Asian Para Games 2026: Everything you need to know

The Asian Para Games 2026 will get underway in Aichi Nagoya, Japan on Sunday, when the opening ceremony officially gets underway at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium.

Para badminton star Pramod Bhagat and para table tennis player Bhavina Patel will be India's flagbearers at the opening ceremony.

India has fielded a 168-member contingent including 112 men and 56 women across 11 disciplines.

Indian athletes have already begun their group-stage campaigns in para badminton, para table tennis, blind football and boccia.

The Games scheduled for October 18-24 will have para atheltes competing for 492 gold medals across 18 sports.

Around 3000 para athletes from 45 nationals are expected to take part in the fifth edition of the games. Guangzhou hosted the inaugural edition in 2010.

India registered their best-ever Asian Para Games performance at the 2023 Hangzhou edition with 111 medals including 29 gold, 31 silver and 51 bronze to finish fifth overall. 

India has shown tremendous progress in the history of the games. In 2010, India won 14 medals, only one of them gold, and finished 15th in the medal tally.

Four years later in Incheon, India sent a team of 87 and returned with 33 medals, including three gold, 14 silver, 16 bronze. The progress since has been steady.

Indian para athletes enter the 2026 Asian Para Games as established medal contenders. Sumit Antil, Avani Lekhara, Sheetal Devi, Bhavina Patel, Rinku Hooda and Jhandu Kumar are among the leading names to watch.  

Team India at the Asian Para Games 2026

Para archery: Adil Mohamed Nazir Ansari, Bhawna, Harvinder Singh, Payal Nag, Pooja, Sheetal Devi, Shyam Sunder Swami, Swati Chaudhary, Toman Kumar, Vijay Sundi, Vinayak Amol Breed.

Para athletics: Ajay Kumar, Ajeet Singh, Akira Nandan Banothu, Amisha Rawat, Amit Kumar, Anjanaben Rohitbhai Bumbadiya, Anubhav Choudhary, Ayush Verma, Banti, Bhagyashri Madhavrao Jadhav, Bhavikkumar Dineshbhai Bharwad, Deepthi Jeevanji, Devender Kumar, Dharambir, Dilip Mahadu Gavit, Haney, Hokato Hotozhe Sema, Jayanti Behera, Karamjyoti, Mahendra Gurjar, Manjeet, Mohammed Basil Morssinganakathi, Mohd Yasser, Navdeep Singh, Nimisha Chakkungalparambil Suresh, Nishad Kumar, Pardeep Kumar, Parmod, Parveen, Parveen Kumar, Pradeep Kumar, Pranav Prashant Desai, Pranav Soorma, Praveen Kumar, Praveen Sharma, Preethi Pal, Radha Venkatesh, Rahul, Rakesh, Rakeshbhai Bhatt, Rakshitha Raju, Ram Ratan Singh, Ravanni Valasanaini, Ravi Rongali, Rinku, Sachin Sarjerao Khilari, Sandeep, Sandip Sanjay Sargar, Shailesh Kumar, Sharath Makanahalli Shankarappa, Simran, Solairaj Dharmaraj, Soman Rana, Soumya, Suchitra Parida, Sujith Mandalamkunnath Sivadasan, Sukhchain, Sumit Antil, Suvarna Raj, Tejalben Amraji Damor, Varun Singh Bhati, Vishesh.

Para badminton: Abhijeet Sakhuja, Abu Hubaida, Alphia James, Hardik Makkar, Haris Mythili Srikumar, Kanak Singh Jadaun, Krishna Nagar, Manasi Girishchandra Joshi, Mandeep Kaur, Manisha Ramadass, Naveen Sivakumar, Neeraj, Nitesh Kumar, Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan, Pallavi Kaluvehalli Manjunathareddy, Pramod Bhagat, Prem Kumar Ale, Rakesh Pandey, Ruthick Ragupathi, Sanjana Kumari, Shanthiya Vishwanathan, Sivarajan Solaimalai, Sudarsan Muthusamy Saravanakumar, Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj, Sukant Kadam, Surya Kant Yadav, Thulasimathi Murugesan, Umesh Vikram Kumar.

Blind football: Aditya Sajwan, Boje Marbom, Klingson Marak, Pradeep Patel, Sahil, Shivam Singh, Sovendra Singh, Sujith Puthankattunikarath Sasi, Tushar Kumar, Vishnubhatejuba Vaghela.

Boccia: Anjali Devi, Sachin Chamaria.

Para table tennis: Baby Sahana Ravi, Bhavinaben Hasmukhbhai Patel, Dattaprasad Jotiram Chougule, Ekta Bhyan, Jehan Dorab Madan, Prachi Pandey, Sandeep Dangi, Savita Vittal Ajjanakatti, Shubham Wadhwa, Sonalben Manubhai Patel.

Para powerlifting: Ashok, Jaspreet Kaur, Jhandu Kumar, Kasthuri Rajamani, Manish Kumar, Parmjeet Kumar, Seema Rani, Suman Devi.

Para cycling: Arshad Shaik.

Para judo: Bijender, Dimple, Gulshan, Kapil Parmar, Kokila, Renuka Narayan Salave, Vrushali Ashok More.

Para shooting: Amir Ahmad Bhat, Anandha Krishnan H, Avani Lekhara, Bhakti Sharma, Manish Narwal, Mona Agarwal, Nihal Singh, Rakesh Nidagundi, Rubina Francis, Rudransh Khandelwal, Shrishti Arora, Sumedha Pathak, Swaroop Mahavir Unhalkar.

Para swimming: Abdul Quadir Indori, Ajay Hindurao Bhosale, Chaitanya Vishwas Kulkarni, Devanshi Satija, Gopichand Linguta, Himanshu Nandal, Jahangir Molla, Kapil Kumar, Mohammad Shams Aalam Shaikh, Ravi Veera Venkata Bhavani Budigina, Rohit Kumar, Suyash Narayan Jadhav, Swatik Patil, Tejas Nandakumar, Vaishnavi Vinod Jagtap, Vanga Niranjan Mukundan.

Where to watch 

The Asian Para Games 2026 will be telecast on DD Sports and Prasar Bharati Sports YouTube channel.