From Shafali’s golden touch to Pogba’s return, here are the comeback stories of 2025

For an athlete, a successful comeback following a period of trials and tribulations is equally, if not more, important than medals and trophies.

2025 was yet another where several athletes across sports showed the heart and spirit to fight against the odds and emerge victorious. Here are some of them:-

Ishan Kishan (Cricket)

Wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan marked his return to India’s T20I squad after more than two years as he was named in the upcoming New Zealand series and T20 World Cup 2026 squads.

Kishan, whose last T20 international was against Australia in 2023, has honed his skills in the domestic (Jharkhand) and First Class (India A) circuit since.

His standout run came in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he led Jharkhand to its maiden title, capped by a century against Haryana in the final.

He ended the tournament as its highest scorer with 571 runs.

Murali Sreeshankar (Athletics)

Commonwealth Games and Asian Games silver medallist Murali Sreeshankar had been out of action due to a tear in his patellar tendon sustained during training in April of 2024. The injury forced him to also miss the Paris Olympics.

But after rigorous rehab and training, the 26-year-old long jumper from Kerala returned to the pit at the Indian Open Athletics Meeting in Pune on July 12 this year where he bagged a gold. He followed it up with meets in Portugal and Kazakhstan, winning both. Then, he returned to India and again clinched gold at the first-ever World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze Level meet held in India in Bhubaneswar.

August 24, the final day of the National Inter-State Championships, was also the last day of the qualification period for the Worlds. Continuing his perfect streak, Sreeshankar won the gold in Chennai as well but he could only manage a best of 8.06m – 21cm short of the automatic qualification mark for Tokyo.

However, he managed to secure the 36th and final spot for the World Championships through the World Rankings route. What was supposed to be done in the span of a year, he managed to achieve in roughly 40 days.

Shafali Verma (Cricket)

Pratika Rawal’s consistency as the Indian opener meant that there was no place for Shafali Verma in the squad for the Women’s ODI World Cup. Nevertheless, the youngster continued to grind and score runs in the domestic circuit. While she was playing for Haryana in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy – she ended up as the highest scorer with 341 runs in seven innings – the opportunity came, albeit in unfortunate circumstances. With Pratika getting injured in India’s last league-stage match against Bangladesh, Shafali was called up as her replacement.

The semifinal against Australia marked her return to the ODI team after nearly a year. Her last appearance was against New Zealand in Ahmedabad on October 29, 2024. While the youngster could only score 10 runs against Australia, the summit clash was where she produced a clutch all-round performance.

The 21-year-old Shafali, who scored 87 runs and picked up two keys wickets, was named the Player of the Match in the 52-run win over South Africa as India won its first-ever Women’s World Cup title.

Antim Panghal (Wrestling)

Paris Olympics had proven to be a crash landing for talented wrestler Antim Panghal. Tipped as a medal contender, she lost in the opening round to an unheralded opponent. Off the mat, her coach clashed with a taxi driver, and Antim’s accreditation was revoked after she was accused of sneaking her sister into the Village.

She returned in disgrace and hid from the spotlight. “I remember those days. I was hiding from the media. I didn’t even want to look at any cameras. I was thinking of quitting. I didn’t even go to my parents’ house, but my uncle’s house, because I was trying to avoid the media. When I eventually came back home, I didn’t even want to leave my house,” she recalled.

Her parents, siblings, and coaches pulled her back from the brink. 

READ | Antim creates history with second World medal, eases memories of Olympic shock

Her return was measured. Not only did she need to recover from the psychological toll, but also from lingering neck injuries sustained at the 2023 Worlds and aggravated in Paris.

With coach Siyanand Dahiya, she worked to refine her game at the Inspire Institute of Sport in Hisar. The results came quickly: bronze at the Asian Championships in Amman, then gold at the UWW Ranking Series in Budapest.

But the one that was perhaps the most satisfying outcome was the bronze at the World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia. Antim beat Sweden’s Jonna Emma Malmgren 9-1 to win bronze in the women’s 53kg category.

In doing so, she joined a rare group of Indian grapplers.

Antim, who had earlier won bronze on debut at the 2023 Worlds, also against Malmgren, became only the second Indian woman wrestler after Vinesh Phogat, and third overall, to win multiple World Championships medals.

Sneh Rana (Cricket)

After injuries and team management calls kept Sneh Rana out of Indian women’s white-ball squads for almost two years, she made a deserved comeback in 2025. Leading her side to the Senior Women’s One-Day Challenger Trophy title in January and showing flashes of brilliance during the Women’s Premier League, the spin-bowling all-rounder earned a call-up to the Indian squad for the Tri-Series against Sri Lanka and South Africa.

