The Sports Ministry has approved 492 Indian athletes for the 2026 Asian Games. This approval has been given for these games to be held in Japan. The maximum number of athletes in this category are from the Athletics Department, which is 73. India will participate in these games to be held in Aichi, Nagoya from 19 September to 4 October. However, the Sports Ministry has not yet approved the list of support staff. It is believed that a decision on this may be taken next week.
The list of athletes submitted by the Indian Olympic Federation has been approved. Athletes disqualified due to doping have been excluded. Some replacement athletes may be included. A decision on this will be taken after the approval of the Olympic Council of Asia.
35 male and 38 female athletes have been included in athletics for the 2026 Asian Games. These include javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, long jumper Murali Srishankar, Gulveer Singh, Tejaswin Shankar and Jyoti Yaraji. There are a total of 30 players in the shooting team, in which there are equal numbers of male and female shooters. Names like Manu Bhaker, Eisha Singh and Elavenil Valarivan have been selected for the shooting.
Weightlifting has five athletes in the Asian Games: four women and the only man, Rishikant Singh. Other names include Mirabai Chanu and Commonwealth Games medalist Dnyaneshwari Devi. The badminton team has 20 players, including PV Sindhu, Ayush Shetty and Lakshya Sen along with Tris Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty.
11 players have been selected for boxing, 15 for e-sports, 22 for rowing, 13 for women's rugby, 12 for men's volleyball, 21 for sepak takraw, 30 for cricket and 24 for kabaddi. Sumit Nagal will represent India in tennis. 16 wrestlers have been selected for wrestling.
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