International Women's Day 2025: From Manu Bhaker to Sheetal Devi, India’s young female sports stars to watch out for

From hardly being in the discussion in the mid-20th century and charting a steady rise in the 1980s and the 1990s to gaining mainstream attention since the turn of the millennium, women’s sport in India has come a long way indeed.

From track legend PT Usha and tennis icon Sania Mirza to badminton stars PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, several women have made the country proud across a wide variety of sports. Let’s not forget our most popular sport – cricket – which has produced legends of the game such as Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami.

On the occasion of ‘Women’s Day’, we take a look at a few female sportspersons – under 25 years of age in this case – who are likely to dominate their respective fields not just this year, but in the near future:

Manu Bhaker

Ace pistol shooter Manu Bhaker has already made history by winning two bronze medals in the same edition of the Olympics in Paris last year, and later going on to win the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.

Then again, it’s worth remembering that the Jhajjar-born shooter has achieved all of this at the tender age of 23. Who knows how far she will go in the sport; maybe she could join the legendary Abhinav Bindra in the list of Indian shooters with Olympic gold in Los Angeles three years from now.

R Vaishali

Indian chess enjoyed a stunning run in 2024 and it wasn’t just the lads who were dishing out one outstanding performance after another; the women’s team had also won a historic gold in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary in September. And part of that team was 23-year-old R Vaishali, who happens to be one of only three female Grandmasters India has produced till date.

Vaishali is currently the second-highest-ranked Indian in the women’s ratings after Koneru Humpy, and the manner in which her career has progressed so far, it might not be long before she breaks into the top-10, or even the top-5.

Pratika Rawal

There have been a lot of youngsters who have dished out impressive performances for the Indian women’s cricket team in recent years. However, the manner in which opener Pratika Rawal has kickstarted her career since making her debut against West Indies in December has forced not just Indian experts and fans, but the wider cricketing community to sit up and take notice.

The first of many! 💯😍

A stunning maiden ODI century for Pratika Rawal, & what a way to do it 🙌#INDvIRE #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/jv4vhRkdFK

— JioCinema (@JioCinema) January 15, 2025

In just six ODI appearances, she has racked up 444 runs with a best score of 154 at an average of 74, and certainly has made it very difficult for Shafali Verma to make her way back into the team as senior batter Smriti Mandhana’s opening partner.

Salima Tete

Hockey star Tete has charted a meteoric rise since making her debut in 2017, having represented the country in the Tokyo Olympics four years later when her team finished fourth and narrowly missed out on a historic maiden Olympic podium finish. And in an individual capacity, she played a major role in helping India finish third in the FIH Women’s Pro League in 2021-22 and also land a bronze medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

She would later be appointed captain of the team. And in January this year, she became Jharkhand’s first female Arjuna Awardee. All of this at just 23 years of age!

Sheetal Devi

Para-archer Sheetal Devi, who shoots using her limbs due to a rare medical condition that resulted in the absence of arms, was among the leading contenders for gold at the Paralympics in Paris last year. She would then set the stage on fire by finishing with a world record 703 points in the ranking round, only to miss the top spot in the individual category and later miss out on an individual medal.

Her dream of standing on the Paralympic podium, however, was fulfilled when she won bronze along with Rakesh Kumar in the Mixed Team Compound Event, becoming India’s youngest Paralympic medalist at just 17 years of age.