Commonwealth Games 2026: All you need to know about Ishroop Narang

At 19, Ishroop Narang is one of the best judokas India has to offer across weight categories.

Having left behind basketball and athletics in favour of judo, the teenager has established herself as the one to watch out for. She has been competing internationally since 2019 and is no stranger to fighting under pressure.

She will be one of the younger athletes in the Indian contingent for the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgg

Early days

Ishroop Narang was born on September 4, 2006, in Ludhiana, Punjab, the daughter of a local hosiery businessman. Like many young athletes, her path to judo wasn't direct. She first tried her hand at basketball and athletics, but lost interest in both within a few years.

It was judo that stuck, and Ishroop's rise was rapid. At just 13 years old, she won the bronze medal in the +70kg category at the Commonwealth Judo Championships in Walsall, Birmingham, in September 2019 – her first international competition and her first international medal on debut.

Rising through the ranks

Ishroop's career developed further after she moved to Chandigarh, where she enrolled at MCM DAV College and began training under UT Sports Department coach Vivek Thakur at the Sector 34 sports complex.

The results followed steadily. She was part of the Indian team at the World Junior Championships in 2021. In 2024, she won a bronze at the Asian Junior Judo Championships before being crowned the senior national champion.

Weeks later, in January 2025, she added another gold at the Senior National Judo Championship, this time in the -78kg category at the 38th National Games in Uttarakhand, beating Kerala's Aswathy by ippon on golden score in the final.

That form earned her selection for her first senior international assignment at the Senior Asian Judo Championships in Thailand in April 2025.

A breakout international season

The 2025-26 season turned into the busiest stretch of Ishroop's career so far. She won silver at the Asian Junior Championships in September 2025, finished seventh at the Zagreb Grand Prix in November and represented World Senior Championships in Hungary in 2025, alongside an individual appearance at the World Junior Championships in Lima.

She carried that momentum into 2026, picking up back-to-back bronze medals at the Dakar African Open in March and the Tashkent Junior Asian Cup in May, Those results have pushed her into the top 75 in the senior world rankings and the top 15 among juniors in her category.