Dhyan Chand made great contribution in enhancing the prestige of  Indian Hockey in the eyes of the world. He was born on 29th August 1906, in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh). He joined army at the age of sixteen. He started playing hockey in army and was included in the Indian Hockey team for the 1928 Amesterdam Olympics. 

By his superior play, Dhyan Chand was held  in high esteem with in the country as well as abroad. Dhyan Chand helped his country in winning gold medals in hokey in 3 successive Olympics games; Amesterdam Olympics (1928), Los Angles Olympics (1932) and Berlin Olympics(1936). He was the captain of  the gold medal winner Indian Hockey team in the historic 1936 Berlin Olympics. Dhyan Chand scored 101 goals at the Olympic games and 300 goals in other international matches and his record is unbroken. Dhyan Chand had a wonderful command in wielding the hockey stick and this earn him the title " Hockey Wizard". India won one gold medal in Hockey at Amersterdom Olympics and out of a total of 28 goals scored by Indian hockey, 11 were scored by Dhyan Chand alone. He died on December 3,1979.

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Ahmad Baksh Gama was born in Datiya (MP). He was fond of  wrestling since his childhood. By 20, he had defeated all most all the national level  wrestlers.

"Rustam-e-Hind" Gama pehalwan, who brought the Indian style of wrestling to international sports and lend it credentials, had tricks of the trade running in his blood. In 1910, a wrestling match was organized for the award of the title "Rustam-e-Hind", Gama defeated all the wrestlers and earned the title. Gama's last match was with J.C Peterson whom he defeated in 45 seconds.

Gama wrestled for many years and always emerged victorious. One of his greatest quality was that he had not only a sense of  self respect but was very friendly in nature. Indian wrestling owes its popularity to Gama. He died in Lahore on 22nd May in 1960.

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Kapil Dev Nikhanj was India's finest all rounder in cricket.  He was born on 6th January 1959 in Haryana. He was the former captain and new national team coach.

When Kapil was just 20, he set a new record of scoring 1000 runs and taking 100 wickets. He made this record within a period of one year and 109 days only. Kapil Dev started playing in the first class cricket in 1975, and the opportunity for him to play in a test match for the first time came in 1978 during Indian team's tour to Pakistan.

He also achieved the unique double of 4000 runs and 400 wickets, the first ever Indian player to do so. He also set the world record for taking the highest number of wickets (432) in test matches in February 1994. Indian government honoured him with the 'Padmabhushan' award. Kapil Dev has written his autobiography under the title 'By God's Decree'.

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Indian weightlifter from Andhra Pradesh. She became the First Indian woman ever to win an Olympic medal. She won bronze in 69kg category at Sydney Olympics 2000. She has also won gold in Istanbul World Championship (1994) and Asian Championships (54-kg category) at Pusan, Korea (1995). In World Weightlifting Championship at Guangzhou (China) on November 19, 1995 Malleswari set a new world record by winning three golds in 54-kg category. She was awarded 'Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award' in 1994-95.

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Leander Paes, India's Tennis pride, was born in Goa on June 17,1973 and brought up in Kolkata. Born into a family of sportsmen;  His father, Vece was a member of the Indian field hockey team which won a bronze medal in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games and mother, Jennifer a member of the basketball team; Leander began playing tennis at the age of 5. 

He captured the 1990 Wimbledon Junior title and was ranked as the No.1 junior player in the world at one time. Since then he has been representing India at various international events winning matches bringing glory to the country. He is also a member of the Davis Cup squad since 1990, compiling a 32-19 career record (21-12 in singles). In 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he won the bronze medal in the Tennis event and made India proud with this individual medal won after a long gap of 44 years. The last individual medal being the wrestling medal won by K.D Jadhav in1952 Helsinki Olympics.

He teamed up with Mahesh Bhupathi to form the Indian doubles team and the duo in 1999, showed their class by winning the French Open and Wimbledon and entering the finals of the two other Grand Slam Tournaments; the Australian and US Opens. But the dream team separated soon after, due to mutual misunderstanding. They came together again in time for the Sydney Olympics and started regaining their lost prestige at the end of 2000, winning the Men's Double title in Japan Open 2000 followed by Worlds Doubles Championship in Bangalore, Verizon Atlanta Challenge, US Clay court Championship in Houston and at Roland Garros defeating the Czech pair of Petr Pala and Pavel Vizner, ranked no. 2 in the world. 

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Mihir Sen was the first Asian who have crossed the English Channel. He was born on 16th November 1930 in Purulia (West Bengal). He was a lawyer by profession, a barrister of Kolkatta High court.

In 1966, he established 5 important records and became an extra ordinary salt water swimmer. In 1958, Mihir Sen swam across the English Channel, in 1966 he crossed the Palk strait, followed by Gibralter Dar-E-Daniyal, Wasphorus and Panama. He thus established the record of swimming the longest distance. He is a matchless swimmer, having swam more than 600km in sea/ocean water. 