In Sri Lanka, Sneh finished as the highest wicket-taker with 15 scalps in five innings, playing a decisive hand in guiding the Women in Blue to the series win. Subsequently, she remained a part of the Indian squads which travelled to England and then, welcomed Australia in the lead-up to the home World Cup. At the showpiece event, she took seven wickets and scored 99 runs during India’s triumphant campaign.

Mirabai Chanu (Weightlifting)

A year after finishing fourth at the Summer Games in Paris, Mirabai Chanu claimed the women’s 48kg gold medal in the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Ahmedabad. Even though she cut one kg extra to fit into the new weight category, she qualified for the 2026 Commonwealth Games without pushing herself much.

In October, Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Mirabai landed her third World Championships medal despite a right thumb issue in Norway. The 31-year-old lifted 84kg in snatch while failing twice in her attempt for 87kg. Mirabai registered 115kg—preceded by efforts of 109kg and 112kg—in clean and jerk to total 199kg. She was third in snatch and second in clean and jerk. North Korean gold medallist Ri Song Gum aggregated 213kg. 

After next year’s Asian Games, Mirabai is likely to switch to 53kg, the lowest body weight for female weightlifters for Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

Jemimah Rodrigues (Cricket)

Not finding a place in Indian squad for the Women’s ODI World Cup in 2022 had broken something in an endlessly cheerful Jemimah Rodrigues.

In the next edition, held this year, she was in the team but still fighting mental and emotional battles.

On the biggest stage against the mighty Australians, Jemimah stood like a rock in the semifinals. Her magnificent 127* off 134 balls had helped India, the eventual champion, pull off a record-breaking chase of 339 in Navi Mumbai to knock the defending champion out of the tournament.

“I’ve almost cried every day throughout this tour. I was not doing well mentally and going through a lot of anxiety. Then being dropped [against England] was another challenge for me, but I think all I had to do was show up,” said Jemimah after the semifinals.

READ | Jemi, the gem who wouldn’t break

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Athletics)

Jamaican sprint icon Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce would have ideally liked to end her long and decorated career at the Paris Olympics last year. However, she was forced to pull out of the competition before the 100m semifinals.

“The reality of not being able to get to the line was hard. I had worked so hard to get to that moment and I couldn’t get to the finish line. That’s just a reality that I had to live with. It was hard because I would have preferred not going at all compared to working as hard as I did and then not even being able to stand in the line to contest the semifinals,” she told Sportstar in a recent interview.

In order to finish on her own terms, the “Pocket Rocket” started preparing for this year’s World Championships. While she finished sixth in the individual 100m final, the 38-year-old still managed to bow out with a medal as Jamaica came second in the 4x100m women’s relay sprint.

Fraser-Pryce walked away from the track after clinching her 17th and final World Championships medal.

Marc Marquez (Motorsport)

When Marc Marquez crossed the line in second place at the Motul Grand Prix in Japan on September 28, he could not hold back his tears. The Spaniard had just won his seventh MotoGP world championship title.

He had finally reclaimed the crown he last wore in 2019 — a journey marked by more than 100 crashes and four surgeries that nearly ended his career.

In 2020, a season shortened and restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Marc suffered an intense crash, resulting in a broken humerus.

READ | Marc Marquez scripts historic comeback with seventh world title

Despite the severity of the injury, he rushed his post-surgery comeback and aggravated it. He missed the entire 2020 season and, in the next three years, continued to battle injuries. It was a four-year period of pain, surgeries, setbacks, rehabilitation, and, compounding it all, uncertainty.

But the fire within burned as brightly as ever. Switching to the Ducati Gresini team in 2024, Marc began rediscovering the joy of riding. This season, he was moved to Ducati, the factory team. With the fastest bike on the track, he dominated the proceeedings and shattered multiple records on the way to his seventh title.

Keshorn Walcott (Athletics)

At 19 years 131 days, Keshorn Walcott became the youngest Olympic gold medallist in men’s javelin throw during the 2012 edition in London. Four years later, the man from Trinidad and Tobago clinched bronze in Rio de Janeiro. But since then, Walcott had been struggling to achieve success at the global stage.

However, things took a dramatic turn at this year’s World Championships. With Klaus Bartonietz, the German biomechanics expert, as his coach, Walcott stunned a star-studded field to clinch the gold medal.

