India’s reliance on 6 sports excluded from CWG 2026 has been declining: MC Analysis

Wrestling with the possibility of fewer medals

The exclusion of six major sports from the 2026 Commonwealth Games will likely hurt India’s medal prospects but it is not as bad as it sounds. A Moneycontrol analysis has found that India’s reliance on these sports including hockey, badminton and wrestling for medals has declined.

The 10-sport Glasgow Games excludes hockey, badminton, squash, cricket, table tennis, and wrestling, which accounted for 30 of India’s 61 medals in the 2022 edition.

While these sports accounted for 49 percent of India’s medal tally, a Moneycontrol analysis found that the share of these sports, including shooting, which was discontinued in the 2022 edition and where India won two medals in the recently concluded Olympics, in the medal count has been falling.

These seven sports accounted for 66.7 percent of India’s medal wins in 2018 and 58 percent in 2014.

These excluded sports still account for a major chunk of gold medals, but their silver count came down drastically in 2022.

While the excluded sports accounted for 59.1 percent of gold medals in 2022, the share declined from 65.4 percent in 2018 and 73.3 percent in 2014. In 2006 games, 82 percent of the top spots had come from the events that  have now been culled.

These sports accounted for 31.3 percent of the 16 silver medals India won in 2022, much lower than the 70 percent share in 2018 and 60 percent in the 2014 games.