The Most Famous

ATHLETES from India

This page contains a list of the greatest Indian Athletes. The pantheon dataset contains 6,025 Athletes, 37 of which were born in India. This makes India the birth place of the 32nd most number of Athletes behind Switzerland, and Croatia.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Indian Athletes of all time. This list of famous Indian Athletes is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Indian Athletes.

1. K. D. Jadhav (1926 - 1984)

With an HPI of 51.30, K. D. Jadhav is the most famous Indian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages on wikipedia.

Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav (15 January 1926 – 14 August 1984) was an Indian freestyle wrestler. He is best known for winning a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He was the first athlete from independent India to win an individual medal in the Olympics. After Norman Pritchard who won two silver medals in athletics in 1900 under colonial India, Khashaba was the first individual athlete from independent India to win a medal at the Olympics. In the years before Khashaba, India would only win gold medals in field hockey, a team sport. He is the only Indian Olympic medalist who never received a Padma Award. Khashaba was extremely nimble on his feet, which made him different from other wrestlers of his time. English coach Rees Gardner saw this trait in him and trained him prior to the 1948 Olympic games. He belonged to Goleshwar village near Karad. He was posthumously awarded Arjuna Award in 2000 for his contribution to wrestling.

2. Charles Gmelin (1872 - 1950)

With an HPI of 49.04, Charles Gmelin is the 2nd most famous Indian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Charles Henry Stuart Gmelin (28 May 1872 – 12 October 1950) was a British athlete. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.

3. Launceston Elliot (1874 - 1930)

With an HPI of 48.72, Launceston Elliot is the 3rd most famous Indian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Launceston Elliot (9 June 1874 – 8 August 1930) was a British weightlifter, and the first athlete representing the United Kingdom to become an Olympic champion.

4. Fauja Singh (b. 1911)

With an HPI of 48.66, Fauja Singh is the 4th most famous Indian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Fauja Singh (Punjabi: ਫੌਜਾ ਸਿੰਘ) is a British Sikh and retired marathon runner of Punjabi Indian descent. He has beaten a number of world records in multiple age brackets, but none of his times have been ratified as records. His personal best time for the London Marathon (2003) is 6 hours 2 minutes, and his marathon best, claimed for the 90-plus age bracket, is 5 hours 40 minutes at the alleged age of 92, at the 2003 Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

5. P. T. Usha (b. 1964)

With an HPI of 45.69, P. T. Usha is the 5th most famous Indian Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha (born 27 June 1964) is an Indian sports administrator and retired track and field athlete. Usha was born in Koothali near Perambra in Kozhikode district, Kerala. She grew up in Payyoli. Usha has been associated with Indian athletics since 1979. She has won 4 gold medals and 7 silver medals in the Asian Games. She is often associated as the "Queen of Indian track and field". On 6 July 2022, she was nominated as a Member of Parliament to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, by former President of India Ram Nath Kovind. In December 2022, Usha was elected president of the Indian Olympic Association unopposed. In December 2022, she was appointed to the panel of Rajya Sabha vice chairman to control the proceedings of the upper house during the absence of both Chairman and Deputy Chairman. She is the first nominated MP in history to become the Vice Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.

6. Godfrey Brown (1915 - 1995)

With an HPI of 44.54, Godfrey Brown is the 6th most famous Indian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Arthur Godfrey Kilner Brown (21 February 1915 – 4 February 1995) was a British athlete, winner of a gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1936 Summer Olympics. He later became Headmaster of the Royal Grammar School Worcester, a post which he held from 1950 until his retirement in 1978.

