India’s top athletes at the Toyko Olympics 2020, PV Sindhu and Lovilina Borgohain saw the rest of the country’s interest peak in them after they both went on to qualify for the semi-finals in badminton and boxing respectively.

And while the two deserve the fame, the more shocking, rather unbelievable part about these searches on the internet was the fact that the first things these curious “fans” wanted to know things like Sindhu’s caste and Lovlina’s religion.

© Google Trends

Over the last week, Google search results plateaued for these two search categories. Lovlina Borgohain's religion becomes the third most searched topic related to the Indian boxer on Google.

Competing in the first semi-final of the Women's welterweight category on Wednesday, Lovlina is believed to have confirmed an Olympic medal already. And now, her motivation is only to improve the colour of the medal that she returns home with.

The 23-year old pugilist created history when she became the first woman from her state to be ensured a Boxing medal for India as she made it to the semis. It was a dominating 4-1 performance in the quarter-finals, against Chinese Taipai’s Nien-Chin Chen, that got her to this stage in the tournament.

And while Lovlina achieved all these things, somehow, her religions managed to become the most talked-about aspect of her sporting career.

On the other hand, PV Sindhu established herself as the most dominating Indian shuttler in the history of Indian badminton after winning her second Olympic medal earlier this month. Sindhu has also been a world champion and has featured in the Forbes list of the richest female athletes in the world a couple of years ago. 

If not anything else, then her speculated rivalry with another famed superstar, Saina Nehwal and rumours of a falling out with the legendary coach Pullela Gopichand, are all worthy of your attention. Alas, it is her caste that brings interest to the public.

These are world-class athletes, who have struggled and gone through some unfathomably difficult times to reach where they are at the moment. Their families and have had to go against the norms of society and have been frowned upon on numerous occasions. Their popularity must not be limited to their caste and religion.

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