In 1959 he was awarded "Padma Shree"  and in 1967 "Padma Bhushan". He brought glory to his motherland by creating records and earning a place in Guinness Book of World Record. 

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Milkha Singh is one of the most outstanding athletes of India. He has earned the nickname 'Flying Sikh' because of his marvelous running speed on the tracks. He was born in 1935 in the Western Punjab of undivided India.

He joined the army in 1953. On joining the army, Milkha Singh paid special attention to athletics and started to train himself for 400 meter race. Soon, he succeeded in establishing a new record in 400 meter race and earned great fame and prestige.

In 1957, he established a new national record of 47.5 seconds in 400 meter race. In the Third Asiad held at Tokyo (Japan) in 1958, Milkha Singh set two new records in 400 meter and 200 meter races respectively. In the 4th Asiad held at Jakarta (Indonesia), Milkha Singh won a gold medal in the 400 meter race. In 1959, Government of India honoured Milkha Singh with 'Padma Shri' for his notable achievements in the field of sports. Milkha Singh at present is fully dedicated to the promotion of sports in India.

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Prakash Padukone is one of the noted Badminton player of India. He was born on 10th June 1955, in Bangalore. At the age of 14, he became the National Junior Badminton Champion and at 15, the National Champion.

He was the National Badminton Champion for nine consecutive years during 1970-78. When he was only 15, he made a record by winning junior boys and men's singles badminton titles in 1971. In 1980, he won the Badminton Grand Slam by winning three major international badminton tournaments including All England Badminton Championship. He also represented India in Thomas Cup Matches. In the 7th Asian Games, held at Tehran in 1974, he won a bronze medal. In the Common Wealth Games held at Edmonton (Canada) in 1978, Prakash won the final of men's single's event by beating Ray Talbot of Britain in straight sets and won a gold medal. In the First World Games held in USA (1981), he was awarded a bronze medal. He also won the Alba World Cup in the same year defeating Han Jain of China.

He received 'Arjuna' award in 1972. He is estimated to have won about 15 International titles in the first half of 1980's. He was ranked number one in 1980 and 1981 in the world rankers. After his career he served as a chief of Badminton Association of India for a few years. Later he resigned. Now he is concentrating on conducting high standard tournaments, camps and workshops specially for juniors through his academy based at Bangalore.

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The first Indian woman (and the fifth Indian) to reach the final of an Olympic event by winning her 400 m hurdles Semi-final. She was born in Kerala in 1964. When she was just 12, she joined a Sports school at Cannanore where she received guidance and training from O.P. Nambiar, the noted athlete coach. Her full name is Pilavulakandi Thekkeparambil Usha.

In the 10th Asian Games held at Seoul in 1986, P.T.Usha kept the flag of India flying high by winning 4 gold and 1 silver medal in the track and field events. Here she created new Asian Games records in all the events she participated. P.T.Usha also won the most medals at a single championship -six at Jakartha in 1985. Her five gold at the 6th Asian Track and Field Championship is also a record for the most number of gold medals by a single athlete in a single international meet.

Usha's success story begins from the 1982 Asiad in which she won two gold medals in 100 meters and 200 meters respectively. At the Los Angels Olympics held in 1984, Usha missed a medal and she had to remain content with 4th place. Yet, she was the first Indian woman runner to have the honour of coming at the 4th place in the history of Olympics missing a bronze medal by 1/100 of a second. She won 17 medals -13 gold , 3 silver and a bronze in four Asian Track and Field Championship during the period from 1983-89. 

Usha has won 101 international medals so far. At present she is employed as an officer in the Southern Railway. In spite of her age, married status and motherhood she is still active in sports.

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The pride of Indian cricket Sachin Tendulkar, was the first batsman to score 10,000 runs in one-day cricket,  in a five-day match series against Australia on the 31st of March 2001. He has scored a world record, 28 hundreds and 50 half-centuries in his 10,000 runs. 

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on April 24, 1973, in Mumbai. Young Sachin wanted to be a fast bowler. He even undertook trials at the MRF pace foundation, Chennai, but his short stature proved to be a hindrance for bowling. Meeting Mr. R. Achrekar, his Cricket Coach and changing his school to Shardashram Vidya Mandir in Dadar marked a turning point in Sachin's cricket career.

Sachin at the age of 16, made his International debut in ODI’s India v Pakistan at Gujranwala and Tests debut India v Pakistan at Karachi around 1989/90. He then went to England as a part of the national team, and has not looked back ever since. He knows every shot in the book and and makes his own improvisations. His shots have  tremendous power and he times the ball perfectly, making him one of the best batsman in the world. He is also an effective bowler and also one of the best fielders. 

This all rounder has been the captain of the Indian cricket team twice. On the personal front, Sachin is god fearing and he is married to a doctor Anjali and they have a daughter Sarah. In1998, he won the Coopers and Lybrand Award  for 'Player of the year' and has been in the number one position in the Wisden Cricket ratings.