7. Udham Singh (1928 - 2000)

With an HPI of 42.49, Udham Singh is the 7th most famous Indian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Udham Singh Kular (4 August 1928 – 23 March 2000) was an Indian Hockey Player from Sansarpur, Jalandhar, Punjab, India. He played in 1952 Summer Olympics Helsinki, 1956 Summer Olympics Melbourne, 1960 Summer Olympics Rome and 1964 Summer Olympics Tokyo. He shares the distinction of being one of only two Indian players to win four Olympic medals, the other being Leslie Claudius. He scored 14 goals from total of 14 Olympic matches

8. Balbir Singh Sr. (1923 - 2020)

With an HPI of 41.56, Balbir Singh Sr. is the 8th most famous Indian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Balbir Singh Dosanjh (31 December 1923 – 25 May 2020), predominantly known as Balbir Singh Sr., was an Indian hockey player and coach. He was a three-time Olympic gold prabhdeep medallist, having played a key role in India's wins in London (1948), Helsinki (1952) (as vice captain), and Melbourne (1956) (as captain) Olympics. He is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time, a modern-day Dhyan Chand, a legend of the sport, and is widely regarded as the sport's greatest ever centre-forward. His Olympic record for most goals scored by an individual in an Olympic men's hockey final remains unbeaten. Singh set this record when he scored five goals in India's 6–1 victory over the Netherlands in the men's field hockey final of the 1952 Olympic Games. He was often called Balbir Singh Senior to distinguish him from other Indian hockey players named Balbir Singh. Singh scored 246 goals from just 61 international caps and scored 23 goals in just 8 Olympic matches Singh was the manager and chief coach of the Indian team for the 1975 Men's Hockey World Cup, which India won, and the 1971 Men's Hockey World Cup, where India earned a bronze medal. During the London Olympics in 2012, Singh was honoured in the Olympic Museum exhibition, "The Olympic Journey: The Story of the Games,” held at the Royal Opera House. The exhibition told the story of the Olympic Games from its creation in 776BC through to the London 2012 Olympic Games. He was one of the 16 iconic Olympians recognized as an example "of human strength and endeavour, of passion, determination, hard work and achievement and demonstrates the values of the Olympic Movement". Singh died at the age of 96 in Mohali on 25 May 2020.

9. Leslie Claudius (1927 - 2012)

With an HPI of 39.83, Leslie Claudius is the 9th most famous Indian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Leslie Walter Claudius (25 March 1927 – 20 December 2012) was an Indian field hockey player from Bilaspur. He studied in South Eastern Railway (Now SECR) English Medium School Bilaspur, which has produced many national sportsmen. Leslie Claudius shares with Udham Singh the distinction of being one of the only two Indian players to win four Olympic medals in field hockey. To his gold medals in 1948, 1952 and 1956, he added a silver in 1960 when he captained the team that reached the final against Pakistan. He was the first player ever to earn 100 caps, and competed for India, in addition to the Olympics, on their European tour of 1949, Malaysian tour of 1952, Australian and New Zealand tours of 1955, and at the 3rd Asian Games in 1958. After the 1960 Olympics, he continued to compete domestically, retiring after the 1965 season. In 1971, he became the sixth Indian hockey player to be given the Padma Shri Civil award by the Indian government. Leslie Claudius had joined Calcutta Customs Department as Preventive Officer and retired as Assistant Collector of Customs. He was a member of Calcutta Customs Club and represented the Calcutta Port Customs Commissionerate in the Aga Khan Tournament in 1948. Leslie Claudius not only brought international glory but also kept the Calcutta Customs Club flag flying high.

10. Karnam Malleswari (b. 1975)

With an HPI of 37.41, Karnam Malleswari is the 10th most famous Indian Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Karnam Malleswari (born 1 June 1975) is a retired Indian weightlifter. She is the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Olympics in 2000. In 1994, she received the Arjuna Award and in 1999, she received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour, and the civilian Padma Shri award.

People

Pantheon has 111 people classified as Indian athletes born between 1872 and 2003. Of these 111, 101 (90.99%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Indian athletes include Fauja Singh, P. T. Usha, and Karnam Malleswari. The most famous deceased Indian athletes include K. D. Jadhav, Charles Gmelin, and Launceston Elliot. As of April 2024, 74 new Indian athletes have been added to Pantheon including Annu Rani, Dola Banerjee, and Dipika Pallikal.