When we started Sports365 in 2012, we believed we could catalyze a sports revolution in India. In hindsight, we were probably thinking a little too far ahead.
India wasn’t quite ready. Sports participation was still relatively niche and, for most Indians, sport was something you watched rather than something you actively participated in.
I often wonder if now is finally the time. Because with every passing year, I am becoming more convinced that fitness culture has arrived in India.
The Shift that Matters: From Activity to Identity
It’s no longer just about whether people exercise. It’s about how they behave when they do.
Running in groups. Tracking runs. Signing up for races. Training for competitions. Buying better gear. Talking about protein. Doing it all with friends.
Fitness has moved from something you do to something you are. That’s the revolution.
Running: The Clearest Example
Five years ago, the mental model was simple: You run → you sign up for a race → you’re done.
Today, it’s much more of a journey.
You join a running group. Get a training plan. Run a 10K. Start strength training. Sign up for a half marathon. Buy better shoes. Discover recovery. Look for the next race.
And running clubs are no longer confined to a handful of metros. They are becoming a much more visible part of urban life, bringing together people who train, compete and socialise together.
The shift isn’t just that there are more runners. But, also that today’s runners are running a lot more.
The Marathon as Proof Point
The Tata Mumbai Marathon is a good place to see this change. Participation has grown from around 59,500 registrations in 2023 to more than 69,000 in 2026. More importantly, the race is increasingly becoming an event you have to plan to get into, rather than something you can decide to do a few weeks before race day.
Tata Mumbai Marathon filled almost all its slots across all categories in a matter of a few days. Likewise for many other marquee events. Gone are the days when a runner could register for an event, a few weeks close to the event date.
People are setting alarms.
Getting their friends to register.
Worrying about missing out.
And that matters because scarcity creates FOMO.
Think about concerts. When a Coldplay concert sells out quickly, it doesn’t suddenly make every concert successful. But it makes going to a concert desirable.
Something similar is beginning to happen with running.
A friend gets a race bib. Someone posts that registration is opening. Another friend misses out. Suddenly, you don’t just want to run — you want to be part of that race.
The race becomes the reason to train.
You join a club because you have a race coming up. You buy better shoes because you’re training for a 10K. You start strength training because you want to improve your time. You start looking for the next event before you’ve even finished the current one.
The event creates the motivation. The behaviour creates the market.
And this is where the story gets interesting. The marquee events don’t have to represent the entire running market. They just have to make running feel desirable enough that more people want to enter it.
The Pipeline is promising too
The marathon itself still skews towards more mature age groups. But younger runners are increasingly entering through the 10K, running clubs and shorter races before progressing upwards.
That makes sense.
You don’t wake up at 25 and decide to run 42 kilometres. You start with 5K. Then 10K. Then perhaps a half marathon. The 2026 Tata Mumbai Marathon had a record 14,059 runners taking on the full marathon distance for the first time, alongside more than 69,000 total participants.
The important question isn’t whether the marathon has suddenly become younger. It’s whether the pipeline into the marathon is getting bigger. The evidence suggests it is.
HYROX: Redefining Who’s “Sporty” and frenzy too
HYROX sits between running and strength training. A gym-goer suddenly has a reason to run. A runner suddenly has a reason to lift. Both have a reason to compete.
Globally, HYROX has grown to more than 1.5 million participants annually across 100+ cities and 35+ countries, and India is emerging as a significant growth market.
What’s interesting about HYROX is not just its growth. It’s who it brings into sport.
You don’t necessarily have to see yourself as a runner or an athlete to sign up for HYROX. You can simply be someone who trains.
That is a meaningful change. The gym is no longer necessarily the destination. It can be the starting point.
Protein: A signal of a deeper mindset shift
Three years ago, protein largely meant bodybuilding. Whey. Shakes. Supplements.
Today it’s everywhere — protein milk, lassi, bars, wafers, chips, ice cream and a growing range of everyday foods.
But the real signal isn’t the products. It’s the conversation.
People who don’t call themselves fitness enthusiasts are now asking: How much protein am I getting? Does my breakfast have enough? Which snack has better protein?
The conversation is shifting from “I should exercise more” to “I should take better care of my body.”
Protein is simply the most visible marker of that change.
So, has the fitness revolution arrived?
Yes. But not as we imagined it in 2012.
India is still not a fitness nation. Fitness participation remains relatively low and concentrated in urban India. But that’s not the point.
What matters is that a growing segment of Indians is getting much more serious about active living.
Running competitively.
Training systematically.
Tracking progress.
Competing.
Eating differently.
Buying better products.
Joining communities.
And coming back for more.
Identity is sticky. Communities sustain participation.
And you don’t need everyone to participate. You just need enough people doing it so that fitness becomes aspirational.
The running groups. The race FOMO. The HYROX growth. The protein conversations.
Individually, each is interesting.
Together, they point to something bigger: a change in how a growing group of Indians sees activity, health and themselves.
Does it reach everyone? No.
Does it need to? No.
It just needs to reach enough people that fitness becomes part of how they see their bodies, their time and their futures.
Maybe we’re finally seeing the beginning of that.
We may have been too early in 2012, but the time for Indian Fitness is surely, NOW.
If you enjoyed reading this piece, I’d be grateful if you could share it with your network. More readers mean more motivation and inspiration for a hobby writer like me to continue writing. Thank you!
If you have any thoughts or feedback, feel free to reach out to me at aashutosh[dot]chaudhari[at]gmail[dot]com — I promise to reply!
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