India finished the Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya with a record 114 medals — 30 gold, 35 silver and 49 bronze — securing the fourth place, its best-ever finish. The tally surpassed its revised total of 108 medals at the 2022 Hangzhou Games, down from 111 after three medals were withdrawn over doping violations. The achievement is all the more striking given that India sent a much smaller contingent this time.

India fielded 168 athletes across 11 sports at the 2026 Asian Para Games, compared with 309 athletes across 17 sports in Hangzhou in 2022. With the Asian Paralympic Committee offering limited athlete quotas across sports, the removal of chess and canoeing from the programme, and India’s decision not to field teams in taekwondo and rowing, the contingent was definitely smaller than last time. The para athletics contingent, the country’s biggest source of medals, also fell from 123 athletes in Hangzhou to 62. With fewer athletes and fewer sporting opportunities, winning even 100 medals appeared uncertain before the Games.

India’s medal tally has increased at every edition of the Asian Para Games since its debut in Guangzhou in 2010 (Chart 1). It rose from 14 medals that year to 33 in 2014, 72 in 2018, 108 in Hangzhou in 2022 and 114 in Aichi-Nagoya in 2026, an eightfold increase over 16 years. Gold medals have followed a similar trajectory, rising from one in 2010 to three in 2014, 15 in 2018, 27 in 2022 and 30 in 2026.The medal-table rank for India has climbed from 15th to ninth, fifth and fourth.

More with less

The sharper story is with respect to medals per athlete (Chart 2). From 2014 to 2022, India won 35 to 38 medals for every 100 athletes it sent. In Aichi-Nagoya, the figure nearly doubled to 68. In Hangzhou, it was about three athletes for every medal, while this one needed fewer than one and a half. Gold followed the same path, from 8.7 per 100 athletes to 18.

Part of the gap reflects what was missing. India won 14 medals in Hangzhou in chess, canoeing, rowing and taekwondo. Without them, Hangzhou’s comparable tally is 95, so 114 is about a fifth more in the sports India contested at both Games.

Where the medals come from

Para athletics remains the engine (Table 1). It brought 17 of India’s 33 medals in 2014, 36 of 72 in 2018 and 53 in Hangzhou. This time, 62 athletes won 65 medals, 22 of them gold: more medals than athletes. Swimming rose from one medal to 11 and table tennis from two to seven. Badminton slipped from 21 to 16, while archery and shooting, with no medals in 2014, won five golds between them.

The presence of women athletes has grown unevenly (Chart 3). They made up 15% of India’s squad in 2010, a quarter in 2018 and 37% in Hangzhou, before slipping to a third this time, 56 of 167. In Jakarta, women won 46 medals per 100 athletes, against 35 for men; in Hangzhou, 29 against 35. In Aichi-Nagoya, the gap nearly closed: women won 36 medals, 10 of them gold, or 64 per 100 athletes, against 66 for men.

Medal tables reflect the programme as much as the athletes. Quotas, events and rivals change from one edition to the next, and China remains far ahead of everyone. A smaller squad also means fewer athletes gaining international experience.

Still, the direction is clear. With the Los Angeles Paralympics two years away, the Aichi-Nagoya numbers suggest that Indian para sport is no longer growing by sending more athletes, but by winning more with those it sends.

Source: Olympics.com and Wikipedia’s “India at the Asian Para Games” pages.

Kapil Gupta is an Assistant Professor in Decision Sciences and Operations Management area at IIM Kozhikode.