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Sourav Ganguly the current Captain of the Indian Cricket team is an aggressive left-handed batsman in the middle order and also bowls right-handed military medium pace. 

Ganguly was born in an affluent family in Kolkata on 8th July 1973. As a young boy, Sourav's first interest was football and he played in the school football team for four years. But later he shifted to cricket and joined a cricket coaching club. Young Sourav made a century in an under-15 cricket match and another century in the 1991 Duleep Trophy which earned him a place in the Indian Cricket team touring Australia in 1991-92. Although this gave a  start to his international career he was made to play only one One-Day International Match because of his inability to play onside strokes. He faced criticism for his attitude and inability. But after a gap of four years, he came back in style in the 1996 tour to England at Lord's; his test debut, scoring centuries and wickets and winning the Man of the Series Award and in the Sahara Cup, Toronto 1997 set a new World Record for 5 consecutive Man of the Match Awards.

From then Sourav has come a long way and achieved a lot - he along with Tendulkar forms the 4th Best Opening Pair in the History of One-day cricket and were involved in a World Record Opening Partnership of 252. Ganguly was named Sport star Person of the Year 1998 and won the Arjuna Award in the same year.

Personally Sourav is a quiet, unassuming, undemonstrative man with nerves of steel. He is deeply religious and observes a fast every Tuesday. He is married to Dona, his next-door-neighbour, who is a classical dancer. He has accomplished a top place in Indian Cricket as a batsman and bowler by excelling both in One-Day Internationals and Test Matches. 

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Sunil Manohar Gavaskar was at one time the world's top batsman. Sunil Gavaskar, the 'little master' of cricket, was born on 10th July 1949, in Mumbai. As an opening batsman, Gavaskar has been the home burn of the aggressive bowling of the opponent teams.

He has scored more than 10,000 runs with 34 centuries, the highest by any batsman. Sunil Gavaskar is the only cricket player in the world who has scored 100 runs in a single cricket year thrice. Sunil Gavaskar has proved himself as a good skipper and Indian team made such notable achievements under his leadership by winning the 'Asian Cup' and the 'Benson and Hedges World Cup' tournament. He played 125 test matches.

Gavaskar started his test life in 1971, during Indian team's tour to West Indies. He is the only Indian batsman with the highest score for India. In 1975, he received the 'Arjuna' award and in 1980, he was honoured with 'Padma Bhushan'. In 1980, he was also honoured by 'Wisden'. Gavaskar is also a writer of popular books on cricket such as Sunny Days, Idols, Runs and Ruins and One Day Wonders.

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Tenzing was the first Indian to scale the highest peak of the world, the Mount Everest (height 8,848 metres) on 29, March 1953. He achieved this mountaineering feat together with Sir Edmund Hillary the well known adventurist of New Zealand.

Tenzing was born in Nepal in a poor family. Tenzing was a follower of Buddhism and had acquired the Indian citizenship in 1933.The childhood name of Tenzing was Namgyal Wagundi. He was also called Khumjung Bhutia.

The Government of India conferred the title of 'Padma Bhushan' on Tenzing in 1959. Tenzing was also awarded the George Medal in recognition of his excellent service in the field of mountaineering. For imparting training in mountaineering the Government of India established the 'Himalayan Mountaineering Institute' at Darjeeling in West Bengal In1954 and Tenzing was appointed Director (training ) in this Institute. Tenzing Norgay was nick named as 'Tiger of Snows'.

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Viswanathan Anand is the first Asian to win the World Chess Championship title.  He won the title on 24th December 2000, defeating Spain's Alexei Shirovyoungest at Teheran. 

Born in Chennai in December 1969,  he started playing chess at the age of 6. He learnt chess from his mother Susheela. His parents encouraged him and used to take him to the Tal Chess club. Young Anand had an exceptional memory power and an ability to grasp things fast which made him excel in Chess. Anand got his B.Com degree from Loyola College.

He has won many titles even from a young age. He was the youngest Asian to win the International Master's Title at the age of fifteen. At sixteen he became the National Champion; At eighteen India's First Grandmaster. In 1987, he became the first Asian to win the World Junior Chess Championship. In 1992, he won the formidable Reggio Emilia Tournament. He was the runner up to Kasparov in World Championship final in 1995. He beat Kasparov in the rapid chess tournament in September 96 and Karpov in June 97 in Hamburg Rapid Chess. Anand outplayed the most popular chess software programme, Fritz in July, 99. 

Anand has also received many awards; Arjuna Award for Outstanding Indian Sportsman in 1985, Padmashree, National Citizens Award and Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1987, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, Chess Oscar and so on. 

Anand's wife Aruna supports him in his preparations for the tournaments. This genius, although he has achieved so much still remains simple in character. He wrote a book 'My Best Games of Chess' for which he got the British Chess Federation 'Book of the Year' Award in 1998. 

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