Walcott produced a Season’s Best of 88.16m to finish first ahead of Grenada’s Anderson Peters and USA’s Curtis Thompson. Neeraj Chopra, who became Olympic champion in Tokyo (2021), World silver medallist in 2022 (Oregon), World champion in 2023 (Budapest), and Olympic silver medallist again in Paris in 2024 during a six-year period when Klaus was his coach, finished eighth while reigning Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan stood 10th.

“I think we really overestimate the contribution of a coach! I can only guess why he (Walcott) wanted to work with me. He wasn’t performing badly — he’s been consistently over 85 metres, and he’s thrown 90 as well. I think he was a little under the radar after 2021 despite those big throws. What I actually did was get him to train a little less. I wanted him to throw less and think more about what he needed to do as a javelin thrower,” said Klaus.

Read | Klaus Bartonietz: Neeraj can win another Olympic medal; Sachin should chase consistency, not 90m

Anish Giri (Chess)

Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri had entered world’s Top 10 rankings in October 2014 when he was 20 years old and he remained a consistent player on the circuit for the next decade. However, last year, he dropped to as low as 23rd in the rankings.

But Giri bounced back in style in 2025.

In May, he won the Sharjah Masters tournament with a score of 7/9 after five wins and four draws. The triumph helped him gain crucial FIDE Circuit points in the race for a Candidates 2026 spot but eventually, he didn’t require those points.

READ | Anish ‘Drawish’ Giri addresses chess internet’s nickname, says draw always better than a loss

In September, Giri became champion at FIDE Grand Swiss event in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, with a score of 8/11 after five wins and six draws. The title earned the 31-year-old automatic qualification for next year’s Candidates, a huge achievement as he had failed to make it to the last two editions.

Courtesy his victory in Uzbekistan, Giri returned to FIDE Top 10 in October.

In December, he helped Alpine SG Pipers clinch its maiden Global Chess League title.

Jake Wightman (Athletics)

In 2022, Jake Wightman had surprised Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen in Eugene, Oregon, to become the first British male world champion in 1500m in nearly 40 years. The moment became even more iconic as his father, Geoff, called the race as in-stadium commentator.

Before the beginning of the 2023 season, he suffered a freak foot injury during a gym session. At that point, he could have hardly known that it was going to be the first of several blows to his body over the next two years. Achilles, shin, calf and hamstring issues never let him fully recover during that period. He was forced to miss the World Championships in Budapest in 2023 as well as the Paris Olympics last year.

This year, in February, he underwent surgery for a torn meniscus and a month later, he announced that Geoff would no longer be his coach. He moved to Manchester to train under John Hartigan.

At the World Championships in Tokyo in September, Wightman seemed to be on his way to a fairytale comeback with a few metres to go. However, Portugal’s Isaac Nader pipped him on the line to win gold by two hundredths of a second.

Nevertheless, after what he had been through in the last couple of years, even the silver medal felt like gold to the 31-year-old Jake.

Daniel Stahl (Athletics)

Daniel Stahl had a disappointing seventh-place finish while defending his title in men’s discus throw at last year’s Paris Olympics. With Mykolas Alekna improving rapidly – the Lithuanian set a new World Record in April this season — no one would have been surprised if Stahl had been stopped from making a hat-trick of World Championships gold medals.

Stahl, the 33-year-old Swede, had something to prove and he showed his class in dramatic style. Tokyo, the city where he had won the Olympic crown in 2021, was hosting the World Championships and men’s discus throw was its final event. However, rain delayed the competition by more than two hours and even when it did begin, the conditions were far from ideal.

Alekna laid down a marker with a throw of 67.84m on his second attempt and stayed in the lead at the end of the penultimate round. However, Stahl sent the disc soaring in to the sky and past the 70-metre line for his Season’s Best throw of 70.47m in the last round. Alekna fouled his final attempt and finished second.

Yulimar Rojas (Athletics)

Triple jump world record holder Yulimar Rojas had ruptured an Achilles tendon last April. The injury prevented the 30-year-old Venezuelan from defending her Tokyo triple jump gold at the Paris Olympics.

After a tough rehab process, Rojas finally returned to the pit at the World Championships in Tokyo in September where she was chasing a fifth straight title.

With a first jump of 14.49m, she easily qualified for the final.

In the final, she could only manage 14.76m to finish third behind Dominica’s Thea LaFond (14.89m), the reigning Olympic champion, and Cuba’s Leyanis Perez (14.94m) but Rojas showed that if she gets back to full fitness, she will be unstoppable.

Belinda Bencic (Tennis)

Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic gave birth to her first child, Bella, in April, 2024. Six months later, she was back on a tennis court in an ITF event Germany.

