Glasgow Green Shoots: Why India's Commonwealth Games Positives Go Beyond The 39 Medals
Glasgow Green Shoots: Why India's Commonwealth Games Positives Go Beyond The 39 Medals Written By, Last Updated: August 03, 2026, 07:24 IST On paper, India's
Glasgow Green Shoots: Why India's Commonwealth Games Positives Go Beyond The 39 Medals Written By, Last Updated: August 03, 2026, 07:24 IST On paper, India's 39 medals at Glasgow 2026 look like a regression. Yet, historic breakthroughs in boxing, athletics, and para-sports offer green shoots for a bright future. Rapid Read India's Selva Prabhu Thirumaran competes in the men's triple jump final at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) India closed the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow with 39 medals – 13 gold, 17 silver and 9 bronze. On paper, it was a much smaller haul than the 61 won at Birmingham 2022 or the 66 at Gold Coast 2018. Even in ranking terms, India’s fourth-place finish in Glasgow was far from their best. But a slight peek beyond the medal table would show enough green shoots to give at least some hope, starting with the Asian Games in a few weeks as well as the LA Olympics in 2028. CWG 2026: Full Coverage | Medals Tally | News For starters, the drop has to be read against the fact that wrestling, hockey, badminton and shooting – the sports that have historically carried India’s medal count in all Games – were left out of Glasgow’s programme entirely to control costs.
That absence would once have been catastrophic for India’s tally. At Gold Coast 2018, shooting alone brought in 16 of India’s 66 medals, seven of them gold – close to a quarter of the entire haul. By Birmingham 2022, wrestling took over as the single biggest contributor with 12 medals, roughly a fifth of India’s 61-medal total that year. Combined, wrestling, weightlifting, boxing, and badminton accounted for 35 of those 61 medals in 2022, well over half of the tally, concentrated heavily in combat and racket sports. Across CWG history, shooting alone has produced 135 of India’s 602 all-time medals, with wrestling not far behind on 114. Glasgow’s medals came from a noticeably different mix. Weightlifting kept delivering – Mirabai Chanu completed a hat-trick of Commonwealth gold medals – but several contributors were sports India rarely drew medals from before. Asmita Dey won India’s first-ever Commonwealth Games gold in judo, and athletics broadened its base: Gulveer Singh became the first Indian to win two athletics medals at a single Games, taking silver in the 10,000m and bronze in the 5,000m.
Tejaswin Shankar added to that spread with a decathlon bronze on 7,976 points – India’s first-ever CWG medal in the ten-event discipline, and one that made him the first Indian track and field athlete to win medals in two separate individual events across the Games. Boxing was the standout new pillar. Indian boxers returned a best-ever tally of 10 medals, including an unprecedented seven golds – more than any country has managed at a single edition – with three silvers. Para sport showed the sharpest turnaround of all. At Birmingham 2022, India’s para-sport return was three medals, highlighted by Sudhir’s gold in men’s heavyweight para powerlifting. Glasgow more than doubled that return. India finished the 2026 para events with a best-ever haul of seven medals – three gold, two silver and two bronze – with para-athletics alone contributing six of them and ending a 20-year wait for a Commonwealth Games para-athletics medal. Indian para athletes also completed double-podium finishes in three separate events – the women’s shot put F57, the men’s shot put F57 and the men’s 100m T47.
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