Asian Games 2026: Where Can India Win Its Medals in Aichi-Nagoya?

India arrives in Japan with a record to defend, new stars to discover and a few uncomfortable questions to answer. Wrestling, hockey, shooting, athletics, boxing and archery could shape the medal story—but the biggest challenge may be replacing some of the names India expected to rely on.

There is a peculiar moment before every major sporting event.

The medals have not been won yet, but everyone has already started counting them.

India’s Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games campaign is no different.

After producing a historic 107-medal haul at Hangzhou, India’s sporting establishment and fans naturally want more. The question is whether the 2026 contingent has enough depth to repeat or surpass that achievement.

The answer is promising—but it is not straightforward.

Wrestling: perhaps India’s most intriguing medal battleground

Wrestling remains one of India’s most dependable Asian Games sports, and the 2026 squad contains several athletes capable of creating major moments.

Antim Panghal is among the leading names in the women’s competition, while Aman Sehrawat and Sujeet Kalkal are important men’s medal prospects.

But the word prospect is important.

Asian wrestling is brutally competitive. Japan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other wrestling nations possess world-class athletes, and competing in Japan adds another layer to the challenge.

Sujeet, competing at 65kg, faces a particularly interesting contest. Japan’s Olympic champion Kotaro Kiyooka is expected to be one of his major obstacles.

This is not a tournament where reputation wins matches.

Unfortunately, wrestling has also been hit by withdrawals and doping-related cases involving Indian athletes, leaving some categories without Indian representation. That is an uncomfortable reality and one that should not be hidden behind medal predictions.

The lesson is simple: talent gets you to the mat; preparation, discipline and clean sport keep you there.

Hockey: one gold medal with an unusually large meaning

India’s men’s hockey team enters Aichi-Nagoya as the defending Asian Games champion.

The team, captained by Harmanpreet Singh, begins its campaign against Indonesia on September 20.

But this is not merely about defending a continental title.

The Asian Games hockey gold provides direct qualification for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

That makes the tournament strategically important.

India finished only eighth at the 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup, so the Asian Games offer an opportunity to reset the narrative.

The team has experienced players such as Harmanpreet Singh and Manpreet Singh alongside younger talent.

In other words, there is a title to defend—and a little unfinished business to settle.

The women also have significant ambitions, with Salima Tete leading the Indian team.

For Indian hockey, therefore, Aichi-Nagoya is not just another tournament.

It is a qualification gateway.

Athletics: the biggest disappointment is already known

Normally, a discussion of Indian athletics at the Asian Games would begin with one name:

Neeraj Chopra.

Not this time.

Chopra ended his 2026 season after suffering a ligament tear during training. His absence removes one of India’s strongest medal and gold-medal possibilities.

That does not mean athletics suddenly becomes irrelevant.

Quite the opposite.

India has depth across track and field, and athletes such as Avinash Sable and other established competitors will carry significant expectations.

But Chopra’s absence changes the mathematics.

A gold medal that looked like a strong possibility now becomes an open contest.

Sport occasionally has a cruel sense of humour: the athlete everyone expected to throw the farthest is now watching from home.

Shooting: the discipline India cannot ignore

Shooting has become one of India’s strongest medal-producing sports at major multi-sport competitions.

The depth of Indian shooting means individual names may receive less attention than the overall squad.

That can actually be a positive.

A successful sporting programme eventually reaches the stage where the question is not “Who will win India’s shooting medal?” but “How many opportunities do we have?”

India will hope its shooters can again convert qualification into medals across individual and team events.

The margins, however, will be tiny.

At elite level, a medal can sometimes depend on one shot.

Which is why telling a shooter, “Just relax and enjoy it,” is probably among the least useful pieces of sporting advice ever invented.

Boxing: another major opportunity

Boxing remains one of India’s established medal disciplines.

The challenge will be converting a strong group of contenders into actual podium finishes.

India has produced medal-winning boxers across multiple Asian Games editions, and the 2026 squad again includes athletes with international experience.

But boxing is particularly vulnerable to one bad round, one tactical error or one difficult draw.

Expectations therefore need to be realistic.

India can reasonably expect a medal challenge.

It cannot reasonably expect every promising boxer to reach the final.

Archery: selection itself became part of the story

Perhaps no discipline illustrates the changing nature of Indian sport better than archery.

Several established names failed to make the Asian Games squad.

Atanu Das, Deepika Kumari, Ojas Pravin Deotale and Abhishek Verma were among the experienced archers who missed selection after the trials.

That sounds like a setback.

It can also be interpreted as something else: India is increasingly willing to select athletes on current performance rather than reputation alone.

The selected squad includes younger archers alongside established performer Jyothi Surekha Vennam, a previous Asian Games gold medallist.

Whether the approach produces medals will be known only in Japan.

But the principle is worth watching.

A sporting system cannot simultaneously demand young talent and guarantee automatic selection to established stars.

At some point, somebody has to lose a selection trial.

The real medal question

India’s target should not simply be “107 again”.

That number is useful as a benchmark, but it can become a distraction.

The more meaningful question is whether India has developed greater depth across more sports.

The answer appears increasingly positive.

India’s contingent covers a broad range of disciplines, and the country’s medal base is no longer concentrated in one or two sports.

At the same time, the absence of Chopra and the changes in archery demonstrate how quickly medal calculations can change.

That is why predictions should be treated as possibilities—not promises.

DOONITED Editorial Perspective

The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games may ultimately tell India something more valuable than its final position on the medal table.

It may reveal whether Indian sport is becoming system-driven rather than star-driven.

Neeraj Chopra cannot compete forever.

Established archers will eventually make way for younger athletes.

Today’s wrestling debutant could become tomorrow’s champion.

That is the natural cycle of a serious sporting nation.

India should certainly chase medals. It should celebrate gold medals loudly and proudly.

But it should also judge the Games by the depth emerging underneath the headline names.

If India wins another 107-plus medals, that will be a remarkable achievement.

If several young athletes announce themselves, strengthen India’s pipeline and become major contenders for Los Angeles 2028 and beyond, that may be an even more important victory.

The scoreboard tells us what happened.

The next generation tells us what comes next.