Commonwealth Games 2026: All you need to know about Avtar Singh

Few stories in Indian judo capture the sport's uphill battle for support quite like Avtar Singh's.

A decade after his parents broke their life savings to keep his career alive ahead of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Avtar continues to be one of India's best judokas.

Early days

Avtar Singh was born on April 3, 1992, in Kothe Ghurala village in Gurdaspur, Punjab, to a lower middle-class family.

His father worked in the Punjab government's health department, and his mother was a homemaker. Growing up, Avtar spent much of his time helping out on the family farm.

He took up judo locally, and by his own admission, was considered one of the weakest students in his coaching group as early as 2008.

He won bronze at the Asian Junior Championships in the U81kg category in 2011, an early sign that his coaches had misjudged him, and continued to progress under coach Yashpal Solanki despite limited funding and almost no international exposure.

His first big stage arrived at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where Avtar lost in the round of 16 in the men's -90kg category to Scotland's Matthew Purssey, the eventual silver medallist.

Rising through the ranks

The years that followed were some of the toughest of Avtar's career. Between 2015 and mid-2016, he competed in just six events, largely because the Judo Federation of India had been de-recognised by the government, cutting off the funding he needed to travel for competitions.

To send him to a Grand Prix event in Turkey in early 2016, his parents broke every fixed deposit they had just to book his flight.

The gamble paid off. At the Asian Championships in Tashkent in April 2016, Avtar beat China's Rigede Bu to reach the semi-finals.

He then lost to Tajikistan's Komronshokh Ustopiriyon before fighting back through the repechage by defeating Iran's Saeed Moradi to finish fifth overall.

The points from that run, combined with a gold medal at the South Asian Games in Guwahati, secured him the continental quota spot for the 2016 Rio Olympics, making Avtar the first Indian judoka to qualify for the Olympic Games in 12 years, since Akram Shah in 2004.

At Rio, competing in the men's -90kg category, Avtar lost in the round of 32 to Popole Misenga of the Refugee Olympic Team by a narrow margin.

A long international career

In the years since Rio, Avtar has moved up from the -90kg category to the men's 100kg division, where he has remained one of India's most consistent performers on the international circuit.

He has gone on to represent India at the Asian Games, Asian Championships and multiple editions of the World Judo Championships, reaching the round of 32 at the 2019 and 2024 editions.

His more recent results underline that consistency. A bronze medal at the Kuwait City Asian Open in 2023, followed by a silver medal at the Hong Kong Asian Open in 2025, carried him into India's squad for a third Commonwealth Games at Glasgow 2026.

Off the mat, Avtar has continued to serve as an Assistant Sub-Inspector with the Punjab Police, balancing his law enforcement duties with a competitive career that has now spanned more than a decade at the international level.