6 Indians to Watch out for During This Olympic Cycle

2026 marks the beginning of the qualification window for the 2028 Olympics. The Asian and Commonwealth Games will also take place this year.

A number of exciting young talents from India have emerged over the last few months. Many of them have the potential to be the ‘next big thing’ in Indian sport.

Here we take a look at six such athletes.

Anahat Singh

Anahat Singh had already made a splash as a 14-year-old at the 2022 Commonwealth and 2023 Asian Games (where she won two Team bronzes), but it is only in the last few months that she has really begun to make rapid strides at the Senior level.

Aged 18 at present and the youngest member of the PSA World Top 20, Anahat’s biggest triumphs so far have been the Squash on Fire Open held in Washington in Jan-Feb 2026 (her maiden PSA Bronze-level win) and the 2025 and 2026 Indian Open titles (a PSA Copper-level event).

Before this, she was awarded the 2025 PSA Young and Challenger Player of the Season. At the Washington event, she defeated the likes of World No. 10 Georgina Kennedy and other top 20 players such as Sana Ibrahim and Sabrina Sobhy. 

Even in matches lost, she has been competitive against top ranked players such as Tinne Gilis and World No.1 Hania El Hammamy.

She can only get better with more experience. Her next big test will be at the 2026 Asian Games where she is one of the dark horses for Gold.

Squash is set to make its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028, and Anahat, as one of the best young non-Egyptian players, will probably be one of the stars to watch out for at the quadrennial sporting extravaganza.

Ayush Shetty

20-year-old Ayush Shetty jumped into international prominence with a stunning performance at the 2026 Badminton Asia Championships.

Ayush defeated some of the best players in the world – The likes of Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Jonatan Christie and Li Shifeng – to storm into the finals of the prestigious annual Asian event. There he lost to a red-hot Shi Yuqi to earn a creditable silver.

Prior to the BAC too, Ayush had beaten players such as Kodai Naraoka and Chou Tien Chen apart from winning the US Open Super 300 title in 2025. He also has a World Junior Championship bronze from 2023.

With the likes of Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy entering the twilight of their careers, Ayush Shetty and Lakshya Sen will be the leading MS players from India for this Olympic cycle and beyond.

Together with the likes of WS shuttlers Devika Sihag, Tanvi Sharma, Unnati Hooda and Anmol Kharb, they represent the new generation of Indian badminton who will aim to carry forward the legacy of the country’s millennial superstars.

Ayush, with his commanding height and court coverage, is a bit reminiscent of a young PV Sindhu, and Sindhu herself hailed Ayush as a ‘generational talent’ after his BAC heroics.

These are high words of praise indeed, and one feels that Ayush Shetty’s journey is just getting started.

Suruchi Phogat and Samrat Rana

The 10m Air Pistol shooters Suruchi Inder Singh Phogat and Samrat Rana are two more shooting prodigies that the Indian system has kept producing since 2018.

19-year-old Suruchi had a sensational debut season in 2025, something that surpassed anything Indian shooting had seen before.

Manu Bhaker winning gold at Guadalajara 2018 was incredible for Indian shooting fans, but in 2025 Suruchi won 4 World Cup Golds in her debut year, including Gold at the World Cup Finals.

Her qualification scores at each of these events – 583, 582, 588, 586 – were equally impressive. She set a new Finals World Junior Record of 245.1 in 2025 at the Doha World Cup Finals.

She also won a gold and bronze from the Mixed Team events at the World Cups as well as a Mixed Team silver at the Asian Championships in 2026.

Suruchi, along with Esha Singh, Sainyam, Palak and the 24-year-old ‘veteran’ Manu Bhaker, constitute arguably the best-ever batch of Indian female pistol shooters and their performances will be keenly watched by Indian fans during the present Olympic cycle.

Meanwhile, 21-year-old Samrat Rana had an equally stunning 2025. Not many athletes can claim to be the World Champion in their debut season, but Samrat did exactly that by winning gold at the 2025 World Shooting Championships held in Cairo.

With a score of 586 in the qualifications and 243.7 in the finals, Samrat became only the third Indian after Abhinav Bindra in 2006 and Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil in 2022 to win a Senior WCH Gold. He also won a mixed team silver at Cairo.

Although Samrat has not participated in as many World Cups as Suruchi, he followed up his WCH medals with two individual bronzes in the 2025 Doha World Cup Finals and 2026 Asian Championships and a Mixed Team Silver in the latter event. His qualification scores in these competitions have consistently been over 580.

Saurabh Chaudhary may not have fully recovered his mojo after the Tokyo Olympics, but the performances of Samrat provide a ray of hope.

Both Suruchi and Samrat will face bigger tests in 2026, starting with the World Cup in Munich to be held in May.

Payal Nag

Sheetal Devi’s success at the 2024 Paralympics made global headlines. Now another inspirational female para-archer from India has emerged.

At the World Archery Para Series in Bangkok, 18-year-old Payal Nag defeated compatriot Sheetal Devi by a score of 139-136 in the Women’s Para Compound Individual Event. She also won gold along with Sheetal in the Women’s Para Compound Team event in the same competition.

Payal had already defeated Sheetal, one of the best para-archers in the world, at the Para Nationals in 2025. Payal, the world’s only archer without hands and feet, can already be seen as a bright prospect before the 2026 Asian Para Games and the 2028 Paralympics.

Indian para-athletes in general have been enjoying a golden run, and para-archers have been among the forefront. Besides Payal’s medals, Indian para-archers won 5 more golds to top the medal table with 7 golds, 3 silvers and 3 bronzes at Bangkok.

Sujeet Kalkal

Sujeet Kalkal is India’s great new wrestling hope. The 23-year-old won gold at the 2026 Asian Wrestling Championships in the men’s 65kg freestyle category, the first gold for India since Bajrang Punia’s win in 2019.

In the finals, Sujeet scored one of the biggest victories in his career so far by defeating Umidjon Jalolov who is a World Championship bronze medallist. 

This was the third gold for Sujeet in 2026. He won Ranking Series tournaments in Zagreb and Tirana and, in fact, is unbeaten this year. This is after he won the Ranking Tournament in Budapest in 2025.

Sujeet also won the 2025 U23 World Championships and is a two-time U23 Asian Championship winner.

The Men’s 65kg field is highly competitive and Sujeet still has to prove himself against the likes of World Champion Rahman Amouzad (against whom he narrowly lost 5-6 in the WCH quarterfinals).

But all the subsequent results indicate that Sujeet’s career is going in the right direction and he could be a force to reckon with in the coming years.

Also Read:

• 4 of the Worst Coaches in Indian Cricket History