The Asian Games 2026 is all set to begin at Nagoya, in the Aichi prefecture in Japan. The quadrennial multi-sport event will officially start on September 19 and will go on till October 4. A total of 469 medals will be on offer in 43 sports with events happening across 54 venues.
India are sending 499 athletes to Japan with an aim to match or better their Hangzhou Asian Games tally of 106 medals from three years earlier, which was their best-ever medal haul.
Here's everything you need to know about India at the Asian Games 2026:
What are the key dates?
While the opening ceremony, which is the official start of the Games, will take place on September 19, events like basketball, football, volleyball, cricket and modern pentathlon have already been happening since September 10. Meanwhile, the closing ceremony is scheduled for October 4.
The opening ceremony will take place at the Paloma Mizuho Stadium between 2:30 pm and 4:30 pm IST.
Which are the disciplines and sports at the Asian Games?
As mentioned above, a total of 43 sports will feature at the Games, which is in fact 12 less than previous Hangzhou Asian Games. Sports like freestyle BMX, mixed martial arts, padel, surfing, teqball, and virtual taekwondo will make their Asian Games debut.
Indian athletes will be in action in at least 37 sports. Athletics will have the biggest Indian contingent with 79 athletes named so far. Shooting (30), rowing (22), sepak takraw (21), badminton (20) fencing (20), wrestling (16) will also see a significant number of Indian athletes while men's and women's teams will feature in sports like hockey, cricket and kabaddi.
What are India's prospects at the Games?
Since the turn of the century, Indian athletes have made significant improvement and kept increasing their medal count at the Games. Three years back, they breached the 100-medal barrier (28 gold medals, 106 in total), finishing only below China (201 gold medals, 383 in total), Japan (52 gold medals, 188 in total) and South Korea (42 gold medals, 190 in total).
India will push for the 100-medal mark once again although they will be sending a lesser number of athletes this time (655 last time). Nevertheless, India do have a good chance to finish among the top five countries in medal tally.
Also read: INDIA'S FULL SQUAD FOR 2026 ASIAN GAMES
The big gold medal contenders will be the men's and women's teams in cricket, kabaddi and hockey. Shooter Manu Bhaker, who won two medals at the Paris Olympics, is another strong contender in both 10m and 25m pistol events. Recurve archer Dhiraj Bommadevara is in fine form and will aim to overcome the challenge from South Korea. In athletics, Tajinderpal Singh Toor will look to earn his third straight Asian Games gold medal in shot put while long jumper Sreeshankar Murali and long-distance runner Gulveer Singh are among Asia's best in the respective fields. Ancy Sojan also has the leading jump among Asians in women's long jump while her compatriot Shaili Singh is third best this season -- both will aim for a podium finish at Nagoya.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the Asian Games doubles gold in badminton last time in Hangzhou. They will be keen to repeat the performance in Nagoya. Among other contenders, watch out for Mirabai Chanu (weightlifting), Aman Sehrawat (wrestling), PV Sindhu (badminton), Avinash Sable (athletics), Rudrankksh Patil (shooting), Sakshi Choudhury (boxing), Sachin Siwach (boxing) and Balraj Panwar (rowing).
Where is Neeraj Chopra?
Arguably India's greatest ever athlete will miss the Asian Games 2026 due to ankle injury. Two-time Olympic medallist and two-time Asian Games gold medallist sustained a ligament tear in his ankle at the Lausanne Diamond League where he produced his season best throw of 88.05m.
Neeraj Chopra will miss the 2026 Asian Games due to an ankle ligament injury
��️ "Even in his absence, you'll feel Neeraj Chopra's presence." | @AnirudhMenon89 pic.twitter.com/6YoU11YExj
- ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) September 17, 2026
While he'll be absent from the javelin event, India will be represented by Rohit Yadav and Yashvir Singh. Both Rohit and Yashvir have the third and fourth best throws in Asia this season. The clear favourite for the gold medal will be Sri Lanka's Rumesh Pathirage who has three 90m-plus throws this season.
Meanwhile, Olympic gold medallist Arshad Nadeem from Pakistan will look to bounce from Commonwealth Games disappointment where he finished seventh.
What's the best way to plan the day to watch India's medals?
Japan will be 3.5 hours ahead so the events will begin as early as 5 am IST and continue till around 7 pm. Rowing and shooting events will take place in the morning and most of the finals will be done before 12 pm.
Most of India's hockey matches are scheduled around the noon time while athletics events, which will take place from September 23 to 29, will see finals starting after 2:30 pm.
The badminton teams finals are scheduled on September 24 while the individual finals will happen on September 29. Wrestling will only start on September 30 and will get over in the next four days.
Archery events will also begin early with the medal matches scheduled before noon from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3. Meanwhile, boxing bouts will take place throughout the day from Sept. 21 with the finals taking place on October 2.
India's history at the Asian Games
India was one of the founding members of the Games and have participated in all the editions since the first which took place in 1951 in New Delhi. They hosted the Games twice in 1951 and 1982 and of course their best medal tally came three years back in Hangzhou.
Since the 2006 Doha Games, India have won at least 50-plus medals in each edition and constantly ranked among the top eight countries.
Overall, athletics (283 medals), shooting (80) and wrestling (65) have been India's best performing sports at the Games.
Where can you watch the Asian Games live?
Sony Sports Network will broadcast the Games on television while streaming will be live on Sony Liv website and app.