From World Cup win to doping scandals and fan tragedies, how 2025 tested Indian sports in every way

For the third year in a row, India earned the dubious distinction of topping the global list of doping violations in sports, as per the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report. The rankings were based on tests conducted in 2024, but the technicality did little to wash away the embarrassment. India, which won just 6 medals at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, accounted for a record 260 adverse analytical findings from 7113 samples — a positivity rate of 3.6 per cent, the highest among all countries that conducted 5,000 or more tests. The numbers have steadily risen: 213 violations in 2023, 127 in 2022 and 86 in 2021.