India’s 114 Para Games Medals Cost Less Than One-Eighth of the Asian Games Bill
Image: The Bridge / PTI
More Medals, Half the Team, a Fraction of the Money
- India won 114 medals (30 gold, 35 silver, 49 bronze) at the Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, its best ever, with about 168 athletes. At Hangzhou in 2023 it sent more than 300 and won 108 after doping cases.
- The Sports Ministry says it spent ₹98.56 crore supporting the para contingent. It spent ₹800.7 crore over three years on the 501 athletes it sent to the Asian Games a month earlier, who won 85 medals.
- Para-athletics alone brought 65 medals. India finished fourth, its best position at the Games.
- The run-up was marred by protests from para-shooters alleging corruption in selection. A coach was removed, but no inquiry outcome has been made public.
Two weeks ago, India’s para-athletes came home from Aichi-Nagoya in Japan with 114 medals at the Asian Para Games 2026, the most the country has ever won at the event, and a fourth-place finish behind China, Japan and Uzbekistan. They did it with a contingent of about 168 athletes, roughly half the size of the one India sent to Hangzhou three years ago. The achievement drew congratulations from the Prime Minister and the Indian Olympic Association. What drew less notice is how little it cost compared with India’s able-bodied Asian Games campaign in the same city a month earlier, and how close the para contingent came to being overshadowed by a corruption row before it even left Delhi.
A Smaller Team That Won More
India won 30 gold, 35 silver and 49 bronze medals in Japan. At Hangzhou in 2023 it had won 111, later revised to 108 after three medals were taken away over doping violations. Before that, at Jakarta in 2018, it won 72. The 2026 team was much smaller: about 168 athletes across 11 sports, against more than 300 at Hangzhou. Para-athletics, India’s strongest sport, went from 123 athletes to 62, The Morning Voice reported, and still delivered 65 medals. Para-badminton added 16.
Part of the shrinking was not India’s choice. Tighter entry quotas and changes to the programme, including the removal of blind chess, para-rowing and para-canoeing, cut places. But the ministry also applied performance benchmarks more strictly. In para-cycling, a joint selection committee recommended six riders and the ministry cleared only one. The result was a team picked closer to the medal line, and 61 of its members were making their Games debut.
Also read India Sends 168 Athletes as Asian Para Games Open in Japan
₹98 Crore Against ₹800 Crore
The Sports Ministry says ₹98.56 crore went into supporting the para contingent: ₹80.22 crore through the Annual Calendar for Training and Competition and ₹18.34 crore through the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), which backed 47 of the athletes, myKhel reported. For the Asian Games in September, the ministry said it had spent ₹800.7 crore over three years on preparing 501 athletes, including ₹251.4 crore on international competition exposure. That team won 85 medals and also finished fourth, down from 106 at Hangzhou.
| Japan 2026 | Asian Games | Asian Para Games |
|---|---|---|
| Indian athletes | 501 | about 168 |
| Government spending reported | ₹800.7 crore (three years) | ₹98.56 crore |
| Medals won | 85 | 114 |
| Medals at previous edition | 106 (Hangzhou) | 108 (Hangzhou, revised) |
| Finish | 4th | 4th |
The comparison is not exact. Para sport has many more classification categories per event, so more medals are on offer, and the depth of competition in some classes is thinner. But even allowing for that, the numbers raise a fair question about where Indian sports spending gets results. On the reported figures, the para campaign cost under ₹1 crore per medal, and the Asian Games campaign more than ₹9 crore per medal.
The Selection Row That Nearly Overshadowed It
In the week before the team flew out, around 10 para-shooters led by Akash and Sandeep Kumar protested at the contingent’s send-off in New Delhi and then outside the Sports Authority of India headquarters, Outlook reported. They alleged that the shooting coach, Jai Prakash Nautiyal, demanded a 20% share of athletes’ government cash awards in return for help with selection, that some shooters were dropped for not naming certain people as their coaches, and that four were picked without international competition in the previous year. About 150 para-shooters sought an independent inquiry into financial irregularities and breaches of selection rules.
Mr Nautiyal denied the charges and said a seven-member committee had made the selection. Paralympic Committee of India president Devendra Jhajharia said the selections were on merit. On 13 October the Sports Ministry removed Mr Nautiyal from the contingent and named national coach Jeevan L Rai in his place. The protesters met Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. No inquiry report has been made public since, and the medal haul has taken the issue off the front pages. The athletes’ complaint, that selection in some para sports depends on who you know, has not been answered by the result.
What the Medals Do Not Show
Most of India’s para-athletes come from small towns and villages, and many have trained without accessible gyms, ramps or throwing circles near home. A wheelchair user in parts of the country may have to travel hours to reach a weight room they can enter, according to an article published by the sports-science body ISST in September. The older approach of moving promising athletes to national camps in big cities cut many off from family and local support, and some gave up. The PCI has begun a programme with a private foundation to build training facilities in athletes’ home districts, but it is new and no completion dates or budgets have been published.
Individual stories from Japan show what is possible when athletes get support. Haney and Sandeep both set world records on the final day, Deepthi Jeevanji won 400m T20 gold in a Games record, and Mona Agarwal won India’s first gold of the Games. The next test is the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics, where the field is deeper and the quotas tighter. Whether the ₹98 crore model can be scaled up, and whether the selection complaints are resolved before then, will decide if Aichi-Nagoya was a peak or a starting point. More analysis is on our In-depth Analysis page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many medals did India win at the Asian Para Games 2026?
114: 30 gold, 35 silver and 49 bronze. India finished fourth behind China, Japan and Uzbekistan.
How many Indian athletes competed at the 2026 Asian Para Games?
About 168 across 11 sports, compared with more than 300 at Hangzhou in 2023.
How much did the government spend on the para contingent?
The Sports Ministry said ₹98.56 crore: ₹80.22 crore under the training and competition calendar and ₹18.34 crore under TOPS.
Source: Sports Ministry figures as reported by myKhel and Business Standard. Also based on reporting by The Logical Indian, The Morning Voice, Outlook, Drishti IAS, Morung Express and ISST.
Image: The Bridge / PTI (file).
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