Asian Games
Asian Games 2026: List of sports with Olympic quotas on offer in Japan
Indian athletes will also compete for LA Olympics quota spots in sports like Hockey, Archery, Squash, and Tennis.
Indian women's hockey team to compete at the 2026 Asian Games. (Photo credit: Hockey India)
The 2026 Asian Games is not only a major continental competition but also the beginning of the qualifying process for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics in sports such as archery and squash.
A total of 43 sports will feature at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, beginning on September 19 in Japan. Of these, seven sports will also offer Olympic quota places for the LA 2028 Games.
India will participate in six of these sports: hockey, squash, surfing, sailing, tennis and archery. Triathlon is the other sport to offer an Olympic quota but has no Indian representation.
India’s strongest chances of securing Olympic quotas are expected to come from hockey, sailing and archery. The two racquet sports, squash and tennis, could also deliver quotas if Indian athletes produce their best performances.
Here is the list of available quota spots for the 2028 LA Olympics at the 2026 Asian Games:
Hockey (2 Team Quotas):
The gold medal winners from the men’s and women’s events will each earn a direct quota spot for the Los Angeles 2028 Hockey Programme.
The Indian men’s team is the outright favourite to win the quota, being the most dominant Asian nation, while the women’s team might face a tough challenge from Olympic medallists China.
After a fifth-place finish at the recently concluded FIH Women’s World Cup, the Indian women’s team will be high on confidence and will hope to win the title and earn a direct quota spot.
Archery (6 Individual, 2 Mixed Team Quotas):
In both the recurve and compound categories, the winners of the mixed team events will each earn one individual Olympic quota place per gender, resulting in one mixed team quota for each division.
In addition, two extra quota places per NOC will be available for non-qualified athletes in each of the two recurve individual events: men’s individual and women’s individual.
India has sent a 12-member archery contingent to Japan and will be one of the favourites to secure quotas, especially in the compound mixed team event.
Sailing (2 Individual Quota):
The winners of the men’s and women’s single dinghy events will each secure a direct quota place for the LA 2028 Sailing programme.
Olympians Vishnu Saravanan and Nethra Kumanan will represent India in these events. They will need to deliver their best performances in Japan, as there is no margin for error with only one quota available in each category.
Squash (2 Individual Quota):
The winners of the men’s and women’s singles events will each earn a direct quota place for the first-ever squash competition at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
India has fielded two athletes in both categories but faces a tough challenge, particularly in the women’s singles. Anahat Singh will be up against two World Top-10 players: Sivasangari Subramaniam of Malaysia and Satomi Watanabe of Japan.
In the men’s singles, Abhay Singh and Veer Chotrani will compete for the title in a field that features no World Top-15 players, with Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng (World No. 18) as the highest-ranked entrant.
Tennis (2 Individual Quotas):
The winners of the men’s and women’s singles events will each secure a direct quota place for the tennis competition at the LA 2028 Olympics.
However, India is not fielding any athlete in the women’s singles, leaving Sumit Nagal as the country’s sole contender for a quota in the men’s singles.
Surfing (2 Individual Quotas):
The winners of the men’s and women’s shortboard events will each secure a direct quota place for the LA 2028 Olympics surfing competition.
India has fielded two athletes in both the men’s and women’s categories but faces a tough challenge. They will need to win the titles against strong Japanese and Korean surfers to qualify for the Olympics.