Commonwealth Games 2026: All you need to know about Tejaswin Shankar

Tejaswin Shankar has built a career on versatility.

One of India's finest track and field athletes, the 27-year-old has excelled in both the high jump and the decathlon, rewriting national records and winning medals at some of the biggest international competitions.

As India's first decathlete to cross the 8,000-point mark, Tejaswin heads to the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as one of the country's strongest medal hopes in the combined events.

Early days

Born on December 21, 1998, in Saket, New Delhi, Tejaswin grew up in a cricket-loving household and initially dreamed of becoming a fast bowler.

He studied at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, where a physical education teacher encouraged him to take up athletics to improve his speed and agility for cricket.

The switch proved to be a turning point. Tejaswin quickly discovered his aptitude for the high jump, dominating school competitions before shifting his complete focus to athletics.

His journey was shaped by personal adversity at an early age. In 2014, he lost his father, Harishankar, a lawyer for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), to blood cancer.

Despite the setback, he continued to pursue athletics with the support of his mother, Lakshmi, and steadily progressed through the junior ranks.

Rising through the ranks

Tejaswin's performances in the high jump earned him a four-year athletics scholarship to Kansas State University in the United States in 2017, where he studied accounting and finance while competing in the NCAA circuit.

The move significantly accelerated his development. Competing against some of the world's best collegiate athletes, he won NCAA titles, earned All-American honours and established himself as one of India's leading high jumpers.

In 2018, he set the Indian outdoor high jump record of 2.29m and the indoor national record of 2.28m, marks that remain among the finest performances by an Indian athlete in the event.

As his career progressed, Tejaswin gradually transitioned from specialising solely in the high jump to the decathlon, allowing him to utilise his all-round athletic ability across ten disciplines.

Making history in the decathlon

The transition proved highly successful.

Tejaswin steadily improved his decathlon scores and broke the national record on multiple occasions before winning the silver medal at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou with another national-best performance.

His consistency across international competitions also earned him bronze at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships before adding a silver medal at the 2025 edition in Gumi.

The biggest breakthrough of his combined events career came in 2026. Earlier in the year, he claimed gold in the heptathlon at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships while setting a new national record of 5,993 points.

A few months later, at the Federation Cup in Ranchi, Tejaswin accumulated 8,057 points in the decathlon to become the first Indian athlete to cross the 8,000-point barrier in the event.

The performance established another national record and underlined his position as India's leading decathlete.

Success across disciplines

While excelling in the decathlon, Tejaswin has continued to be one of India's most accomplished high jumpers.

He won the bronze medal in the high jump at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, becoming one of India's few athletics medallists at the Games.

Earlier in his career, he also claimed gold at the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games.

His ability to succeed in both a technical field event and the demanding decathlon has made him one of the country's most versatile athletes and one of the few Indians to achieve success across multiple disciplines at the highest level.

Tejaswin heads to Glasgow in impressive form after becoming India's first 8,000-point decathlete and adding another national record to his name.

Having already won a Commonwealth Games medal in the high jump, he will be looking to add another international podium finish as he continues his transition into one of Asia's leading combined events athletes.

With national records in the high jump, indoor high jump and decathlon, he remains one of the most accomplished athletes in India's track and field contingent heading to Glasgow.