2025: The year Indian women athletes conquered the global sporting arenas

Some years change scorelines. Others change structures.

2025 was the latter, a year when Indian women athletes didn’t merely win medals, but quietly dismantled long-held ideas about who succeeds, where success comes from, and which sports are deemed worthy of attention.

What stood out wasn’t just excellence at the top. It was depth across niches, from chess prodigies and world-champion boxers to blind cricketers, skiers, ice hockey players, kabaddi defenders, armless archers, and footballers still fighting for basic recognition. Indian women showed up everywhere Indian sport had historically looked away.

This was not dominance confined to one discipline. This was breadth, resilience, and defiance.

Divya Deshmukh

When Divya Deshmukh won the 2025 FIDE Women’s Chess World Cup, the result felt inevitable only in hindsight.

Born in Nagpur on December 9, 2005, Divya entered the tournament as the 15th seed, navigating a brutal field that included some of the world’s most experienced players.

Her final opponent was none other than Koneru Humpy, India’s chess icon and a former world championship title challenger.

Her 2.5–1.5 victory crowned her World Cup champion, made her the fourth Indian woman to earn the GM title, and secured her qualification to the 2026 Candidates Tournament. It was the kind of win that alters career trajectories and signals generational change.

Divya’s 2025 triumph built upon an already remarkable resume: double gold at the 2024 Chess Olympiad, a World Under-20 title, and victories over elite names like Zhu Jiner, Harika Dronavalli, and Tan Zhongyi.

Blind Cricket’s quiet revolution

On November 23, the Indian women’s blind cricket team won the inaugural Women’s T20 Blind Cricket World Cup, defeating Nepal by seven wickets in the final.

India finished the tournament unbeaten, overcoming Sri Lanka, the United States, Pakistan, Australia, and Nepal, with a flawless campaign in a format still fighting for visibility.

In a sporting culture obsessed with prime-time narratives, this victory mattered because it reminded us that excellence does not need permission to exist; it only needs acknowledgement.

The World Cup India had waited for

For decades, the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup had been the missing piece in Indian cricket’s story.

That changed on November 2, 2025, in Navi Mumbai.

India defeated South Africa by 52 runs to claim their first-ever Women’s ODI World Cup, delivering a performance that felt complete in every department.

Deepti Sharma anchored the night, contributing with both bat and ball, including a decisive five-wicket haul, while players like Shafali Verma embodied the fearlessness of a generation that no longer plays with history weighing on its shoulders.

This wasn’t just a title win. It was closure.

When Indian Women owned the Boxing ring

At the 2025 World Boxing Championships, every single Indian medal was won by a woman, including two gold medals from  Jaismine Lamboria (57kg) and Minakshi Hooda (48 Kg).

In a sport defined by endurance, aggression, and mental fortitude, Indian women didn’t just perform; they led the medal table conversation.

Antim Panghal and the weight of carrying a Nation

At the 2025 World Wrestling Championships in Croatia, Antim Panghal stood on the podium, alone.

The 21-year-old won bronze in the women’s 53kg category, dismantling Sweden’s Emma Malmgren through sharp counterattacks and relentless takedowns. It was India’s only medal at the championships.

For Antim, it marked her second World Championships podium, after bronze in 2023, making her only the second Indian woman, after Vinesh Phogat, to achieve multiple Worlds medals.

Ice Hockey, Ski Tracks, and the expansion of possibilities

Indian women also rewrote expectations in sports where the country barely registers on global maps, not because of a lack of talent, but because of a lack of attention.

At the 2025 IIHF Women’s Asia Cup in the UAE, India’s women’s ice hockey team claimed bronze, defeating teams like Malaysia, UAE and Kyrgyzstan.

For a nation without a formal ice hockey ecosystem, limited ice time, and almost no professional pathway, the medal was an act of persistence more than preparation.

That same defiance echoed thousands of kilometres away in Chile.

At the FIS South America Cup, TN Bhavani became the first Indian woman to win an international medal in cross-country skiing, securing bronze in the 5km event.

And then, on a green baize table in Doha, another boundary fell.

In November 2025, Anupama Ramachandran, a 23-year-old from Chennai, became the first Indian woman to win the IBSF World Snooker Championship.

Facing Ng On Yee, a three-time world champion from Hong Kong, Anupama held her nerve in a dramatic final that went the distance to seal a 3–2 victory, a moment of calm under pressure that crowned her world champion.

Together, ice hockey players skating without arenas, a skier racing in a country without winter tradition, and a snooker world champion emerging from obscurity told the same story: Indian women were no longer confined to expected spaces.

They were claiming new ones.

Kabaddi’s culture of continuity

While some sports celebrated arrival, others showcased sustainability.

India’s women successfully defended their Women’s Kabaddi World Cup title in Dhaka, defeating Chinese Taipei 35–28 in the final after a commanding semi-final win over Iran. Captained by Ritu Negi, the team blended tactical awareness with physical dominance.

Women’s Football: Playing without applause

If 2025 proved anything, it is that women’s football in India survives on belief, not visibility.

Despite national team qualification milestones, youth-level progress, and a growing base of dedicated players, Indian women footballers continue to exist on the margins, underfunded, under-televised, and under-celebrated. Recognition arrived only after the senior, U-20 and U-17 women's teams qualified for the AFC Asian Cups. 

Breaking the definition of “possible”

Perhaps the most powerful moment of 2025 came not with a team victory or a medal table, but with Sheetal Devi.

She became the first female armless archer in the world to win a world title.

Not a qualifier. Not a participation milestone. A world title.

Her achievement transcended sport, reminding us that limitation is often a failure of imagination, not ability.

What made 2025 extraordinary was not just its success but its widespread impact.

They were not waiting to be noticed. They were building regardless of attention.

And when Indian sport looks back at the decade that reshaped it, 2025 will stand tall, not as a year of isolated triumphs, but as the moment Indian women athletes made excellence impossible to ignore.