4 Indian athletes whose careers have been more hype than substance so far

Over the last 15 years we have all heard plenty of media stories in India about so-and-so young athlete (typically from a small town or a humble background) being ‘a generational talent’ or a ‘teenage prodigy’ and so on.

Many of these youngsters go on to achieve greatness – case in point D. Gukesh, PV Sindhu and Neeraj Chopra – while others, for various reasons, fade away; for example, Hima Das, Parimarjan Negi and Prithvi Shaw.

Then there are athletes who have established themselves in their chosen sports, have performed at a respectable level and have received considerable hype for their achievements but their careers have plateaued and they still lack in the drive and determination to take their game to the elite tier.

Here are examples of 4 such Indian athletes.

Lakshya Sen

Lakshya Sen is someone who was marked out as a special talent from a young age. With many great Indian singles players in the twilight of their careers, 23-year-old Lakshya is seen as someone who can carry on and even improve on their legacies.

He does have several achievements to his credit – a number of BWF Title wins, a Thomas Cup and Commonwealth Games Gold, being the first Indian Men’s Singles player to reach the Olympic semi-finals – among others.

But the 2024 Olympics fourth-place finish despite being on the cusp of the podium in both his medal matches and other missed opportunities – the recent 2025 All England Open for example – have given his career an air of underachievement. 

He hasn’t improved his attacking game enough to challenge the very best whilst contemporaries like Kunlavut Viditsarn, Kodai Naraoka and Li Shifeng, have marched ahead of him. Then there are other players such as Alex Lanier and Lin Chun-yi who are also likely to be formidable opponents this decade.

If Lakshya wants to carry on the legacy of Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu, he will have to work much harder to stand out in a crowded MS field.

Shubman Gill

It could be said that comparisons to Virat Kohli have hindered rather than helped Shubman Gill’s career since he made his international debut in 2019. Gill has been hailed as the ‘Prince’ to Kohli’s ‘King’ and the ‘Next Great Indian Batting Superstar’ for a fairly long time now.

An important 91 in the famous 2021 Gabba Test, a few centuries in bilaterals and examples of elegant stroke-play aside, the 25-year-old has yet to distinguish himself in important games and ICC tournaments in the way contemporaries like Rachin Ravindra of New Zealand have.

In Test matches, younger batsmen like Yashasvi Jaiswal have made more meaningful contributions already while India is still reliant on the old guard of Kohli and Rohit Sharma in ICC knock-out games.

Gill, at 25, still has time on his side but will have to start notching up big hundreds soon if he does not want to go down in history as an example of talented batsman who could not live up to his potential.

Nikhat Zareen 

Boxer Nikhat Zareen’s compelling life story has attracted considerable media and sponsor attention. 

Nikhat’s rise as a boxer from Nizamabad, her international success at the Youth and Junior level, her rivalry with MC Mary Kom especially during the 2021 Olympic trials, her Strandja Memorial wins and finally her two IBA World Championship titles in 2022 and 2023 all kept her in the news and made her a household name among Indian sports fans.

Her two-time World Champion status made her a medal contender among Indian fans going into the 2024 Olympics.

However, as impressive as they were, the two WCH titles came against a depleted field and Nikhat, who despite her titles was unseeded at the Paris Olympics, was easily outclassed 0-5 by fellow World Champion and eventual gold medalist Wu Yu of China, an opponent she had not faced before, in the pre-quarterfinals of the Games.

She, in fact, does not have much experience against any of the Paris 2024 medal winners in Women’s 50kg. 28-year-old Nikhat has already done a great deal for Women’s boxing in India but if she wants to surpass her idol-turned-rival Mary Kom, she will have to enhance her skills and fitness so that her big tournament success is not left to luck-of-the-draw.

Deepika Kumari and the Indian Archery Team

When listing Indian athletes whose careers have had more hype than substance, the names of Deepika Kumari and members of the Indian archery team would be among the first to come to the minds of Indian sports fans.

Since her breakthrough year of 2009, Deepika Kumari has been the face of Indian Archery. She is the former World No.1 and has won medals at the World Championships, World Cups, World Cup Finals, Asian Games and Asian Championships over the last 15 years. But the big prize of an Olympic medal has always eluded Deepika and her teammates. 

The 2024 Paris Games marked Deepika’s fourth Olympic appearance since 2012, and countries such as Mexico, Russia, Australia and Turkey have won their first Olympic medals in the sport over the 12 years even as India still remains empty-handed.

There is no doubt that Deepika and her younger teammates possess tremendous talent, but until they bring in clutchness and killer-instinct, they will remain short of Olympic glory.