Glasgow 2026: 39 medals without India's strongest sports

The 2026 Commonwealth Games, held in Glasgow, Scotland, from 23 July to 2 August, were a scaled-down edition, staged after the original host, Victoria in Australia, withdrew in 2023. India sent a contingent of 122 athletes across ten sports, with 38 athletes returning home with medals, and finished fourth on the medal table with 39 medals: 13 gold, 17 silver, and nine bronze. Australia topped the table with 171 medals, followed by England with 110 and Canada with 62. India finished ahead of hosts Scotland, who also collected 39 medals but placed below India on silver-medal count. The total took India's all-time Commonwealth Games tally to 603 medals, fourth in the event's history.

The context makes fourth place more impressive than the number alone. Glasgow's pared-back programme excluded several traditional Indian medal strongholds, including wrestling, badminton, table tennis, hockey, and shooting, and India still finished fourth, with fewer medals than the 61 won at Birmingham 2022 but a better return in comparable sports, according to Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. Boxing was India's most successful sport, with ten medals including seven golds, the most golds won by any nation in boxing at a single Commonwealth Games. Weightlifting contributed eight medals, one gold, six silver, and one bronze, and Mirabai Chanu took India's first gold in the women's 48-kilogram weightlifting. India also matched its entire historical para tally in one Games, winning seven para medals, three gold, two silver, and two bronze, led by Sharmila Dhankar's shot put gold.

Javelin told a smaller, sharper story. Neeraj Chopra, returning to competition on 19 June at the Doha Diamond League after nearly nine months away with a lower back injury, threw 85.69 metres to finish fourth and qualify for the Commonwealth Games, and in Glasgow he won silver with 85.83 metres. Yashvir Singh claimed bronze with a personal best of 85.41 metres, and Rohit Yadav finished seventh with 81.56 metres, giving India three athletes in the men's javelin final. Chopra's season then ended in August: a season's best of 88.05 metres at Lausanne was followed by an ankle ligament tear in training, announced on 29 August, which ruled him out of the rest of the season, including the Asian Games, the Diamond League final, and the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships.

Glasgow's lesson is about depth. A system that can finish fourth without its strongest sports, win seven boxing golds, and place three javelin throwers in one final has breadth, even if it still converts more finals into silver than gold: 17 silvers against 13 golds. The next Commonwealth Games, awarded to Ahmedabad, will test whether that breadth can become dominance at home.