KARNAM MALLESWARI

Weightlifter
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.

Sania Mirza

Lawn Tennis Player

The young Indian women tennis sensation Sania Mirza, was born in Mumbai on November 15, 1986. Presently the highest ranked Indian, Sania started playing Tennis at the tender age of six at the Nizam club in Hyderabad 

Born to parents,  father Imran Mirza a sports journalist and mother Nasima, it was Sania's father Imran who initiated her into the game and who has always encouraged her to be the best. She started practicing under CK Bhupati, India's top tennis player Mahesh Bhupati's father. She learnt the professional game at Sinnet Tennis Academy in Secunderabad before moving to Ace Tennis Academy in the USA. Now she is managed by Mahesh Bhupati's company Global Sports and has a specialist advisor Bob Brett who was Boris Becker's coach earlier.

Sania played her first international tournament in 1999 when she represented India at the World Junior Championship at Jakarta. Mirza's big boost came in 2002 when Paes decided to take her as his mixed doubles partner at the Asian Games. The duo went on to claim the bronze medal. The rise has been steady since then. In 2003, Sania at 16years did India proud by becoming the youngest and first ever Indian to figure in the main draw of the girls' doubles junior Wimbledon tennis championship and winning the Grand Slam title.

NARAIN KARTHIKEYAN

 Formula One Driver

Hailed as the fastest Indian in the world by the British Motoring Press, Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan is the Ist Formula One driver from India.

Narayan K.

Born on January 14th 1977 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, as the son of G. R. Karthikeyan, a former Indian National Rally Champion, Narain got his aspirations in motor sport from his father at an early age. Young Narain's aim was to become the first Formula one Driver from India, a feat he succeeded to achieve later in life. His first ever race was at Sriperumbudur near Chennai in a Formula Maruti at 16 years of age, which he finished on the podium. He took training at Elf Winfield Racing School, France, and became a Semi Finalist in the Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault Cars in 1992.

In 1993 he came back to India to participate in Formula Maruti and also competed in Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship in Great Britain. With this experience in European racing he returned to UK in 1994 for racing in Formula Ford Zetec Series as the No.2 driver for the foundation racing team. In that season he had to his credit a podium finish in a support race for the Portuguese Grand Prix held at Estoril. He went on to become the first Indian to win a Championship in Europe at the British Formula Ford Winter Series.

PRAKASH PADUKONE

Badminton Player
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.

P.GOPICHAND

Badminton Player

Pullela Gopi Chand is the brightest star to emerge on the Indian badminton scene in a long time, after Prakash Padukone  He was born on November 16th 1973, in Nagandla in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, India to parents Pullela Subhash Chandra Bose and Subbaravamma who were both interested in sports. Gopichand is indeed a story of sheer hard work, dedication and pure determination for the game of Badminton.

Though Gopichand nicknamed Gops, favoured cricket earlier, his elder brother made him switchover to Badminton. Gopi's skill at Badminton was the talk at St.Pauls where he had his schooling, when he was hardly around 10 years old. He suffered a setback in 1986, when he suffered a multiple ligament rupture. But this young fighter came back to the field with sheer determination and reached the finals of Andhra Pradesh State Junior Badminton ship in 1987, even though he lost the title to his elder brother Rajashekar. By the time he passed out of school in 1988, he had already made a mark in the Badminton field. He did his graduation in Economics from AV College, Hyderabad. In 1989 he won his first single title at the National Championship at Goa and then went on to win the doubles championship also.

By 1999, Gopichand achieved a world ranking of 26 winning the Indian international, Scottish, Toulouse, French championships etc. He received the SAARC gold medal the same year. Always a fighter, he refused to be crushed by his defeat in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and true to his recognition out played the Olympics champions to reach the finals of the All England Badminton ship, finally arriving at the forefront of international badminton. He defeated Olympic Gold medallist Anders Boeson in the Quarterfinals of this tournament. In the Semifinals he defeated world No.1 ceded player Peter Gade of Denmark, and in the finals he defeated Chen Hong of China. He achieved his career best world ranking of 5 in April 2001.

LEANDER PEAS

Lawn Tennis Player 
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 an 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.

MAHESH BHUPATHI

Lawn Tennis Player

Top league Doubles Tennis star Mahesh Srinivas Bhupathi, is one of India's outstanding sporting heroes. He is known for his booming serves and hard-hitting volleys. He was born on 7th June, 1974 in Madras, Tamilnadu. Bhupathi was educated in Dubai, Muscat and in USA. His father Mr. C.G. Krishna Bhupathi coached him right from his formative years, exclusively on hard courts in the Middle East and his son has proved that hard work pays.

Mahesh has traveled extensively from the age of 14 and has played in major tournaments all over the world. He had an outstanding two-year career at the University of Mississippi from 1994-95, earning singles and doubles All-America honors in '95. He was the finalist in doubles in the Under-18 at Wimbledon. He turned pro in 1995.   He teamed with Ali Hamadeh in 1995 to win the NCAA doubles title and finished as the No. 1 player in doubles and No. 3 in singles. He was India's national champion in 1994 and 1995 and a member of the Indian Davis Cup team since 1995 and represents India in Davis Cup Singles and Doubles. He won a Silver and 3 Gold medals at the SAF Games, represented India at the Atlanta Olympics - 1996, took India to the Quarter Finals of the Elite World Group in Davis Cup along with Leander Paes. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam when he took the mixed doubles French Open along with Japan's Rika Hiraki.