In 2025, Switzerland’s Bencic won WTA’s Comeback Player of the Year award after an outstanding season. The 28-year-old won Tour-level titles in Abu Dhabi and Tokyo with some impressive wins over players such as World No. 5 Elena Rybakina on the way. She also made it to the semifinals of Wimbledon, reaching the last-four stage at a Major for only the second time in her career.

When the season began, she was just inside Top 500 in the rankings. She ended the year as World No. 11.

Chloe Kelly (Football)

In January, Chloe Kelly wasn’t even sure of making England’s squad for Women’s Euros. She was barely playing for Manchester City and made a public plea to leave the club.

She joined Arsenal on loan and it turned out to be an incredible move as she won the Champions League with the Gunners.

In 2022, Kelly had helped England win the Euros at Wembley, scoring in extra time before famously twirling her shirt above her head in celebration.

Three years later, in Switzerland, the 27-year-old Kelly played an instrumental role as Sarina Wiegman’s side successfully defended the title. She scored in the shootout in the quarterfinal win over Sweden, and smashed home her own rebound of a missed penalty against Italy in the semifinals.

In the final, she did her trademark run-up, lifted her left leg and skipped onto her right, before launching a powerful shot into the top corner to seal the deal for the Lionesses in the penalty shootout against Spain.

Jenson Brooksby (Tennis)

American Jenson Brooksby seemed to be on the right track in his young career when he reached a ranking of 33 in June 2022.

However, a 13-month suspension for anti-doping violations as well as surgeries on both wrists meant that he couldn’t play a single tournament after Australian Open 2023.

As he prepared for the 2025 season with no ranking, he also revealed that he is on the autism spectrum.

READ | Jenson Brooksby on living with autism: It’s just something I don’t want to have to keep to myself

It took Brooksby two months to win a Tour-level match after his return to professional tennis in Melbourne. Reaching the third round at Indian Wells allowed him to climb up from 937 in the rankings but the biggest boost was provided a few weeks later in Houston.

Qualifier Brooksby, ranked 507th, upset second-seed and compatriot Francis Tiafoe 6-4, 6-2 to win the US Men’s Clay Court Championships, his first-ever Tour level title.

Later in the year, he finished runner-up in Eastbourne and also reached the semifinals in Tokyo, losing to Taylor Fritz on both occasions.

Brooksby will start the 2026 season as World No. 53.

Paul Pogba (Football)

World Cup winner Paul Pogba had received a four-year ban in February 2024 after testing positive for banned substance DHEA, which boosts testosterone levels. The Frenchman’s suspension was cut to 18 months after an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The 32-year-old Pogba, who has played for iconic clubs such as Juventus and Manchester United, joined Ligue 1 side Monaco on a free transfer in June. He was nearing a return in October but a right ankle injury delayed his comeback.

Finally, more than two years after his last competitive match, Pogba came on as a substitute in the 85th minute of Monaco’s 4-1 defeat by Rennes at Roazhon Park in November and was met with a standing ovation.

Preeti Pawar (Boxing)

Preeti Pawar had impressed everyone with her World championships debut in 2023 where she reached the pre-quarterfinals in the 54kg category. Then, she secured a a bronze medal at the Asian Games to book a quota place for Paris Olympics.

But she had to be hospitalised during the Indian team’s pre-Olympics camp in Germany after being down with Hepatitis-A.

Nevertheless, she banked on her determination to compete in the Olympics where she won one bout before losing a close 54kg pre-quarterfinal fight. Post Paris, the Bhiwani girl, supported by her uncle and coach Vinod Pawar and JSW, took a three-month break before resuming slowly.

She announced her comeback at the international level by winning the gold at the World Boxing Cup Finals in Greater Noida. In the 54kg, she stunned Sirine Charaabi, a World Championships bronze medallist. The southpaw’s relentless body and head attacks kept the taller Italian on the defensive. Sirine even applauded Preeti after the result.

Pramod Bhagat (Para Badminton)

When Pramod Bhagat’s 18-month anti-doping suspension shattered his dreams of defending the Olympic gold at the Paris Games, few could have predicted the extraordinary comeback that would follow.

For a man who has spent his life defying odds, starting with childhood polio contracted from a faulty vaccine, this was simply another mountain to climb.

Following the end of his suspension in September, Bhagat, the Tokyo Paralympic champion, re-entered the world para badminton circuit with renewed focus, winning 10 gold medals across singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles in tournaments held in China, Nigeria, Australia, and Japan.

These victories propelled him back to the top of the men’s doubles world rankings and restored his position among the top five singles players globally. He also qualified for the World Championships, set to be held in February next year, where he will chase a record-extending sixth gold medal.

Published on Dec 30, 2025