malik qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, losing to the eventual silver medallist, Iryna Kurachkina, while missing out on a medal in the repechage round.

2. Kishore Jena

Neeraj Chopra may be India's big hope in javelin but don't count out Kishore Jena, who followed up Chopra's gold at the 2022 Asian Games with a silver of his own. Jena got his ticket to the Paris Olympics via direct entry, as the qualifying cutoff is 85.50 m. Jena clinched the qualification with an 86.77-meter throw at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year.

During that event, he marked 87.54 m, just behind Neeraj Chopra’s mark of 89.94 m at the Stockholm Diamond League in June 2022. Jena believes that the Paris 2024 Olympics are a time for a turnaround. His entire focus is on Paris rather than future plans and that's why he could be a medal contender for sure.

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1. Nikhat Zareen

After clinching bronze at the 2023 Asian Games and gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, boxer Nikhat Zareen is one of India's brightest medal prospects at Paris 2024. Zareen is only the second Indian woman to win more than one world title in the history of the competition.

She joined none other than the legendary MC Mary Kom to have multiple boxing world titles. Among her memorable performances in her boxing career, came her win over three-time European Championships medallist Ukraine's Tetiana Kob which came at the  Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament in 2022. No surprise that her medals tally is expected to grow and an Olympic medal is what 1.4 billion are expecting from her at the Paris Olympics 2024.