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How Indian athletes are slowly making right progress but fans continue to turn blind eye
Indian athletics is showing strong progress with impressive performances in global competitions, but fan engagement still remains low. Despite historic medal wins in events like the Taiwan Athletics Open 2025 and Asian Championships, the support for athletes is still lacking. read more
Indian athletics is slowly growing, and it is evident through their recent performances at various stages. Over the last few years, Indian athletes have been bringing medals from many international tournaments and showing that the country is improving in track and field events, which had historically been a weak point. However, this progress is unfortunately going unnoticed by many fans.
Fans ignore Indian athletes despite a strong showing
Recently, the Indian athletics team returned home after an excellent performance at the Taiwan Athletics Open 2025. The team won 16 medals, including 12 golds, beating countries like Australia, South Korea, and Japan. Still, when they landed at the airport, there were hardly any fans to welcome them. No big crowd, no cheers - just athletes, their coaches, and a few mediapersons.
Our champions have touched down at IGI Airport, Delhi! 🇮🇳✈️
Fresh from their stellar performance at the Taiwan Athletics Meet where India topped the medal tally with 16 medals — a stunning 12 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze!
✅ Pooja Singh – Double Gold in 1500m & 800m 🥇🥇
✅… pic.twitter.com/tFzaqR327i — nnis Sports (@nnis_sports) June 9, 2025
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This is not the first time something like this has happened. Even after the Asian Athletics Championships 2025 held in Gumi, Korea, where India finished second overall with 24 medals, including 8 golds, the celebrations were quiet among Indian fans. The total medal count was slightly less than the last edition, but there is an increase in gold medals, which shows good progress.
Athletes like , Avinash Sable, and Jyothi Yarraji have already made India proud by winning multiple medals in different tournaments, but even then, athletics don't get the same fan support as some of the other sports. While Neeraj has become a household name in the country thanks to his two Olympic medals, other athletes are still far behind in terms of popularity and support.
Why don't athletics get the same support in India?
However, some people argue that while India does perform well in these smaller competitions held in Asia, the results are still lacking on the biggest global stages. For example, Neeraj Chopra remains the only Indian athlete in recent times to win an Olympic medal in athletics - the first since Norman Pritchard back in the 1900s. This is a very poor record on the world stage for a country with a population of over a billion.
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Apart from Neeraj Chopra, most of the other Indian athletes are not able to win medals at big global events like the World Athletics Championships. In fact, many of them don't even qualify for such tournaments. This might be one reason why fans don't show much interest. But when Neeraj plays, the whole country watches because people know he plays to win and rarely lets them down.
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